Two young, inexperienced teams will meet on the hardwood in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Preseason Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden in New York, Wednesday night.

The Ohio State Buckeyes will take on the 21st-ranked Syracuse Orange in the second NIT semifinal at 9 p.m., which will be televised on ESPN2.

While Ohio State starts two seniors, a sophomore, and two freshmen, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim doesn’t have one senior in his starting five.

Through three games so far this season, the Orange are led by 6-foot-9 freshman forward Donte Greene, who is averaging a team-high 19.0 points, and a second-best 8.0 rebounds per contest.

Freshman point guard Jonny Flynn is fourth on the team averaging 13.0 points per game, and leads the Orange with 7.7 assists per outing.

A pair of sophomores, 6-foot-9 Arinze Onuaku (13.7 ppg), and 6-foot-5 guard Paul Harris (12.7 ppg) are second and fifth, respectively, in scoring for Syracuse, while Harris tops the Orange with 11.7 rebounds per game.

The only upperclassman among the starting five for Syracuse is 6-foot-4 junior guard Eric Devendorf, who is second on the team at a 16.0 points per game clip, and he is the only returning starter to average in double figures (14.8 ppg) last year.

Only one player comes off the bench to play any significant minutes, and he’s a freshman, too, as 6-foot-9 forward Rick Jackson averages 6.7 points and 2.0 rebounds per contest.

Last season, Syracuse finished 24-11 and advanced to the NIT quarterfinals before eventually losing to Clemson, 74-70.

The Orange have advanced to the semifinals of the Preseason Tip-Off to face the Buckeyes by defeating Siena, 97-89, and St. Joseph’s 72-69.

Against Siena, Flynn scored 28 points, a Syracuse record for a freshman making his debut, and was 10-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 from three-point range to surpass the points record set by Carmelo Anthony.

Against St. Joe’s, Flynn hit a three-pointer from the top of the key with 5.3 seconds left to break a 68-all tie in his only basket of the game. Harris and Greene each had 18.

The Orange squeezed in a nonconference game in between St. Joe’s and their match-up with Ohio State and defeated Fordham, 80-63, as Greene had 25 points and nine rebounds to lead the way for Syracuse, last Friday.

“Syracuse is a talented basketball team and is off to a great start because they are playing great basketball,” Ohio State head coach Thad Matta said on Monday. “Their threat is that they can score. Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn are both off to a great start. Flynn seems to have great command of the team and what they are running already while Greene has found different ways to score.”

Ohio State is led by 7-foot freshman forward Kosta Koufos, who is averaging 18.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

But he’s far more advanced at this stage of his freshman year offensively than Greg Oden was at the end of his rookie campaign.

One big difference between Koufos and Oden is that Koufos is 2-of-3 from three-point distance, while Oden never attempted a shot beyond the arc the entire season. Other than free throws, Oden might not of taken a shot outside of 15 feet.

“Kosta is more of a face up player that can handle, shoot and pass the ball well so he can do a little more offensively for us than Greg,” Matta said on Monday. “I think time will tell if he is a one year and done player.”

Up next, Ohio State will play either Texas A&M or Washington at Madison Square Garden, Friday night.

Tags: Buckeye Basketball //