STORRS, Conn. — Jim Boeheim looked at the downside of winning the Big East regular-season championship outright.

Syracuse only has one game in its next 10 days. The Orange’s first game in the Big East tournament will be March 8 at noon, two days after the first eight teams begin playing.

‘We’ve got a week a practice and another week because we get a — the worst thing ever invented, the double-bye,’ the SU head coach said. ‘People who are so smart penalize teams that finish first, but we’re just going to try and get our team to keep our edge.’

The No. 2 Orange clinched the top seed in the conference tournament earlier Saturday, when No. 20 Notre Dame was upset by St. John’s. Syracuse then made sure it would finish alone at the top of the Big East standings with its 71-69 win over Connecticut at Gampel Pavilion. It’s the second time in three years the Orange has taken the Big East title outright.

‘It’s good knowing that we don’t have to share it with anybody,’ forward James Southerland said.

Syracuse also earned a couple other records and milestones with the win. The Orange’s 29th victory of the season marks a program record for most in a regular season. Boeheim won his 400th Big East game. And Kris Joseph tied a mark set by three other players as the winningest player in Syracuse history. His 113 wins are the same amount as Sherman Douglas, Derrick Coleman and Stevie Thompson.

Joseph was pleased to be a part of a second regular-season conference championship in his four years at SU.

‘To be outright, to know that we stand alone at the top of the mountain, that’s a great feeling always,’ Joseph said.

Orange cleans up on the glass

Four of Syracuse’s final six points came as a result of Fab Melo crashing the offensive boards.

With the Orange holding on to a 65-63 lead late, Scoop Jardine drove around Ryan Boatright and to the rim. His layup fell off the rim, but Melo came down with the rebound on the right block. He threw up a putback and Andre Drummond went for the block, but he was a little late. The goaltending call gave SU a four-point lead.

Melo got on the glass again with 31 seconds left to dunk home a C.J. Fair miss, putting SU ahead for good, 71-69.

‘That’s our weakness, that’s our thing we’ve been working on a lot,’ Melo said, ‘and today we showed a little improvement.’

Syracuse outrebounded Connecticut 41-37 on Saturday, including a 23-13 advantage in the first half. The Orange made it a point of emphasis to rebound better after some poor performances recently. Led by Melo and Joseph, SU did just that. And some of the key moments leading to Syracuse’s win were based off the ability to rebound.

‘I thought we had an outstanding first half (rebounding),’ Boeheim said. ‘In the second half we struggled a little bit.’

Syracuse ran up and down the court in the first half because of its ability to command the defensive glass. Connecticut had only three offensive rebounds at halftime, and many defensive rebounds led to buckets in transition.

And Syracuse’s 15 offensive rebounds allowed it to get some second-chance points it had not been accustomed to lately.

With SU ahead 27-16 in the first half, Southerland missed a 3 from the right wing. But Melo came up with the rebound down low. He kicked to Dion Waiters, who drove and dished to Southerland.

Southerland nailed his triple this time, sinking it from the right corner to put the Orange up 14.

Syracuse’s rebounding margin did dwindle in the second half, as Andre Drummond grabbed 10 rebounds — six offensive — in the final 20 minutes on his own. After Boatright missed a floater in the lane with 47 seconds left, Drummond tipped the rebound in to tie the game at 69.

But SU did get the last rebound with Melo’s tip-in slam off Fair’s miss.

Though Connecticut outrebounded Syracuse in the second half, Boeheim was pleased with his team’s effort after the game.

Said Boeheim: ‘When we outrebound somebody, it’s unusual.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on February 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr