Kansas City, Mo. ? In this life, three things are certain: death, taxes and Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim running the 2-3 zone.

Boeheim’s match-up zone defense, about as tried and true as anything in the sports world, made its appearance yet again inside Sprint Center on Tuesday night during Syracuse’s 89-81 overtime victory against Kansas University

Boeheim has perfected his defensive craft so well, he has even released an instructional video on the intricacies of the 2-3 match-up zone. The 57-minute video, readily available online, currently is on sale for $57.95 on Amazon’s Web site. It’s the same zone Boeheim used in the 2003 national championship game to fluster Kansas into 4-for-20 shooting from the three-point line in a game the Jayhawks lost, 81-78.

Which is why Tuesday’s performance was so shocking. Against Kansas, Boeheim’s 2-3 match-up zone didn’t work.

It didn’t work to the point that the fourth-decade Syracuse coach painfully was forced into switching to man-to-man.

Perhaps more startling, however, was this fact: The Orange’s second-half and overtime comeback was fueled by what traditionally has been the team’s secondary defense.

“We couldn’t get back in it playing zone,” Boeheim said. “They were attacking the zone well. They’ve got good shooters. They’re probably better against zones than people would give them credit for because those kids can shoot out there on the wing.”

All too often in the first half, Boeheim struck a familiar pose: arms folded across his black suit jacket, staring listlessly in front of him and shaking his head as Kansas attacked the zone and scored on easy transition buckets.

Jayhawk guards Tyshawn Taylor and Sherron Collins combined to shoot 11-for-18 in the first half, scoring 25 of KU’s 41 points.

For the first few minutes of the second half, very little changed. KU guard Tyrel Reed’s three-pointer from the corner with just over 15 minutes left in the second half pushed the KU lead to 51-38, and the Jayhawks appeared primed for a runaway.

That’s when Boeheim changed strategies. And the Orange slowly chipped away at the lead behind an intense, in-your-face straight man defense.

The move worked so well that Syracuse took its first lead since the opening minutes of the contest with 81/2 minutes left. Syracuse guard Andy Rautins buried a three from the corner to push the Orange ahead, 57-56, capping an 18-6 run and briefly quieting the pro-Kansas crowd.

“We work on man-to-man defense every day in practice,” Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf said. “To tell you the truth, we mostly work on the man-to man-defense, so whenever we switch to it in a game, we’re all real comfortable with it.”

Syracuse briefly went back to the zone in a tie game with under a minute remaining in regulation. KU center Cole Aldrich promptly scored a bucket inside the zone to put KU ahead, 71-69.

When Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn nailed a three with six seconds remaining in regulation to tie the score at 72 and send the game into overtime, there was little debate about which defense to apply in the extra session.

Using man defense, the Orange (5-0) took control of overtime, outscoring KU, 17-9.

For the fifth consecutive game, Flynn led the Orange in scoring with 25 points. Devendorf finished with 20, Arinze Onuaku had 19, and Paul Harris added 14. Flynn earned MVP of the tournament.

“Coach made a great call to go to man-to-man because it was all or nothing,” Flynn said. “In that timeout, we said, ‘This is it. We’re either going to lose in the man-to-man or we’re going to win in the man-to-man. And we won the game.”