Syracuse students agree: It's always satisfying to beat Notre Dame.
I'm back. After a short vacation out of state I gave the keys to the blog to John, who drove it admirably. It helps that he got to write about Syracuse beating Duke at Duke. But since the kids lost down at Virginia in a whole heap of snow, I'm back previewing Syracuse's return to the Carrier Dome to take on Notre Dame. Let's get to it. Notre Dame is the 2nd best 3 point shooting team, only behind Virginia. However, despite making a good chunk of the 3s they do shoot, Notre Dame doesn't shoot that much. They would rather go inside. And I'm sure they're licking their chops against a team like Syracuse, who's only major inside threat would probably be Roberson (although Coleman seemed to have a pretty good game against Virginia overall). Therefore, Syracuse has to really commit to defense inside and in stopping Zach Auguste. If Syracuse can limit his touches inside, or force him to take shots he's not used to, away from the basket, Syracuse has a good chance of earning more rebounds and putting them in a better position to win. Additionally, SU needs to force Notre Dame, a team that rarely turns the ball over, into making bad passes so SU can earn some runouts. What can help is that Notre Dame is missing their starting point guard, who was injured in their last game. Which means someone that doesn't primarily handle the ball will be doing so. That could allow for some pressure situations and force bad passes so SU can pick them off. Of course, none of this matters if Notre Dame gets hot and everyone starts taking and making 3s. But pending that, I like Syracuse at home. I'm picking the Orange in a really close game by 3. This game is available nationally on ESPN 2 / WatchESPN at 7:00pm. John is in the building. I'm at the home office. Let's go Orange!
Labels: ACC, Basketball, Preview
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