The Syracuse Orange picked up their first ACC win of the season on Wednesday night when they beat Boston College, but if their history against top flight teams in the ACC is any indication, they could be in for a long night on Monday against the Duke Blue Devils in front of the Cameron Crazies.
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SCHEDULING
We're going to talk about just how thin Syracuse is in a moment, but playing consecutive road games in a span of 72 hours is really tough for any team in the nation. The Orange are just spending the whole weekend on Tobacco Road, first taking on Wake Forest on Saturday before dealing with the Dookies on Monday. Live bettors can't like that scenario, though at least the Blue Devils have to play on Saturday as well, albeit at home against Notre Dame.
KEY MATCHUP
Michael Gbinjie is full of talent, and you know as a fifth-year senior and a transfer from Duke, he really would love to stick it to the team in which he started his collegiate career.
However, we have a real issue with Gbinjie in that he takes far too many threes and doesn't convert in big spots often enough. The Orange started off at 0-4 in the ACC, and in those four losses, he shot 5-for-30 from downtown. First off, no man should be taking 30 three pointers in just four games against top flight competition with the limited number of possessions which Syracuse tends to have, but secondly, you just have to make more shots than that.
Gbinjie has had a history of playing some iffy ball on the road in his career, and he's known to look like a frustrated shooter on the court. The Blue Devils have the answer for him defensively in Grayson Allen, a man who is thought of as just a shooter but truthfully is a far better defensive player than he's given credit for.
If this is a battle being won by the Blue Devils, you can expect things to only get worse for Gbinjie and the Orange in live betting.
KEY STATS & TRENDS
The other major trend which Syracuse is facing in these games which it is losing is that it's failing to cover in the dying moments. The Orange were ahead of the spread against Pittsburgh with 0:44 to play and failed by 3.5, but that's only the beginning of the story. They were also tied with Miami with five minutes to play as 11-point dogs and didn't cover, were up four on Clemson with a minute to play and didn't win the game as 4.5-point favorites and were in front of the number for all but the last 45 seconds against North Carolina.
The real problem we see here is a lack of depth. The Orange only use seven players in their rotation, and it's rare to see Gbinjie, Trevor Cooney or Malachi Richardson ever leave the court.
Of course, live bettors should also note that the Dookies aren't exactly rich with depth either. Duke only has eight men in its rotation when it is healthy, and with Amile Jefferson still out with a foot injury, Coach K's rotation has been cut to seven. However, players are shuttling in and out all the time, and it's rare to see any player on the court for more than 10 minutes at a time without at least a little bit of a breather. That might ultimately make all the difference in the world for live bettors in this crucial ACC tilt.
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