No smack talk was needed to hype Saturday's Final Four match-up between Michigan and Syracuse, but on Friday we got some anyway, courtesy of Orange guard Brandon Triche.
2013 Final Four: Brandon Triche says Syracuse has ‘mismatches at every position’
The Syracuse guard stirred the pot at Final Four media day on Friday with a comment about the Orange’s Saturday opponent, Michigan. The Wolverines enter the Final Four after a 20-point beat-down of Florida in Sunday’s regional final game.
Rob Carr
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Speaking at a Final Four media day on Friday, Triche said he believed Syracuse had “mismatches at every position,” according to NBC Sports’ college basketball writer Rob Dauster.
Dauster shared the following via CollegeBasketballTalk.com:
“We think we’ve got mismatches at every position,” Triche said. “We feel like not too many teams can stay in front of us.”
Dauster was quick to add that when taken in context, Triche’s comments weren’t as bad as they might sound, but they still aren’t words Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim wants to hear with barely 24 hours left before tip-off on Saturday. That’s especially true of a talented opponent in Michigan, which has scored at least 71 points in all four NCAA Tournament wins so far, and won their regional final against Florida by 20 points last Saturday.
In Triche’s defense, it’s not like Syracuse is playing bad basketball, and if anything is actually playing some of the best defense in NCAA Tournament history during their 2013 Final Four run.
Through four tournament games, Syracuse has limited opponents to just 45 points per game, and in their regional final victory over Marquette, the Orange held the Golden Eagles to just 39 points on 22.6 percent shooting. Those 39 points were the fewest any team has ever scored in an Elite Eight game in the shot clock era.
Syracuse and Michigan will tip-off at 8:49 ET on Saturday night.
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