John Beilein has never beaten a Jim Boeheim-coached team.

And the Michigan men’s basketball coach has perhaps picked a bad year to try and shake that trend. With one of the youngest and most inexperienced squads in the country, Beilein will lead his Wolverines into the semifinals of the Legends Classic this Friday to square off with No. 9 Syracuse in Atlantic City, N.J.

Michigan (3-0) has looked strong in dispatching its first three opponents of the season, all in relatively easy fashion. The Wolverines have been proficient on offense, shooting at a 48.5-percent clip, and have played a stifling man-to-man defense on the other end.

Syracuse represents a different animal, though, particularly on defense, where Boeheim's infamous 2-3 zone is being executed well again this season. The scheme forces offenses to take a lot of shots from long-range — which actually plays to the Wolverines' strength, since they hoist plenty of 3-pointers.

But the Orange (4-0) traditionally make life miserable for shooters with their length and athleticism, and this season is no different.

“All it takes sometimes is a guy like (former Syracuse player) Hakim Warrick block(ing) your first jump shot up into the stands, and all of a sudden, your guys aren’t as anxious to shoot the ball,” Beilein said in a tournament teleconference Monday. "It is a 2-3 zone that’s schematic, yes, but it’s the length of it that scares so many teams.

“They just haven’t seen long arms like that come out on them at the wing … (and) always with a good, strong shot blocker inside.”

Sophomore point guard Darius Morris has been one of the most efficient lead men in the nation so far, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.6-to-1. But he has a tough matchup in Syracuse's Scoop Jardine, who averages 12.8 points and 7.3 assists per game.

Ball movement around the perimeter will be key, and the Los Angeles, Calif. native will have to continue to find open shooters on the wing before the zone rotates. And if Morris can hit shots off the fast break against Syracuse like he did in the Wolverines’ last game against Gardner-Webb, it will only make finding openings on the outside of the 2-3 even easier.

Michigan will be aided in that regard by its defense. The unit has been suffocating in man-to-man, holding opponents to 30.8-percent shooting from the field.

“(Defense is) going to be key because we’re going to want to run out and get easy buckets,” junior guard Stu Douglass said after the game against Gardner-Webb. “Syracuse is going to be very athletic, very long. We want to get as may easy buckets as we can. That’s huge for us, to get stops and translate it at the offensive end.”

Despite the consistent threat posed by rugged senior forward Rick Jackson (13 points and 13 rebounds per game) Syracuse has struggled offensively, shooting 40 percent from the field overall and scoring fewer than 70 points in three of its first four games. And the Orange are coming off a 22-for-60 performance from the field in its last game against William & Mary, a 63-60 win.

“We’re just not putting the ball in the basket,” Boeheim said Monday. “We’re missing a few easy shots and we’re not shooting the ball well from the perimeter. I think we’ve got guys that can shoot it. They just haven’t gotten comfortable yet, haven’t relaxed.”

The Wolverines must hope that Syracuse’s shooters don’t suddenly come alive in Atlantic City — if they do, the Orange’s talent, size and athleticism will likely be too much for Michigan to overcome.

Beilein said he isn’t as worried about his team playing away from home for the first time as he normally would be, due to their preseason trip to Europe. And in facing a team like Syracuse, he has plenty to worry about as is. But after narrowly defeating the winless Tribe last Sunday, the Orange are as vulnerable as ever.

“I think our guys will really be excited about this thing,” Beilein said after the Gardner-Webb game. “So for our guys to come in there … we don’t know any different right now — we’ll go in to win. And Syracuse will be going in to win. So I’m sure it will be exciting for us, but we’ll really have to play very well.”