Syracuse students agree: Happy New Year and DePaul is awful.
Syracuse demolished Seton Hall at home in a revenge game from the year before. While Syracuse has had some sketchy history at DePaul, Syracuse beat DePaul in the Dome 107 to 59 last season. And being the #1 team in the nation doesn't hurt.
Syracuse finished their revenge with a crushing of the Hall in the Carrier Dome. But while it was notable that the scoring was spread around, and Fab Melo set a school record for blocks in a game with ten, it was the defense that reigned supreme. They held a Big East opponent to under 50. In the Big East, that is almost unheard of. Syracuse caused 23 turnovers. The defense for Syracuse is playing out of their mind. DePaul is currently 9-3. Of the nine wins, if any were impressive I'd note them here. They aren't. As a matter of fact, their strength of schedule is ranked 232nd. Only 22 teams in the nation have a worse SoS. Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young are a nice pair of sophomores. Young a nice combo guard averaging 17.4ppg, and Melvin a forward leading the team with 18.5ppg. DePaul is not a good 3 point shooting team though. Shooting 34% as a team, none of their two big stars hit them frequently. So Syracuse will need to guard the inside of the zone. This is the biggest test of the season for DePaul, and they should be shell shocked. Syracuse should roll in another "true road game" but since Illinois is closer to Syracuse than North Carolina, this game is already downgraded to "neutral court". Either way, DePaul's students are still on break, not many people go to DePaul games anyway, and despite being hyped to play #1, DePaul is way overmatched in this game. Syracuse will roll in Chicago, beating DePaul by 28.
This game will be shown on ESPN 3, but also TWCS and SNY at 5:00pm EST. If you can stand the bloodbath while you're hungover on New Years Day. Always a fun day, like SU killing Notre Dame last season.
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