The surroundings will be familiar to Syracuse, and so will the opponent.
The third-ranked Orange (28-4) were awarded a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and their opener on Friday in Buffalo, N.Y., a 2 1/2-hour drive away, will be against 16th seed Vermont (25-9).
Yes, those Catamounts.
Vermont, champions of the America East Conference, beat Syracuse 60-57 in overtime in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament, a stinging loss the Orange have not forgotten. Syracuse had finished the 2004-05 regular season at 24-6 and captured the Big East tournament title before losing to the Catamounts.
``When I saw that name pop up, it fired me up a little bit,'' said fifth-year senior Andy Rautins, who grew up in Syracuse. ``I think everybody around Syracuse took that loss to heart. It's definitely going to be a payback game.''
Kansas, Kentucky and Duke won their conference tournaments and were awarded the top three seeds when the selection committee rolled out its 65-team bracket on Sunday.
The Orange, meanwhile, were ranked No. 1 for a week this season but entered the NCAA tournament having lost two straight. An injury to starting center Arinze Onuaku in the Big East tournament - coupled with losing that quarterfinal game to Georgetown - most likely relegated Syracuse to the West region and behind Duke as the last of the top seeds.
The players were unfazed by the seedings, preferring to focus only on the next game.
``This tournament is filled with a lot of winning teams,'' said Wes Johnson, Big East player of the year. ``There's no real bad teams. You've got to be strong, just play tough. We don't want to go home. We've worked too hard. We want to take it to the last game.''
This will be Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's 27th trip to the NCAA tournament and just his second as a top seed.
``We're proud to be a No. 1 seed,'' Boeheim said. ``This team has worked extremely hard, been consistent all year. Obviously, the tournament is always going to be challenging. It'll be challenging right off the bat.''
Syracuse, which won the regular-season Big East title for only the second time, is a top seed for the first time since 1980. The 1979-80 team finished the regular season at 25-3, lost to Georgetown in the Big East tournament, and then lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Iowa, 88-77, when the tournament had a field of 48.
Vermont, which has won 11 of its last 12 games, will be making its fourth trip to the tournament and first since that shocking upset five years ago.
Boeheim said the Orange most likely will play without Onuaku, a fifth-year senior who hurt his right quadriceps against the Hoyas on Thursday. If Onuaku cannot play, Rick Jackson will take over at center and 6-foot-11 freshman Dashonte Riley will be the backup. Kris Joseph, the first player off the bench during the season, will start.
``I would be very skeptical of him (Onuaku) playing this weekend,'' Boeheim said. ``That could change at the end of the week, but that's my thinking right now.''
The 6-9, 260-pound Onuaku said he has been undergoing treatment since the team returned from New York and has not done any running. He said the decision on whether he plays would be made after speaking with team doctors and Boeheim.
``I'm looking at it positive, taking it day by day,'' said Onuaku, the school's career leader in field-goal percentage (64.9) who was averaging 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game this season. ``It's getting better, so I'm hoping for the best.''
Although no team has lost its first game in a conference tournament and gone on to win the national title, Syracuse also has never made it as far as the round of 16 after winning the Big East tournament. Its Final Four runs in 1987 and 1996 came after losses in the conference tournament finals.
