The Syracuse Orange (15-11, 6-7) head back to North Carolina tonight to face the #4 Duke Blue Devils (23-2, 12-1). Syracuse is 0-2 in the state this season and will be looking for a win that could get them back into the bubble discussion. Tip-off is 7:00 on ESPN and here\u2019s what we\u2019re predicting:<\/p>\n
Kevin: Duke 79, Syracuse 66<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to take a full 40 minutes from the Orange, but I think they\u2019ll be unable to shake Duke\u2019s defense and turnovers will be the difference. Will the Orange go zone and hope to take away Cameron Boozer\u2019s impact inside? After a strong week, I think Syracuse is going to spend another Monday night overmatched on Tobacco Road.<\/p>\n
Dom: Duke 83, Syracuse 65<\/p>\n
Props to the Orange for rallying as of late, but Duke is just in a different tier compared to California and SMU. Duke\u2019s lone conference loss came against UNC at the buzzer and on the road. Boozer is going to put pressure at the rim all game. Duke doesn\u2019t allow easy looks from the perimeter, controls the glass and its own turnovers. If the guard trio for Syracuse can all click, this will be a lot closer of a game, but the Blue Devils are rightfully a heavy favorite.<\/p>\n
Szuba: Duke 91, Syracuse 70<\/p>\n
Some say basketball is an art, but Duke has it down to a science. The Blue Devils are one Christian Anderson heater and one strong stretch of play from Derek Dixon away from being undefeated. I don\u2019t think Syracuse will be the first team to hand Duke a home loss this season, or Jon Scheyer\u2019s fourth career loss in Cameron. The Duke offense is surgical, and Duke\u2019s defensive pressure is unrelenting. Cam Boozer is too big of a matchup problem for Syracuse in man-to-man and the Orange 2-3 zone is too porous against an Isaiah Evans perimeter. That\u2019s not to mention how good of an offensive rebounding team Duke is. There\u2019s just too many exploitable holes on the Syracuse side against a stout defensive team with no major weakness.<\/p>\n
Max: Duke 82, Syracuse 63<\/p>\n
I do believe the Orange can hang around for a bit, but there\u2019s no way they can play a complete game against an opponent that has the advantage in nearly every statistical category. While the primary goal will be to stop Boozer, he can also hurt you with his passing, as he leads the Blue Devils with four assists per game. Even if Syracuse turns in its best all-around performance of the season, Duke will capitalize on any mistake and use a few big runs to blow this one open.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s your prediction for tonight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Syracuse Orange (15-11, 6-7) head back to North Carolina tonight to face the #4 Duke Blue Devils…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544,41947,80824],"class_list":{"0":"post-607131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab","13":"tag-syracuse-mens-basketball","14":"tag-syracuse-vs-duke"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116082959202955573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}