Big East Tournament 2012: Surging Syracuse Will Dominate Conference Foes

Syracuse welcomes tournament time with open arms. This is going to be a magical time for one of the hottest teams in college basketball. 

The Big East Tournament kicks off this week, and it's not exactly a wide-open field. Syracuse are the odds-on favorites, and it isn't all that close. 

The Orange come in with a 30-1 record and a 10-game winning streak that nearly covers up the lone misstep to Notre Dame. 

The scary part about Syracuse isn't their offense or the play of stars like Fab Melo and Kris Joseph. It's their depth.

Having a deep bench with versatile players is a luxury not many teams can tout at this time of year. 

Syracuse has the roster to make deep run into March and probably early April. The fact that they will be looking past the Big East Tournament, however, doesn't mean for a misstep this week. 

It's not like this program will be all smiles, because there are some humbling subplots to take note of. This program has had to deal with a lot off the court in the form of Bernie Fine allegations and new reports that Syracuse looked the other way on players that tested positive for drugs. 

Yahoo Sports reported Monday that 10 players tested positive for banned substances but were allowed to play. The report goes back as far as 2001, but no current players were mentioned. 

While this may not be what Jim Boeheim would like as a story line heading into Madison Square Garden, it is par for the course for a program that has had to deal with far too much outside tumult.

Along the way, these players have never wavered and have continued to make the program proud. They have the talent and current form to dominate and the maturity to rule the day.

Tournament season is all about handling the ups and downs and making it through a raucous set of games.

Syracuse proved this season that they have the mental makeup to go along with their physical attributes. The Big East will belong to Syracuse, and it's not even close.

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