College Basketball Odds - Syracuse at Louisville Game Preview

The Syracuse Orange were written off too soon. Syracuse has made a habit of struggling in the middle of the season before turning it on late in the last few years, and is looking to make this year no exception. After losing three in a row against Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Georgia Tech, the Orange got a huge season-saving win against No. 10 Duke on Wednesday night and are squarely on the bubble. A win against the Louisville Cardinals on Sunday would likely erase any doubt about whether or not they will go dancing.

This war on the floor will go down Sunday, February 26, 2017, at 2 p.m. ET at the KFC Yum! Center. This game will be televised live on CBS. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Sunday schedule.

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Syracuse is a completely different team on the road compared to what it is at home. The Orange are just 2-7 ATS away from their home arena this season, with the wins being squeakers over North Carolina State and Clemson. Over has been a fantastic bet in these games, with an 8-0-1 mark.

Louisville has played a spate of over games in recent weeks. The Cardinals have seen five of their last six games end up going over the total, but have had trouble covering spreads in that timeframe. This team is just 1-4 ATS over its past five games, with the one win being an overtime cover against these Orange.

Last Meeting

These teams met on Valentine’s Day with Louisville pulling out an overtime victory in the Carrier Dome. It wasn’t a surprise that the Cardinals won the battle on the glass, outrebounding the smaller Orange by 8 on the night, but the Orange couldn’t prevail largely because they couldn’t hit threes.

Syracuse has lived and died by the three this season with a relatively small line-up and managed to sink just 8 of 34 in this one. In particular, Andrew White III struggled, hitting just 2 of his 14 opportunities.

A lot of the problems for the Orange stem from their short bench and tired legs for the shooters. Only 7 Syracuse players saw the floor against Louisville, and three players were out there the entire 45 minutes. This has been a constant problem for Syracuse the last few years, and something they will have to overcome to get past Louisville.

Matchup to Watch

Louisville is going to have the advantage in the paint and Syracuse will have to do its best to mitigate that. White did his part as a guard, with 8 rebounds on the night, but the onus will be on Tyler Lydon and Tyler Roberson.

Lydon and Roberson combined to grab 17 rebounds on the evening against Louisville and stayed out of foul trouble to boot. That has been a particular problem for Roberson over his career in upstate New York and avoiding early whistles was big.

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Digging into the box score from the last meeting, Louisville had a terrible night at the line and that kept Syracuse in the game. The Cardinals only managed to hit 16 of 30 of their attempts from the charity stripe, despite hitting 68.4 percent from the line over the course of the season. Some of that can be a factor of playing on the road, but the Carrier Dome is also notoriously difficult to shoot in with how spacious it is.

Although Syracuse needs the victory more, Louisville is going to get the job done at home. The Cardinals can beat the Orange up on the boards and will also be the beneficiary of some hometown calls. Syracuse’s shallow bench has hurt it time and time again on the road this season and can’t survive any player getting in foul trouble early.

College Basketball Odds: Louisville 82, Syracuse 73

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