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Daily Madden: How Syracuse Smothered Indiana

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Syracuse's heralded zone defense held No. 1 seed Indiana to 50 points as the Orange won by 11 to move on to the Elite Eight.

"As an old coach, I want to watch this defense and see what they're doing," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "If it's so good and so effective, why isn't everyone doing it? What are they doing?

They all move well and all this stuff. And then I came to the conclusion it doesn't make any difference what the defense is. It's the guys playing it." Syracuse held the Hoosiers to 33 percent shooting.

"They have so much of what they call length -- they have length at every position. I mean they got a point guard 6''7" or 6'8" out there in front of that zone instead of some little quick guy. And I'm thinking it's like in football, 'oh, they're going to use a 4-3 (defense) or they're using a 3-4.'

It doesn't make any difference. It's who's in the 4-3 or the 3-4. And I think it's the same thing with Syracuse."

Should Giants fans be concerned about the way the A's dominated San Francisco in Thursday night's exhibition game at AT&T Park? "They say you know, 'this isn't an important game, doesn't mean anything, it's just preseason, it's just exhibition baseball...' And then something bad happens and you criticize it. So you can either have it or not." The A's beat the Giants 7-3 in the first of the three exhibition games. The Giants open their season Monday afternoon in Los Angeles.

The A's open at home Monday night against Seattle. (7:15)

(Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.)

Daily Madden

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