Carrier Dome

It isn't often that someone looks forward to playing Penn State in football. But you can count Syracuse coach Dick MacPherson among the minority. At least, in this particular instance. "They're the perfect team for us to be playing this weekend. We need Penn State to get us revved up to win," said MacPherson, whose Orangemen (2-2) host the Nittany Lions (4-1) Saturday in the Carrier Dome (ESPN, 4 p.m.). "It's just what the doctor ordered. " Syracuse, which shelled the Lions, 48-21, at home in 1987, is trying to beat Penn State for the third consecutive year, something nobody has managed to do since Joe Paterno became the head coach at Happy Valley.

You can't blame former St. Joseph's Prep and current Miami Hurricanes quarterback Frank Costa for having some apprehension about going into the Carrier Dome for Saturday's Big East showdown with Syracuse. In 1992, when Costa was a redshirt sophomore and Gino Torretta was quarterbacking the team, the No. 1-ranked Hurricanes visited the No. 8 Orangemen and nearly lost the game - and their hearing. "We barely came out of there with a win," Costa said of the Hurricanes' 16-10 victory.

Tournament MVP Angel Lewis scored on a layup with one second left in regulation, then added five points in overtime, as Syracuse's women's basketball team defeated St. Joseph's, 74-68, in the championship game of the Carrier Classic in the Carrier Dome. Erin Kenneally scored 18 points and Lewis 16 for Syracuse (2-0). Katie Curry notched 18 points, Audrey Codner 15 points and nine rebounds and Cindy Anderson 14 points for the Hawks (1-1), who trailed by as many as 16 in the first half.

An hour before the scheduled tipoff, St. John's was stuck in a snowbound bus two miles from the Carrier Dome, where No. 23 Syracuse awaited. But a little snow wasn't going to stand in the way of the Big East's hottest team. "We wanted to walk to the game. We were anxious and excited, but coach [Fran Fraschilla] wouldn't let us," said Zendon Hamilton, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead the visiting Red Storm to a 67-65 victory over Syracuse last night. With traffic snarled in a blinding snowstorm that dumped more than a foot of snow on Syracuse, St. John's didn't arrive at the Carrier Dome until 35 minutes before the scheduled start, causing a 35-minute delay.

Derrick Coleman led Syracuse out of a two-game shooting slump, matching his career-high with 24 points and 17 rebounds, as the Orangemen turned back St. John's, 81-72, last night in a Big East game in Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse (No. 6 AP and UPI) used a 19-9 run to begin the second half and pull away from St. John's (No. 15, No. 16 UPI). Syracuse, which shot 33 percent from the field in its previous two games, used 67 percent shooting in the second half to improve to 11-1, 2-1 in the conference, and stop St. John's eight-game winning streak.

Villanova and Syracuse have agreed to a home-and-home men's basketball series over the next two seasons. Syracuse will play Villanova in the Carrier Dome on Dec. 28, and the Wildcats will host the Orange at the Wells Fargo Center in 2014 at a date to be determined. Tryout for Arcidiacono. Ryan Arcidiacono, a freshman point guard at Villanova, accepted an invitation to participate in the 2013 USA Basketball men's under-19 National Team training camp. The camp will be held on June 15-19 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Cabrini men's lacrosse team will visit Rochester Institute on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament. Cabrini beat Springfield, 20-8, in the first round on May 1 and will advance to the quarterfinals Wednesday with a victory. The Division III title game will be May 26 at Lincoln Financial Field. The Linc will also host the Division I semifinals on May 25 at 2:30 and 5 p.m. and the championship on May 27 at 1 p.m. The Division II championship game is set for May 26 at the Linc.

It is a forbidding place to most visitors, the Carrier Dome with its Teflon din, where the largest hostile basketball crowd in the country intimidates with a throbbing wall of Orange sound. For some reason, Villanova remains unaffected. For some reason, the Dome feels as comfortable to the Wildcats as an old pair of slippers. With last night's blistering 79-61 victory over 12th-ranked Syracuse, Villanova has now won four consecutive times at the Carrier Dome. Seniors Arron Bain (13 points, eight rebounds)

Attention, Grinnell College basketball office: LeBron James wants the tape from Jack Taylor's record-setting scoring spree. Or as "King James" is now calling Taylor, "Sir Jack. " The Miami Heat took plenty of notice of Taylor in their shootaround Wednesday, one day after the Grinnell guard scored a record 138 points in only 36 minutes against visiting Faith Baptist Bible in Grinnell, Iowa. "It's unbelievable, honestly," James said. "I would like to see the game. I want to see the game.

Villanova coach Rollie Massimino must have been wondering what he got himself into. While many Big East teams have been playing against schools that make only the results page in December, the Wildcats have been playing everybody. Saturday night, Massimino found himself and his team playing in the insane atmosphere of the Carrier Dome against unbeaten Syracuse. 'Nova was 6-5, 0-2 in the Big East and wondering where its next win could come from. Naturally, the Wildcats suffocated the Orange and beat them convincingly, 76-66.

Villanova and Syracuse have agreed to a home-and-home men's basketball series over the next two seasons. Syracuse will play Villanova in the Carrier Dome on Dec. 28, and the Wildcats will host the Orange at the Wells Fargo Center in 2014 at a date to be determined. Tryout for Arcidiacono. Ryan Arcidiacono, a freshman point guard at Villanova, accepted an invitation to participate in the 2013 USA Basketball men's under-19 National Team training camp. The camp will be held on June 15-19 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Cabrini men's lacrosse team will visit Rochester Institute on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament. Cabrini beat Springfield, 20-8, in the first round on May 1 and will advance to the quarterfinals Wednesday with a victory. The Division III title game will be May 26 at Lincoln Financial Field. The Linc will also host the Division I semifinals on May 25 at 2:30 and 5 p.m. and the championship on May 27 at 1 p.m. The Division II championship game is set for May 26 at the Linc.

Miami guard Shane Larkin noticed during warm-ups Saturday that something was off. The up-tempo Hurricanes seemed a step slow and not entirely ready to play. And so it was: No. 2 Miami saw its unbeaten start to Atlantic Coast Conference play, 14-game winning streak, and highest-ever national ranking come to an end with a surprisingly lopsided 80-65 loss to host Wake Forest. Miami (22-4, 13-1) never got closer than 11 in the second half and was outrebounded 36-35 by the Demon Deacons (12-14, 5-9)

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a week can make. So maybe some cynics will even concede that Villanova's Jay Wright might actually have a clue again. Two wins over Top 5 teams in 5 days will do that for a perspective. Ironically, both were over teams that the Wildcats will no longer be playing once this Big East implosion mess finally plays itself out. Last Saturday they left Providence with a three-game losing streak. Now, while still far from a finished product, they've at least already matched their victory total from last season (13-7, 4-3)

Big Five teams have experienced quite an interesting week, and it could get more fascinating with the day of all days in the rich history of the city basketball delegation. Call it "Poll-buster Saturday. " For the first time anyone can remember, three Big Five members go up against nationally ranked teams Saturday in three different cities in contests that are related in some way. The party starts at 11 a.m. when Villanova, which upset No. 5 Louisville on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, returns to South Philadelphia to take on third-ranked Syracuse.

Attention, Grinnell College basketball office: LeBron James wants the tape from Jack Taylor's record-setting scoring spree. Or as "King James" is now calling Taylor, "Sir Jack. " The Miami Heat took plenty of notice of Taylor in their shootaround Wednesday, one day after the Grinnell guard scored a record 138 points in only 36 minutes against visiting Faith Baptist Bible in Grinnell, Iowa. "It's unbelievable, honestly," James said. "I would like to see the game. I want to see the game.

BOSTON - The brightest lights always attracted him. "You're playing in front of 30,000 fans - on a low night, 25,000," Syracuse point guard Scoop Jardine said Friday about the huge crowds at the Carrier Dome. "When I first went to the Dome, it was the first time I ever signed an autograph. It was all she wrote right there for myself. " Now a senior, about to face Ohio State Saturday in an NCAA East Regional final at TD Garden, Jardine hasn't tired of the spotlight. "I go everywhere," Jardine said of all the attention on Syracuse basketball.

Dion Waiters has grown up. Once hindered by a sense of self-entitlement, the Syracuse guard is at peace with himself and basketball. And as Villanova could find out Wednesday, the Orange is benefitting from the new-and-improved Waiters. The South Philadelphia native is arguably the most exciting player on the team that is ranked No. 1 in the nation in both the Associated Press and the USA Today/ESPN coaches polls. The Orange (17-0, 4-0) will likely be big favorites to beat the Wildcats (8-8, 1-3)

REMEMBER that it's always about the "student-athlete. " In a world more populated by frauds every second, college sports may have more frauds per square inch than any endeavor on earth. Administrators preach education and practice business, cold-hearted, ruthless business. Athletic programs are for sale to the highest bidder. But if a "student-athlete" gets free tattoos or sells memorabilia, that teenager or young adult is branded, suspended and sometimes ruled permanently ineligible.

It wasn't pretty. Late last February, a Villanova team that eventually would get a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament headed to Syracuse to play a squad that ended up with a 1. It was over almost before it got going. The final was 95-77. It was the Wildcats' fifth loss. They won only two of their remaining five games, by four points 3 days later at Cincinnati and by three in overtime over Robert Morris in the opening round of the Madness. Who knows? Maybe they already were beginning to lose their mojo by the time they touched down in upstate New York.