Duke plays one of the most exciting brands of basketball in the country. Notre Dame — and Syracuse to a lesser extent — does not.

The No. 1 Orange’s (22-0, 9-0 Atlantic Coast) overtime victory against the then-No. 17 Blue Devils on Saturday was thrilling because of how close it was, and because of its up-and-down pace. Its 61-55 win against the Fighting Irish (12-11, 3-7) on Monday was primarily exciting because of its closeness.

“They wasn’t going to make the game interesting,” SU forward C.J. Fair said. “They’re a tough opponent. That’s why they’re successful how their style is.”

Head coach Jim Boeheim did acknowledge a hangover effect following the huge win over Duke. Between the emotion of what could be the start of an epic rivalry and the quick turnaround, Syracuse was in for a challenge against UND.

“There’s always going to be some letup after you play a game like Saturday,” Boeheim said, “but you have to find a way.”

The Orange was able to on Monday thanks to a career-high 33 points from Trevor Cooney. In a slow-paced game, the guard provided more than half of SU’s offense.

Syracuse still managed to shoot 44 percent from the field, but the Irish’s sluggish pace and rugged defense that harkened back to Big East play meant that the Orange’s most reliable weapons, its slashers, couldn’t get to the rim and do damage.

“I think toward the end of the first half it was still 22-14 or something like that, so it was definitely a different pace,” SU forward Jerami Grant said. “I definitely felt like we had to adjust to that and I don’t think we did a good job.”

But aside from the differences in pace, emotional and physical exhaustion set in.

The win against the Blue Devils was one of the best in college basketball this year, if not ever. Coming back out to play less than 48 hours later in front of a crowd almost 10,000 people smaller is no simple task.

“Knowing we’re playing Duke and knowing all this hype and stuff, it gets you more excited, it gets you more amped up and stuff,” Fair said. “Of course you want to play and everybody loves to play, but it’s hard to, I guess, bring that excitement because you’re playing against Notre Dame and they’re not a fun style of team to play.”

Published on February 4, 2014 at 1:10 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2