It’s man defense vs. zone defense.  Wisconsin is about to get pushed by a team that has more than one guy that can beat them off the dribble against their man defense.  In their match up with Vanderbilt it was only Taylor that could beat them off the dribble and he just played poorly.  Wisconsin has to go against the Syracuse zone defense that has been consistent all year and has looked great despite losing Fab Melo for the tournament. The Orange finally looked like the #1 seed in the 2nd half against Kansas State and I think they finally clicked offensively and are ready to continue on their way against a very inconsistent Wisconsin club that I did not feel deserved to be here.  Rakeem Christmas has filled in nicely for Melo posting 8 points and 11 rebounds against Kansas State.
 
Guards Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters are two players I don’t see Wisconsin being able to man up against and that will be the key.  If you let Jardine penetrate he’s great at distributing the ball and Syracuse have plenty of big men that can stills core in the paint if there are opportunities which I believe their will be.  I just don’t think they match up well vs. Syracuse.  We saw this same Wisconsin team lose because they just could not man up against Marquette during the regular season when Marquette beat them in Wisconsin. 
 
Florida had no problem staying in a game against Syracuse on the road earlier this year and Marquette lost twice to SEC teams.  Although I’m a huge fan of their style of play I don’t’ think they match up well vs. Florida.  Florida is bigger (which they can’t say very often) and are a better shooting team with better guard play on the perimeter than Marquette.  This should be a very good close game, but I feel Florida is the better overall team.  Marquette went 0-2 vs. the SEC and haven’t played as well as Florida has up to this point.  Also Marquette nearly lost to Norfolk State earlier in the year a team Florida just blew out.  I’ll take the value we are getting with a bigger better shooting Florida team.
 
 

Where to find Freddy?