Who’s seat will be hotter after this one?
The Syracuse Orange (11-14, 5-9) welcome the North Carolina Tar Heels (14-11. 7-6) to the Dome tomorrow night. It’s turned into a game that Syracuse might need to avoid missing the ACC Tournament. The game will tip off at 6:00 on ESPN and here are our predictions:
Kevin: North Carolina 88, Syracuse 80
Last year the Orange played an incredible offensive game to outlast a top 10 UNC squad. While I think they can repeat that again tomorrow night, I don’t feel confident about the ability to defend the UNC perimeter players, a group that prefers to drive and score. Can Syracuse do a better job of getting the ball inside to Eddie Lampkin and Jyare Davis? Will they remain patient and stop falling into the trap of taking contested jumpers? It’s going to take another efficient offensive effort to win this one.
Dom: North Carolina 78, Syracuse 64
Syracuse has had plenty of struggles against the upper-tier P4 opponents and I think that result likely manifests once again against UNC. This isn’t the same dominant Tar Heels program as say last year and the team this year is 3-6 on the road and are 2-4 in their last six, but for a bubble team like UNC, they’re going to enter with a “we HAVE to win this to keep our tournament hopes alive” mentality. Syracuse’s defense has a bounce back performance, but the offense I predict will play cold.
Szuba: North Carolina 82, Syracuse 72
There was a lot of quit in Syracuse on Tuesday night as turnstile defense allowed Miami to drop 91 on a listless Orange squad. I wonder if this team will compete hard or if the mental fortitude to keep fighting will elude them the rest of the way and surrender to a lost season. North Carolina is limited in the front-court, but it’s hard to think the guard troika of RJ Davis, Elliot Cadeau and Captain Jack doesn’t score the ball on this defense. Lampkin could be in for a big scoring night along with Starling, who torched Davis last season in the Dome, but give me Carolina by double-digits.
Sam: North Carolina 79, Syracuse 71
North Carolina has had a disaster of a season. However, the Tar Heels still have the talent to go out on the road and take a game from a lesser team. Despite ranking 14th in the ACC in offense, North Carolina has a group of guards that will be hard for Syracuse to guard, and in a fast-paced game, I’ll give them the edge.
Mike: North Carolina 84, Syracuse 69
I got nothing after Miami.
Max: North Carolina 83, Syracuse 73
I’m not sure how much fight Syracuse has left, but the reality is there’s still almost a month of the season to go and an ACC Tournament bid at stake. UNC is not as strong as in recent years but still is above .500 in conference play and defends at a much higher level than SU. It’ll be close at halftime, but the Heels will pull away in the second half and leave the Dome with a double-digit win.
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Now it’s your turn