West Virginia looks to solve the puzzle of the Syracuse zone

No. 3 West Virginia has advanced to take on an old rival for the rights to advance to the Sweet 16.

The Mountaineers will take on No. 11 Syracuse in the Round of 32 in the Midwest Regional in the first meeting between the two old Big East rivals since 2012. The two teams have met 50 times, but this will be the first in the NCAA Tournament Field in the series.

And a meeting with Syracuse and head coach Jim Boeheim means preparing for their trademark 2-3 matchup zone defense. The Orange held first round opponent No. 6 San Diego State to 36-percent from the field and forced them into 40-three-point attempts but only connected on 27.5-percent of those.

“We struggled to shoot the ball; their zone was very good. We were trying to find ways to attack it off the dribble, off the pass, off the high-post and weren’t successful at any of those things because of their high-quality defense,” Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher said.

West Virginia will have to find a way to score against the set which means either scoring in transition or moving the defense by passing or attacking the gaps and hitting open shots. It’s a challenge for many teams because it’s something they don’t see often throughout the course of the year.

“Over the years a lot of teams have figured out how to score. Tonight, it was better than it’s been. You don’t see a zone all year, it’s a little bit more difficult to play against a zone when you don’t see one all year. That’s one thing that’s probably helped us,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

That will be no different for the Mountaineers. But unlike some teams that Syracuse goes against in the tournament field, there is plenty of experience there between the two coaches as Huggins has squared off against the Orange six times during the Big East days. Unfortunately, the Mountaineers were 1-5 in those meetings.

Boeheim's zone defense presents challenges because of the many things they can do out of it and how they challenge teams. It's even different than it was before.

"He does a great job of making adjustments. They don't just stand like your typical 2-3 zone. They raise the wings, they sink the wings, they change how they're going to play the middle guy. They'll pressure you, then they won't pressure you. They'll try to gap everything," Huggins said. "It's got a lot of man-to-man principles when the ball is in the middle of the floor."

But these are two very different teams and it is made at least somewhat easier with the way that West Virginia can space the floor with shooters.

"I think it'd be a lot harder if we couldn't surround the zone with four guys that are all very capable of making shots," Huggins said. "I think that we play four guys that can make shots for really the majority of the game."

And even then the West Virginia players understand what they will be up against.

“Everybody knows about their 2-3 zone. A great team, they beat a good San Diego State team so we’re going to have to think about this win and get over it and start prepping for them,” sophomore Deuce McBride said.

"I've known about the zone forever. When I played AAU, we put in a zone defense we called it Syracuse," redshirt freshman Jalen Bridges said.

Syracuse is currently No. 67 nationally allowing opponents to connect on only 31.7-percent on three-pointers, while West Virginia is at No. 77 in three-point shooting at 35.7-percent. This Mountaineers team has shown the ability to shoot the ball throughout the year which has caught the attention of Boeheim as he has watched games from afar throughout the season.

“They're really the best West Virginia team I've seen. I'm not just trying to say that because they have really, really good shooting and they always play good defense. But they have multiple guys that can shoot the ball which I haven't seen that much from them the last few years. One of the best coaches in college basketball history in Coach Huggins and they're a really good basketball team,” he said.

There’s a lot on the line in the renewal of the series between the two and a chance at the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament if the Mountaineers can figure out the Syracuse zone.

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