Syracuse (22-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) earned a No. 6 seed in the South Bend Region of the NCAA Tournament and will play No. 11-seed Chattanooga on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Lexington, Ky. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Shortly after the announcement, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman guaranteed a first-round victory. If Syracuse does defeat Chattanooga (29-3, 18-0 Southern), it will advance to play the winner of No. 3-seed Kentucky and No. 14-seed Wright St. on Monday.

“We’re going to win the game,” Hillsman told reporters at the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center. “We’re not going there to lose. I can’t leave here thinking we’re going to lose the basketball game. I don’t think we’re going to lose the game.”

Although guards Rachel Coffey and Brittney Sykes admitted they know nothing about the Mocs — other than Sykes knowing they’re from Tennessee — Hillsman said he’s somewhat familiar with Chattanooga and already seemed to have a knowledgeable scouting report.

“You got to look back and see why they’re playing well and they’re just a very balanced team,” Hillsman said. “They do a very good job of shooting the ball. They have inside-outside presences and they’re a very good basketball team.”

Coffey said that although she and her teammates don’t know much about their opponent, they’ve got to treat it like any other game, even though they’re playing a No. 11 seed.

ACC foe Notre Dame earned the No. 1 seed in the South Bend Region and Baylor was awarded the No. 2 seed.

Syracuse will practice Tuesday and Wednesday in Syracuse before heading to Kentucky on Thursday. By Saturday, Hillsman said he’ll have watched 80 percent of Chattanooga’s games.

“No sleep,” Hillsman said. “Starbucks and Tim Hortons. I just don’t like not knowing, so I’m going to know. I’m going to know and our team is going to know everything I know. Which is probably going to be bad for them. We’ll be very familiar with them by the time Thursday comes around.”

Hillsman said the team is not focused on a potential second-round opponent.

“You have to win that first one,” Hillsman said. “We understand that playing Kentucky or Wright State would be a tremendously fast game. That’s all we know.”

Because SU hasn’t played since it fell to North Carolina State on March 7 in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament, it has been able to focus an entire week solely on itself. It will now have five days to focus solely on Chattanooga.

Said Hillsman: “We’re ready to play.”

Published on March 17, 2014 at 7:53 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu