Two years ago, Ohio State stood in the way of a trip to the Final Four for Syracuse. There were other hurdles — an untimely Fab Melo suspension, a tricky first-round game and a nail-biter against Wisconsin — but the Buckeyes were ultimately the one the Orange couldn’t cross.

When the 2014 NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed on Sunday and SU’s path to Dallas for a second straight Final Four was set in stone, there was OSU again, standing in No. 3-seed Syracuse’s way.

Some things need to fall in place for it to happen — the Orange has to beat No. 14-seed Western Michigan on Thursday in Buffalo and No. 6-seed Ohio State needs to do the same to No. 11-seed Dayton. If they do, there will be a rematch of the 2012 Elite Eight game on Saturday.

Along with Western Michigan and Ohio State, No. 1-seed Florida, No. 2-seed Kansas, No. 4-seed UCLA and No. 5-seed Virginia Commonwealth are also teams the Orange could face in the region.

“I don’t think that would help us, thinking about getting revenge on Ohio State, but us taking each game at a time,” SU forward C.J. Fair said. “We look at the bigger picture, trying to make another Final Four run. They’re in the way of that. We’ve just got to take them down, as well.”

Fair is one of three contributing players for Syracuse that played a role when the Orange fell to Ohio State. Rakeem Christmas was a freshman starter that year and senior center Baye Moussa Keita was a role player.

The Buckeyes still have two of the starters from that Elite Eight game — senior guards Aaron Craft and Lenzelle Smith Jr. — and Shannon Scott, Sam Thompson and center Amir Williams all made an appearance in the contest.

Like SU, this year’s OSU team is a bit offensively challenged, but strong on the defense end. Neither Syracuse nor Ohio State rank in the top 200 in terms of points per game this season, but are both top-12 defensive squads.

But before the Orange even thinks about the Buckeyes, it has to worry about Western Michigan.

The Broncos finished second in the Mid-American Conference during the regular season and upset top-seed Toledo to clinch an automatic berth.

Western Michigan played three games against common opponents to SU, beating Cornell and splitting two games against Eastern Michigan. In their loss to the Eagles in January, the Broncos scored just 37 points.

“We haven’t seen the tape yet,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said on Sunday. “They’re a really good team in a good conference and they won the tournament.”

Boeheim said the Orange would go over film on Monday and stay in Syracuse until Tuesday before practicing in Buffalo on Wednesday.

The final team in SU’s sub-region is Dayton, which finished sixth in the Atlantic 10, but still made the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

They have wins against Tournament teams Gonzaga, George Washington, Massachusetts and Saint Louis, and competed in the EA Sports Maui Invitational in November, but didn’t meet up with the Orange.

Dayton is the team that SU is least likely to play in Buffalo, but Syracuse can’t focus on any of the potential matchups, anyway. That attention lies squarely on WMU.

“I think that can mess up teams, trying to look ahead,” Fair said, “and then you’re not focused on the team in front of you.”

Published on March 17, 2014 at 12:22 am

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