Syracuse @ Louisville Preview

It’s Gameday! Syracuse @ Louisville
Time- 7:00 PM ET
TV- ESPN
Radio- 99.5 FM, 88.3 FM

Series History: The Orange and the Cardinals have played 23 times, with Syracuse winning 8 and losing 15. Last year, Syracuse played Louisville once. On February 18th, Syracuse won 69-59 with help from a dominant game by Rakeem Christmas, scoring 29 points.

Notes: The Syracuse Orange look to win a sixth straight game on the road against a former Big East foe, the 18th ranked Louisville Cardinals. The 18-8 (8-5) Syracuse played a tired first half on Sunday, but pulled out in the second half, beating Boston College 75-61, behind the (re) emergence of Tyler Lydon, who had 20 points and 6 rebounds. They have won 8 of 9, and are on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and seem to be the rest of the year, so every win counts. ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Syracuse in his “last 4 byes”, so we have to keep our feet on the gas pedal. The 19-6 (8-4) 18th ranked Cardinals look to end a two game losing streak, to Duke and Notre Dame. They have self-banned themselves from the ACC Tournament, NIT, and NCAA Tournament due to an NCAA investigation into allegations that strippers and prostitutes were provided to players and recruits by basketball staff members. Since the self-imposed ban, they have gone 1-2, which is not great. A key player for the Orange is Trevor Cooney. He had a subpar game vs Florida State, scoring 12 points, including 2-5 from behind the arc, but he’s been off lately. Since he dropped 22 vs Notre Dame a few weeks ago, he has only been 11-42 shooting. I think he is relying too much on his jump shot, vs Louisville he should attack the paint more, he is a better slasher than most people give him credit for. For Louisville, Graduate transfer Damion Lee handles much of the scoring duties, averaging 16.5 PPG. But he has somewhat struggles of late, scoring 23 points in his last 2 games.

Leading Scorers:
SYR: M Gbinije 17.4
LOU: D Lee 16.5

Leading Rebounders
SYR: T Roberson 8.8
LOU: C Onuaku 8.4

Leading Assisters
SYR: M Gbinije 4.3
LOU: Q Snider 3.6

Leading Stealers
SYR: M Gbinije 2.3
LOU: D Lee 1.5

Leading Blockers
SYR: T Lydon 1.6
LOU: C Onuaku 2.0

Syracuse defeats Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA

 

Coming into the game winner of seven of their last eight, the Syracuse Orange went on the road for the first time since January 24 and led for most of the afternoon in a 14 point win at Boston College. Freshmen Tyler Lydon led the way with 20 points off the bench in 28 minutes. Michael Gbinije added 17, and Malachi Richardson had 15. The Orange shot 48% from three point range, with Gbinije making 4-6. BC was led by freshmen Matt Milon who put up 25 points despite averaging just 4.5 per game heading in. After Boston College took an early 2nd half lead, the Orange went on a 21-4 run to open the game. Syracuse will head to Louisville on Wednesday night for a prime time game on ESPN.  As always stay tuned to this blog for daily updates on the Cuse.