WASHINGTON — Brandon Triche broke out into laughter. The Syracuse guard, still wearing his orange uniform in the locker room about 40 minutes after the final buzzer, couldn’t help himself as he considered the question.

Was Indiana surprised by Syracuse’s 2-3 zone?

The laugh said it all.

“That’s all we play,” Triche said. “They shouldn’t have been surprised.”

But the Hoosiers looked that way throughout Syracuse’s 61-50 upset victory over the top seed on Thursday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. The zone baffled a team considered a national title favorite all season. Its trademark length and athleticism stunned the Hoosiers, the third-highest scoring team in the country, into turnover after turnover before they could even get off a shot. It bottled up a pair of All-Americans, one a dominant 7-footer and the other an electric athlete on the perimeter, en route to holding Indiana nearly 30 points below its season average.

The brilliant performance by the defensive system that defines Jim Boeheim’s program lifted the Orange to a berth in the Elite Eight, where it will take on Big East foe Marquette after the Golden Eagles took down Miami 71-61.

But even though the Hoosiers were well aware of Syracuse’s plan defensively, they looked surprised from the opening tip – committing 12 turnovers as the Orange jumped out to a 12-point lead by halftime. The zone withstood Indiana’s comeback attempts, never allowing the favorite get closer than six, finished with 10 blocks and 12 steals and held the Hoosiers to 33 percent shooting.

“Our zone is very confusing,” SU point guard Michael Carter-Williams said. “If you haven’t seen it before, it’s real tough.”

The Hoosiers couldn’t get an open look at the rim, in the paint or from beyond the arc.

They had no luck against the long wingspans of 6-foot-8 forwards C.J. Fair and James Southerland. With SU up by eight more than five minutes into the game, Indiana sharpshooter Jordan Hulls, who finished 0-for-6 from 3-point range, failed to pull the trigger before Southerland closed out on him in the corner. Christian Watford’s window quickly closed before Will Sheehey missed long from the opposite corner, leading to Indiana’s first timeout.

Watford shook his head, a look of shock on his face already on his face, while the Syracuse sideline brimmed with confidence.

“We didn’t give them an easy look,” Fair said. “Every point they got, they worked for it.”

It didn’t get any easier the rest of the night for Indiana. The Hoosiers couldn’t simulate SU’s zone in practice, Jerami Grant said, and it showed. Boeheim’s been running the zone for 37 years, a history he was willing to recount at his press conference after it stole the show against Indiana.

After playing man-to-man defense and zone for years, Boeheim said, he finally eliminated man-to-man completely. It was the only way the zone could improve.

“It dawned on me after about 27 or 28 years, finally – takes me a while – that if we played zone all the time and didn’t waste time playing man-to-man and put some wrinkles in the zone because we had more time to practice it that our defense would be better,” Boeheim said.

It hadn’t been better all season than it was on Thursday. The missed shots gave way to turnovers as Syracuse built its lead in the first half.

Hulls and Sheehey each walked as they looked around desperately for teammates. Cody Zeller rarely looked to the basket in the high post, unable to find any comfort zone against he swarming defense. Low and sloppy passes were even kicked around by the Hoosiers.

Indiana showed signs of life in the second half, cutting the 12-point halftime lead to seven in the first 87 seconds. But the shots didn’t come easily and Syracuse continued to bully Zeller in the paint, challenging every shot.

“We tried to make him uncomfortable,” Fair said. “Our bigs did a good job walling him up and then the forwards would come weak-side and try to block the shot.”

The blocks in the paint protected the lead as time ticked closer and closer to the upset. Zeller’s weak attempts were swatted away by Baye Moussa Keita. Southerland was there to meet Watford at the rim.

But none was bigger than Grant’s block, a play Boeheim highlighted after the game, which followed a dagger 3 that pushed the lead to 14 with close to nine minutes to play. The entire bench watched intently, with assistant Gerry McNamara in a crouch and Mike Hopkins hunched forward, during the defensive possession that ended with Grant stuffing Sheehey at the rim.

The Syracuse zone locked down Indiana for 40 minutes. But Triche said it was how the Orange played it that may have surprised the Hoosiers.

“The one thing that probably surprised them was us being so tough,” Triche said. “That’s the one thing we struggle with – our toughness sometimes.

“Sometimes we’re not as competitive around the basket, getting the loose balls, making the extra-effort plays and that’s where we lose focus, but today, we matched their intensity.”

Published on March 28, 2013 at 10:56 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu