NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : SOUTHEAST REGIONALS : Superdome Still Haunts Syracuse : Orangemen: The specter of Keith Smart’s shot beating them in 1987 NCAA final looms large.

Superdome, right?

Terrordome has been Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim’s word for it since Indiana got Smart at his expense in the 1987 NCAA final. Along with 64,959 others under the Superdome roof, Boeheim watched Keith Smart sink the baseline jump shot that sank Syracuse, 74-73, only eight seconds shy of deliverance.

“I might get over that some day,” Boeheim said Thursday.

In the meantime, he gets to return to the scene in an attempt to get the Orangemen (26-6) back to the final. Tonight, the assignment is a Southeast Regional semifinal game against Minnesota (22-8), the fourth-place finisher in the Big Ten. The winner will play either Michigan State or Georgia Tech for a berth in the Final Four.

Eight seconds. One jump shot.

It’s made the Orangemen think, anyway. For three years, that defeat has been on their minds.

With All-American forward Derrick Coleman in his final season, the Orangemen have trounced Coppin State, 70-48, in the first round and staved off Virginia, 63-61, to keep hope alive. Second-seeded in the Southeast Region, Syracuse is favored over sixth-seeded Minnesota, but as long as the Golden Gophers have Willie Burton, nothing is certain.

Burton, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, is third on Minnesota’s all-time scoring list behind Mychal Thompson and Randy Breuer. Minnesota’s chances, according to Coach Clem Haskins, will rest on tempo and rebounding, and as he reminded the media Thursday, “We’re the No. 4 rebounding team in the country, in case a lot of you guys don’t know.”

Impressive?

Only until one considers that Syracuse’s Coleman is the No. 1 rebounder in NCAA history . In four years, Coleman has collected 1,526 rebounds, eclipsing Ralph Sampson’s “modern-era” mark of 1,511, set with Virginia in 1979-83.

Coleman also is averaging 18 points, placing him second on the team behind forward Billy Owens (18.3) and ahead of guard Stephen Thompson (17.9).