Game time was moved to a 6pm start, televised on ACC Network.
Syracuse comes in at 7-5 overall, 1-0 in league play with a nice road win over Florida State. After a covid pause, this will be their 3rd game of the week. They’ve looked good since the return, easily handling a pair of Ivy League opponents while shooting better than 55% in both games.
They’re led by the Boeheim brothers. We’re familiar with Buddy (18.8 ppg). Older brother Jimmy (14.4 ppg), transferred in from Cornell. Junior guard Joe Girard (13.9 ppg) has become a much more efficient scorer this season, hitting 48% from behind the arc. Stretch four Cole Swider (13.0 ppg) transferred in from Villanova. And big man Jesse Edwards (11.7 ppg) is one of the ACC’s best rim protectors.
It’s a very good offensive team, all the guards are high level shot makers. With the exception of Edwards, it’s not the kind of long athletic group in the zone they’ve had in the past. But they’re still disruptive, gathering over 8 steals per game. As usual, they ride their starters as much as possible. No one off the bench has been much of a factor.
The embarrassing loss against Clemson should dictate a change, but knowing CTB it’ll be the same starting 5. Without acknowledging it, he’d rather lose 59-55 than 85-72.
If we keep the same starting 5 this one could get ugly. Syracuse is really good at deterring shots inside with Edwards anchoring the D, but they’re pretty slow to close out on the perimeter — 52.4% of shots against Syracuse this year have been 3s, which is the highest mark in the NCAA.
Virginia is shooting just 31.7% from three, which ranks 240th in the country. With the starting 5 of Kihei-Reece-Armaan-Jayden-Kadin on the floor, UVA is shooting just 25% from three, which would be 351st out of 358 teams.
Yup I’m prepared to be very frustrating watching tonight. Such a good matchup for Igor so hopefully he gets a lot of run but am expecting way less of Taine and Carson at the expense of Malachi and Kody which will inevitably send me here to bitch and moan with you guys lol
A lineup change might make us a little more fun to watch but we’re still gonna stink. At some point I just want the young guys to get a bunch of run when there is nothing left to play for.
