Stats were gathered using teamrankings.com, foxsports.com, evanmiya.com. Stats with parenthesis are the team’s national rank in this statistic. Evan Miya OBPR is a offensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya DBPR is a defensive efficiency statistic that predicts future outcomes. Evan Miya BPR combines OBPR and DBPR together.

Stat	UL	Syracuse
2pt%	49% (201)	51.2% (119)
3pt%	32.9% (208)	37% (31)
Pts/poss	1.01	1.12
Pace	67.8	68.3
Ass/to	1.011 (150)	1.325 (32)
FT%	68.5% (260)	71.8% (159)
Evan Mya O	5.6	17.8
Rebound diff	1.5	0.1
Opp 2%	46.8% (66)	51.9% (273)
Opp 3%	33.3% (167)	34.8% (235)
Evan mya D	11.8	8.6
BPR	17.4	26.5

What an awful way to lose Tuesday night. That was the worst officiated game I have ever seen and the crowd let them know. The officer who stood next to the crowd of students who threw drinks on the floor didn’t even seem to care with how bad it was by staring at his phone the whole time down there. This outrage along with the response from the players to Pegues seemed to rejuvenate the fan base after a horrendous basketball season. This team seems to respond differently and has brought life to the little hope fans have held before Mack left. It leaves me clueless on how to predict the rest of the season due to talent being shown on the roster. I’ll give you my preview of the Syracuse game and give my thoughts on what Louisville needs to do to win.

                Syracuse has one of the most efficient teams in college basketball right now with 1.12 points per possession metric currently. They are outside the top 25 by just a couple hundredths in this metric.  A lot of this is due to the Boeheim brothers averaging 32 points a game together, cute am I right? Regardless, Syracuse looks to run a faster pace and likes to score off of isolation and transition according to Synergy Sports. I expect Syracuse to find ways to get open shoots due to them being able to spread the floor. Louisville will need to emphasize closing out on shooters today.

                Syracuse runs the 2-3 zone as everyone knows, but not well. Syracuse has the second worst defensive rating in the ACC behind North Carolina State. Syracuse does well in areas defensively, but does not do well in spot up possessions. Spot up possessions are one of the more used styles due to it being a large category. Spot up is defined as catch and shoot but also dribble drives, floaters, and other jump shots. Basically from what I understand, anything that’s not drawn up and isn’t isolation. Most of these kind of possessions would be ball movement to breakdown a 2-3 zone by passing it towards the free throw line or getting behind the zone. Syracuse will defend most other offensive sets well such as cuts to the basket, post up, or isolation. Syracuse does give up second chance points through offensive rebounds, so this could be an area where Sydney Curry could excel at.

                Buddy Boeheim is the big piece of the offense who will take the majority of the shots. Buddy averages 19 points a game, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. There is something about Buddy that I absolutely despise. Maybe its how soft he plays or maybe its just his face. I wont be able to handle a big game from Buddy and he looks to shoot a lot of 3’s most games, which scares me. Buddy shoots almost 8 three pointers a game, which is a lot even for Louisville’ standard this year. My other person to look out for is Joseph Girardi who averages 13 points a game and 4 assists a game. Girardi is someone who takes another high percentage of three point shots, but shoots over 40% from three. Syracuse is a team that can get hot from three and that is my main concern. Syracuse likes to run in transition, but as long as Louisville hustles then I’m not worried about them getting outmatched in that capacity.

                My big concern on Louisville’s side of the ball is that they need to flash towards the three point line and breakdown the zone that way. Louisville ran a lot of pick and pops and isolation sets against North Carolina which I don’t know if they will be able to do today. Part of the isolation game plan was riding El’s hot hand, but I could see the coaches wanting to create for Locke and Cross. I don’t want any part of this and think this is how Louisville will lose today. Louisville being able to create from inside is how to beat Syracuse today. Having Sydney flash at the free throw line is a dream of mine, but he will need to stay out of foul trouble. Sydney could bully Syracuse’s players, so I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets bad calls yet again.

                Overall, I think that Louisville could play very well against Syracuse if they don’t setup for shots away from the rim. Eric Crawford reported that Louisville ranks 327 out of 358 division one teams with points per possession against zone defense with an alarming .768 points per possession. I’m not confident with Louisville getting away from setting up shots away from the basket and will predict us losing 79- 73. I’ll be getting drunk regardless and hopefully watching us create inside.

-degenerateCARD

Stats via kenpom.com, teamrankings.com, foxsports.com, evanmiya.com, and synergysports.com