One after another, Syracuse is handed the challenge of defending some of the Big East’s best big men. Following a brutal road trip that saw back-to-back games against Notre Dame’s Jack Cooley and Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates, the return to the Carrier Dome doesn’t provide much relief.

Enter Kevin Jones.

‘He’s probably having as good a year or better than anybody in the league this year,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said in the Big East coaches’ teleconference Thursday.

And on the heels of a 26-point, 14-rebound effort — albeit it in a losing one against St. John’s earlier in the week — Jones leads a young West Virginia (15-6, 5-3 Big East) team into Syracuse for a 1 p.m. date with the No. 3 Orange (21-1, 8-1 Big East) on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. But while Cooley destroyed SU almost single-handedly in South Bend, Ind., power forward Rakeem Christmas upped his game significantly to play brilliantly against UC’s Yancy Gates.

Syracuse could be without starting center Fab Melo again Saturday, who remains sidelined with an unresolved academic issue. That means Christmas and fellow low-post player Baye Keita must be strong against arguably the conference’s best big man.

Per Scoop Jardine’s postgame admission, Cooley manhandled every player on the Orange with a superior effort. Jardine said the 6-foot-9, 248-pound Cooley simply wanted it more.

Seventeen points, 10 rebounds and an upset of then-No. 1 Syracuse backed that up.

‘More heart,’ Jardine said. ‘We’ve got to play with heart like we did in the last three minutes of Saturday’s game (against Notre Dame), when we were trying to come back and win. We would have won that game by 20. Tonight we played with heart, and we got a big win (against Cincinnati).’

The progression from Cooley to Gates, though, should help prepare the Orange for Jones on Saturday. While Cooley is all about scrappy play and tenacity underneath the basket, Gates had a more polished offensive game with an ability to step out and make a 15-foot jump shot.

The Mountaineers’ Jones has perhaps the best all-around offensive repertoire, including the ability to step out to the 3-point line and knock down a long-range jumper.

He’s shooting just under 30 percent on the season from beyond the arc, and he’s made at least two 3s in eight games this year. Jardine, SU’s starting point guard, has just five games with two or more 3s.

‘I don’t know how much he’s substantially gotten better at anything. I think he’s gotten better at everything,’ West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said in the teleconference Thursday. ‘I think the main thing is he’s just playing with so much confidence. … I think he’s so much more comfortable being the leader of a young basketball team.’

In a game against Connecticut earlier this year, Jones, who leads the Big East in scoring (20.9 points per game) and rebounding (11.6 rebounds per game), made three 3s in the opening half to give the Mountaineers a 33-28 lead. He exploited the matchup against UConn center Andre Drummond, who struggled playing defense so far away from the basket.

Against SU’s 2-3 zone, Jones possesses the ability to shoot over Jardine and Brandon Triche out on top courtesy of his 6-foot-8-inch frame. But as Boeheim pointed out after the rebound win against Cincinnati, the adjustments his team made defensively slowed down the Bearcats shooters.

And Joseph said a team can’t consistently knock down deep 3s for a full game.

‘They were shooting deep, and those shots aren’t going to go in the whole game,’ Joseph said of UC’s start to the game Monday. ‘They had great rhythm, they were excited, they were pumped up. We knew they weren’t going to keep hitting those types of shots.’

The missed shots by the Cincinnati guards were compounded by the best defensive game of Rakeem Christmas’ career for the Orange. Though Gates finished with a double-double, 16 points and 10 rebounds, Christmas was exponentially tougher and stronger than he was against Cooley.

He drew praise from Boeheim, a slew of his teammates and assistant coach Gerry McNamara.

Without Melo, the strength inside for Syracuse instantly became a question mark. The slender Keita proved he was unable to stop a stronger opponent inside, meaning the onus was dumped on Christmas.

The same could be true Saturday against Jones. But if Christmas plays like he did Monday night, the Orange should be all right.

Said Triche: ‘He should have a chip on his shoulder every game.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on January 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13