Syracuse basketball, in Hawaii, will face a second highly rated foe in as many days, when the Orange goes toe to toe with No. 11 Gonzaga on Tuesday afternoon at the 2023 Allstate Maui Invitational from the University of Hawaii’s SimpliFi Arena in Honolulu.
On Monday in the opening games of this season’s loaded Maui Invitational, the ‘Cuse and the Bulldogs both lost to top-10 teams. Syracuse basketball fell to No. 7 Tennessee, 73-56. Gonzaga, meanwhile, lost to No. 2 Purdue, 73-63.
The Orange (3-1) and the Bulldogs (2-1) out of the West Coast Conference will do battle beginning at 2:30 pm EST on Tuesday, Nov. 21, with television coverage on ESPN2. Coverage will also be available from fuboTV.
Orange vs. Zags on Tuesday at 2:30 ET on ESPN2@MauiInv 🍊🌺 pic.twitter.com/rAMPE7ZI9H
— Syracuse Men’s Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) November 21, 2023
In the final game for the ‘Cuse in Hawaii, the Orange’s opponent on Wednesday is yet to be determined. The other side of the bracket at this year’s Maui Invitational includes No. 1 Kansas, host school Chaminade, No. 4 Marquette and UCLA.
Syracuse basketball has played Gonzaga twice in the past, and they’ll go at it again on Tuesday in Honolulu.
On Monday, the Orange hung around for much of its game versus the Volunteers, despite the ‘Cuse shooting awful from the field, the free-throw line and 3-point land. Tennessee only led by five points with just over three minutes remaining, but a 12-0 run from there sealed a 17-point victory for the Vols.
Gonzaga took a 35-30 advantage over the Boilermakers into the locker room at halftime. However, Purdue outscored the Bulldogs, 43-28, in the second half to come away with a 10-point triumph.
Much like Syracuse basketball, Gonzaga did not shoot well against the Boilermakers. The Bulldogs only connected on 37.7 percent from the field, a paltry 18.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 62.5 percent from the charity stripe.
So far in the young 2023-24 campaign, Gonzaga has lost to Purdue, and the Bulldogs have beaten Yale and Eastern Oregon, with both of those non-conference affairs coming at home.
In recent years, led by fantastic head coach Mark Few, Gonzaga has proven one of the top programs in the sport of college basketball. A season ago, in 2022-23, Gonzaga went 31–6 overall, losing in the Elite Eight to eventual national champion UConn.
Not counting the 2020 NCAA Tournament, which was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Few has guided the Bulldogs to eight straight Big Dances where Gonzaga has advanced to the Sweet 16 or further. That includes the Bulldogs making the national championship game in 2017 and 2021, when Gonzaga fell to North Carolina and Baylor, respectively.
In their short all-time series together, Syracuse basketball is 2-0 versus the Bulldogs, with both of those encounters coming in the NCAA Tournament.
Most recently, in the Sweet 16 of the 2016 Big Dance, No. 10 seed Syracuse squeaked by No. 11 seed Gonzaga, 63-60, to get to the Elite Eight. The Orange would then shock No. 1 seed Virginia to journey to the Final Four, before the ‘Cuse lost to another No. 1 seed, North Carolina.