After the first game of the season, Michigan men's basketball coach John Beilein spoke about getting his new players "under the lights" in Crisler Arena.

Well, it's about to get a lot brighter when the team hits Atlantic City this Friday for the Championship Round of the Legends Classic.

Players and coaches have referred to their matchup with Syracuse as a measuring stick of sorts. I suppose that would put their last three victories in the arena of sprigs or maybe those bugs that look like sticks.

After each game, the Wolverines have politely referred to their respective opponents as strong teams. But, in all honesty, those are the teams they’re supposed to beat, the games in which they’re supposed to shine — that’s why they’re called tune-up games.

It’s like in The Longest Yard when Burt Reynolds says to Adam Sandler that "in college, we'd start every season against Appalachian State or some slack Division II team ... kick the living shit out of them. Get their confidence up."

Oh … nevermind. Bad example.

But Syracuse represents a new echelon of opponents that this young team hasn't seen yet. The Orange aren't Bowling Green … or Gardner-Webb … or South Carolina Upstate.

Hell, they’re not even South Carolina.

They are Syracuse — a team that built its reputation on one of the most aggressive trapping-style, 2-3 zone defenses in the country. It’s so effective that Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has a 57-minute long instructional video detailing how to run this defense ($39.95, available on Amazon).

Boeheim normally stacks that defense with some of the longest and quickest athletes in the country, making it look like an imposing redwood forest. And this Friday, Syracuse's bottom three defenders will stand as stifling 6-foot-7, 6-foot-9 and 7-foot titans.

The 2-3 zone defense is dangerous because when run properly, it clogs the interior — practically shutting down dribble penetration and post play. Usually, this leaves the wings open for 3-pointers or long jumpers. But with the way Boeheim normally commands this defense and how the Orange aggressively trap the ball, it usually translates into an abundance of steals and turnovers.

But this isn’t about Boeheim, how he coaches or even his resume — 27 NCAA Tournament appearances, five Big East Tournament Championships, eight Big East regular-season Championships.

It’s about the 10 players on the court and what they do with Boeheim's direction.

And that being said, Boeheim referred to his team as being “the most overrated team that (he's) ever had" in his 34 years at Syracuse.

That was before Syracuse narrowly skated by a winless William and Mary in the second round of The Legends Classic. That was before his team shot 36.7 percent from the field against that same team, before they shot 5-for-22 from behind the arc.

But don’t get me wrong: there are certain things that have nothing to do with being overrated. So long as their hands aren’t buttered on Friday, the Syracuse post players should own the glass.

While redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan has proven to be a dominant post player in the Wolverines’ first three games, it will be much harder for him to pull down eight-plus rebounds when he’s going up against three bodies as big, if not bigger, than him.

But if Morgan and the rest of the Michigan frontcourt can occupy the lane, pockets will open up in the zone for Wolverine shooters. And long shots mean long rebounds, so junior Zack Novak and sophomore Darius Morris may find themselves leading the rebounders’ category on the statistics sheet, which may not be a bad thing.

Regardless, Friday’s game will be a matchup between a team fighting to stay in the top 10 and a team looking to shock anyone it can.

In Monday’s teleconference with Boeheim, when asked why his team has always been able to beat Beilein’s teams, he quickly responded, “We’ve had better players. That’s all.”

Boeheim may be right and he may have the better players again this time. But neither Syracuse nor Michigan have singular stars — they've both made it clear, at least this far into the season, that they're team oriented. And on any given day a good team can take down a better team.

So the question is not who has the better players right now, but which is the better team on Friday?