NEW YORK – After Syracuse’s dismantling of Texas Tech on Thursday night, Red Raiders head coach Bob Knight gushed about the Orange 2-3 zone defense. He said Syracuse plays it better than any team in the country.

But if The General had stuck around Friday night, he wouldn’t have been too impressed. In fact, he would have only seen the zone for less than 10 minutes. Syracuse was forced to abandon it in the middle of the first half because Florida’s outside shooters couldn’t miss from downtown. Still, the switch didn’t alter the outcome of the game as SU lost 75-70.

‘We thought going into the game it would be difficult to stay in our zone,’ Boeheim said, ‘and we just didn’t do a real good job of finding their shooters.’

In the first half, Florida’s Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey each made four 3-pointers, as the Gators went 8-for-17 from beyond the extended, experimental arc. But Florida only made 2-of-6 3’s in the second half. The Gators’ overall shooting percentage dipped from 51.6 percent in the first half to 45.5 in the second.

‘I thought when we switched, our man-to-man was respectable,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought we did a pretty good job in it.’

While guard Gerry McNamara was disappointed by the play of the zone, he said by no means will the team play more man-to-man this season.

‘We played so poor at the top of the zone, letting their guards shoot, we had to switch to man,’ McNamara said. ‘We have good man-to-man defense but our backbone is our zone – we force people into difficult shots and get long rebounds and run.’

Rough and tumble

Syracuse and Florida aren’t exactly heated rivals, but they certainly played that way. The close contest produced a lot of extracurricular sparring and shoving after the whistle.

One battle for a loose ball in the second half resulted in matching technical fouls for Syracuse’s Eric Devendorf and Florida’s Walter Hodge. The Florida guard was already on the floor after his shot was blocked by SU center Darryl Watkins when Devendorf was the first to jump on the pile.

‘Anybody is not going to go out there and let guys take cheap shots at us,’ forward Terrence Roberts said. ‘That’s definitely not going to happen. We were waiting for the refs to make some calls but they didn’t. If (Eric) felt he had to retaliate, he did what he did, and we’re going to back him every play no matter what it is.’

McNamara and Roberts both suffered cuts in the game. McNamara put a towel to his mouth after coming out in the second half, and Roberts suffered a blow just under the right eye that was bleeding.

After Roberts finished talking to reporters, a team trainer asked the junior how he sustained the cut on his face.

‘I don’t even remember how I got it to be honest with you,’ Roberts said.

Point man

McNamara continued to look more and more like a traditional point guard against Florida. Though he led the team with 19 shots, he notched 10 assists against only one turnover. The offense looked the smoothest it’s been all season in the first half when the senior guard continually found open shooters.

‘That’s what I’m supposed to do,’ McNamara said. ‘I’m in the position to find people and get everyone involved and try to score at the same time. It’s pretty difficult right now trying to find open looks, but if I can make plays and get other people open looks, you have to take some positives from that.’

Several times against Florida and other times this season, McNamara has surprised his teammates with quick passes. As for McNamara’s shooting, Boeheim isn’t worried that McNamara had another disappointing night from downtown, shooting 3-of-11.

‘I think Gerry’s doing a tremendous job getting the ball to people,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s just not making shots at this stage but I think he will. We just got to keep working at it.’

This and that…

Other than Devendorf, who played 16 minutes, no other Syracuse player came off the bench for more than three minutes. … Florida made more free throws than Syracuse, despite shooting a miserable 48.1 percent from the line. The Gators were 13-of-27 and the Orange was 8-of-10. McNamara didn’t attempt a foul shot. … The all-tournament team consisted of Florida’s Green and Al Horford, McNamara, Wake Forest’s Trent Strickland and Texas Tech’s Jarrius Jackson.

Published on November 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm