Syracuse's Rick Jackson (00) and C.J. Fair grab at a rebound with Michigan's Matt Vogrich and Blake McLimans (22) during the first half of Syracuse's 53-50 win in Atlantic City on Friday night.

Mel Evans | AP Photo

Updated 11:23 p.m.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- They'd heard about it all week. The Michigan basketball team had seen the Syracuse 2-3 zone on tape and was lectured about in in practice.

Simulations, as Michigan learned in its 53-50 loss to No. 9 Syracuse in a semifinal of the Legends Classic on Friday night, aren’t able to really replicate what the zone actually does.

It takes away what teams want to do and constantly adjusts. When a team makes a mistake, it is there to capitalize and turn turnovers into points.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen anything quite like that, the way they run it,” Michigan junior guard Zack Novak said. “But that’s what they do. That’s their MO. That’s why they are a pretty successful program.

“You can play a 2-3 zone, but we don’t have anybody as big as those guys, let alone have a scout team who can simulate that.”

Despite the size disadvantage and unfamiliarity with the style of play, Michigan (3-1) almost beat Syracuse (5-0) anyway.

In the first half, Michigan even looked like the more dominant team.

The Wolverines were rotating the ball with ease. They were making good reads to get the ball into the hands of redshirt freshman forward Jordan Morgan in the interior of the zone.

By doing that, Morgan could go up against the middle of the zone or kick it out to open shooters on rotations. And it worked, almost to perfection.

Morgan had eight points in the first half from the inside. Junior guard Stu Douglass had eight points in the first half from the outside. They both finished with 11.

But as Syracuse tends to do, it adjusted. It extended the zone. The length started to bother Michigan.

It forced turnovers -- five in the second half -- and took away the interior for Morgan and point guard Darius Morris’ ability to drive.

“They were trying to prevent us from getting in the lane, using their length and their athletic ability,” Morris said. “In the beginning I felt they were forcing us more to drive in the middle, which is why I was getting in there.

“But they started to collapse when I got the ball, keep me out of the zone. I think I made it a little more difficult.”

Morris struggled in the second half. He finished the game with six assists and four turnovers, but only one assist and three turnovers after the half.

Of course, much of this is something Michigan coach John Beilein has seen before. He knew what Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim would try to do. He tried to adjust, but with a young team, the Wolverines couldn’t recover quick enough.

A 9-0 spurt early in the second half gave Syracuse a 38-33 lead. From there, Michigan regained the lead once on a Douglass 3-pointer to take a 45-44 lead with 5:50 left. From there, Syracuse went on a 7-1 run to take the lead back for good.

The whole second half, though, was a struggle for Michigan.

“We just figured out what they was doing,” Syracuse junior guard Scoop Jardine said. “Locate the shooters and know who didn’t want to take the shot and that’s what it was about.

“(Boeheim’s) a genius at that but we recognized, too.”

Meanwhile, Michigan's defense had a hard time containing the athletic Syracuse wings. Kris Joseph scored 22 points -- one off his career-high -- and Rick Jackson had 10 points.

“We don’t like to lose and this is certainly a game we could have won,” Beilein said. “But it was important we got measured against a team of this caliber and we just grow from it.”

Michigan must digest the loss quickly. The Wolverines face UTEP in the consolation game of the Legends Classic at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Syracuse will face Georgia Tech in the championship game at 8 p.m.

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.