The Syracuse University men’s basketball team brings its regular season to a close when Coach Jim Boeheim’s boys tip off against the University of Louisville Cardinals at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 3, at SU’s Carrier Dome. The game will be telecast by CBS.

For most of the remarkable season, the SU dribblers have been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation, and they figure to be a major factor in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Ticket prices range from $76.45 to $123.35; 1-888-DOMETIX; suathletics.syr.edu.

WAER-FM 88.3 broadcasts all of SU’s basketball games. The pre-game show is “Countdown to Tip-off” and the wrap-up show is called “Double Overtime.”

Ice Hockey: Crunch time!

The Syracuse Crunch continues its long-shot playoff bid in the 2011-12 American Hockey League with two home games this weekend at downtown’s Onondaga County War Memorial, State and Harrison streets.

After facing off against the Binghamton Senators here at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 2, the Crunch host the St. John’s IceCaps at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 3.

The Syracuse skaters are presently in fourth place in the AHL’s East Division, with a record of 21 wins, 24 losses, 4 overtime losses and 4 shootout losses.

The Crunch is affiliated with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, while Binghamton is the top farm club of the Ottawa Senators, and the St. John’s squad is the AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets. Ticket prices for home games range from $14 to $21; 473-4444.

Music: Zydeco at Palace Theatre

Accordionist Buckwheat Zydeco will pump out an exciting set of Louisiana rhythm and blues at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, at the Palace Theater, 2384 James St., in Eastwood. Powerhouse Americana roots band Professor Louie and the Crowmatix will open.

Buckwheat is the stage name of 64-year-old Stanley Dural Jr. His latest disc is “Lay Your Burden Down.” Friday’s concert will benefit the West and South Side P.E.A.C.E., Inc.

Presented by Live Space Entertainment, Friday’s double bill costs $25; (800) 838-3006.

Brecker sextet at OCC

Multiple Grammy-winner Randy Brecker brings his sextet to Onondaga Community College’s Storer Auditorium at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, as part of the Arts Across Campus Legends of Jazz Series.

The 66-year-old Pennsylvania-born trumpeter has worked with most of the biggest names in jazz and pop music from Blood, Sweat & Tears to Bruce Springsteen. For many years Brecker and his brother, saxophonist Michael Brecker, performed and recorded as The Brecker Brothers. Michael died in 2007.

Accompanying Brecker here will be drummer Rodney Holmes, bassist Dean Johnson, saxophonist Ada Rovatti, keyboardist Oli Rockberger and guitarist Mitch “Moose” Stein; 498-2787.

Swing and stomps

Dick Ames and his Bear Cat Jass Band celebrate their 55th anniversary from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday, March 4, at Pensabene’s Casa Grande, 135 State Fair Boulevard, on Syracuse’s West End. Admission costs $10 for JASS members, $12 for others; 652-0547.

Led by 92-year-old cornetist Dick Ames, the octet features awarding-winning brassman Jeff Stockham, trombonist/vocalist Bill Palange, versatile reedmen Carl Borek and Tom McKay, pianist/tuba player Jerry Exline, banjo player Drew Frech and a drummer to be announced substituting for the vacationing Joe Smithling.

Initially called the Lion Cubs Dixieland Band, the group debuted in Fayetteville on March 1 and March 2, 1957. Ames later changed the name to the Dixie Dandies before settling on the Bear Cat Jass Band. The band’s repertoire runs from King Oliver to Jelly Roll Morton to Duke Ellington. Tunes include “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” “Weary Blues,” “Big Bear Stomp” and “The Mooch.”

Stage: Poor Baby Bree

Bree Benton’s not your usual aspiring New York City actress. The daughter of actress Halee McBride, Benton eased into the family profession after years of collecting antique sheet music and studying vaudeville.

She’ll make her Syracuse debut as Poor Baby Bree starring in “I Am Going to Run Away” at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 1, at the Redhouse, 201 S. West St., at the corner of West Fayette, on the outskirts of Armory Square. The original one-woman show, with music by Frank Bruno, will also be performed here at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3. Admission costs $20, and $15 for Redhouse members.

The story focuses on Poor Baby Bree, an archetypal waif, who weaves a tragicomic narrative of innocence and loss around 17 obscure vaudeville and parlor songs dating from the 1890s through the 1930s.

“I Am Going to Run Away” was presented in Manhattan at The Club at La MaMa E.T.C. in 2010, and will return this spring as part of La MaMa’s 50th anniversary season. Critic and playwright Charles Busch praised Poor Baby Bree’s performance as “a haunting, deeply touching, spot-on evocation of a moment in the distant theatrical past, yet with a very cool and effortless post-modernist twist. It is also profoundly funny.”

‘The Lower Depths’

A masterpiece of Russian realism, “The Lower Depths” was Maxim Gorky’s first great play, and its premiere production in 1902 helped establish the Moscow Art Theatre and its influential director Constantine Stanislavsky.

In the cave-like basement of a run-down boarding house, a disparate group of bosyák (literally, the barefoot) — outcasts, petty criminals and day laborers — negotiate days lived between harsh truth and consoling lies. With little hope or light in their lives, Gorky’s finely detailed and psychologically rich characters manage to celebrate what Stanislavsky called the play’s spiritual essence: “freedom, whatever happens!”

Presented by Syracuse University’s Department of Drama and directed by Gerardine Clark, “The Lower Depths” concludes its run this weekend with shows at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday March 1 and 2, at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 4, in the Storch Theatre at 820 E. Genesee St. Tickets cost $16 to $18; 443-3275; vpa.syr.edu/drama.

‘Marsby’ opens Friday

Jeff Kramer’s new full-length comedy “Reaching for Marsby” opens at 8 p.m. Friday, March 2, at the BeVard Studio at the Mulroy Civic Center, 411 Montgomery St., downtown. Shows are also scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3, 4 p.m. Sunday, March 4, and March 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 and 18. Tickets cost $22; 435-2121.

Kramer’s first play, “Lowdown Lies,’ a humorous view of modern marriage, played here to sold-out audiences in 2007.