Syracuse basketball fans have a love-hate relationship with ESPN’s resident bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, and I credit him for having fun with this.
In recent years, if memory serves correct, there have been occasions where Lunardi has projected the Orange to make the Big Dance, and the ‘Cuse didn’t, as well as instances where he forecasted the Orange to be on the wrong side of the bubble, and Syracuse basketball earned an at-large berth to March Madness.
So with that as a backdrop, Lunardi and some of his ESPN colleagues have made their predictions on the ‘Cuse hosting No. 7 Duke this Saturday night in the farewell trip for Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski to the Carrier Dome.
Lunardi, who I personally really, really like, is picking Syracuse basketball to spring an upset of Duke, while ESPN’s Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello and John Gasaway are understandably going with the Blue Devils to prevail versus the Orange.
Joey Brackets foresees Syracuse basketball conquering Duke.
Now, I say this only partly kidding, but do all of us Orange fans out there really want Joe Lunardi projecting the ‘Cuse to triumph over the Blue Devils? Given past history, probably not!
"Regardless, in the ESPN roundtable on this Atlantic Coast Conference clash, Lunardi wrote in part, “This is exactly the kind of game Jim Boeheim has won time and time again to put the Orange in an NCAA bubble conversation, and I fully expect it to happen again.”"
Lunardi has our beloved boys in Orange (15-13, 9-8) coming out on top, 75-70, versus Duke (24-4, 14-3). The other three ESPN panelists have the Blue Devils winning by 15 points, 11 points and six points.
The ESPN writers seem to agree that the ‘Cuse will need to make a lot of 3-pointers, but in an efficient way, rather than hoisting up a high volume of attempts from deep and making a low percentage of them.
Last month, when Syracuse basketball fell by 20 points at Duke, the Orange really struggled from the perimeter. For the ‘Cuse to have a realistic shot at picking off the Blue Devils, I imagine that Syracuse basketball players will have to hit on at least 45 percent to 50 percent from 3-point land.
I’m hopeful that with a huge home crowd pumping up the Orange, head coach Jim Boeheim’s group can keep things close against Duke. Naturally, if the ‘Cuse does suffer a setback, I’m blaming it entirely on Joe Lunardi.