Syracuse students agree: Winning 4/5 is better than 1/5.
Syracuse beat Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago in the Carrier Dome. Now Syracuse heads to the Pete, a building they opened up with the first win by a road team way back when, to take on a reeling Pittsburgh team. Despite getting some incredible performances from freshman guard Xavier Johnson, Pittsburgh has lost their last 4 games, including that game on January 19th against SU. He is the main weapon Pitt has on offense, which isn't a very powerful scoring team. However, they are at home, and have played far better at home than they have on the road. That being said, Pittsburgh only shot 33.8% from the floor against Syracuse in the last game, so if Syracuse plays solid defense, and dominates the offensive glass like they previously did, Syracuse should have the edge in this game, that I think will end up close. Syracuse will likely get production from ever reliable Tyus Battle, and Brissett (despite some bad plays at BC), has been looking better as of late. Additionally, Battle running the point at BC should light a bit of a fire under Frank Howard and should have him playing his best at both ends of the floor. Obviously Boeheim has really come alive in conference play as well. Everything is trending up for Syracuse. They should be relatively successful on the offensive end in beating the Pitt defense. Again, the key is getting stops for Syracuse, finding Johnson for Pittsburgh, and controlling the offensive glass. If Chukwu and Dolezaj are rebounding, Syracuse will win. I'm taking the Orange, in a close one, by six. This game is available on ESPN 2 / WatchESPN at 6:00pm. Both John and I will be in the home office watching. Hopefully Syracuse will get the season sweep. GO ORANGE!
Labels: ACC, Basketball, Pittsburgh, Preview
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