Syracuse Basketball: Oklahoma State crystal ball predictions

Neil Adler, contributor (5-0)

The Syracuse basketball squad puts its four-game victory streak on the line when it encounters Oklahoma State on Wednesday night in the 2019 NIT Season Tip-Off at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Orange (4-1) is coming off a wildly impressive domination of Bucknell this past Saturday, in a contest where the ‘Cuse shot extremely well from the field, and especially from beyond the arc. Syracuse also locked down in an excellent manner on defense in its vaunted 2-3 zone.

Now the Orange will seek to repeat that performance as the ‘Cuse battles the Cowboys (5-0), a Big 12 Conference unit that is perfect so far in the young 2019-20 campaign. The winner of this affair, which is slated to commence at 7:00 p.m. and will air on ESPN2, then has a tilt against the successful group of a match-up between Ole Miss out of the Southeastern Conference and Penn State from the Big Ten Conference.

Oklahoma State, at this juncture, has conquered Charleston, Oral Roberts, UMKC, Western Michigan and Yale. Not exactly an ultra-tough non-conference schedule to date, but then again, it’s not like Syracuse has triumphed versus an abundance of really, really high-level outfits.

ESPN’s Basketball Power Index is saying that the Orange possesses a 53.3 percent chance to prevail, and I’m anticipating a meeting that will prove close throughout. A lot of statistical categories are fairly even, and both teams have solid defenses.

Shooting from long range and the charity stripe are huge factors, as are the rebounding and turnover departments. I keep going back and forth on which squad to project as the eventual champion.

The Cowboys are a stern test for the ‘Cuse, but I believe that Syracuse is competing at a stellar octane and has a bunch of confidence heading to the Big Apple. The Orange gets the job done, 58-54, in a defensive slug-fest.