It's tough to say that a team facing the Syracuse Orange is in the midst of a sandwich, but considering the fact that the North Carolina Tar Heels have road games with Virginia and Duke on either side of their final home game of the season, there's a legit claim to concern for fans of the Carolina Blue.
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HOW THE SYRACUSE ORANGE CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Orange have to figure out how to get out of their own way late in the first half. In each of their last four games, they've taken leads of at least nine points in the first 10 minutes, but in each case, those leads were essentially entirely coughed up before the intermission.
Part of the problem the 'Cuse have is that they just aren't all that deep. Jim Boeheim rarely substitutes, and though they've got the clutch shooters to win games late on, deep in the first half has tended to be a problem.
Against a team like North Carolina, you just can't have that swoon. The Tar Heels went on a 16-4 run in the middle stages of the first half and then a 7-0 run late in the game when these two met at the Carrier Dome in January, and that's why they were able to beat the spread that day.
HOW THE NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS CAN COVER THE SPREAD
The Orange are just so small, it isn't even funny. There isn't a man on the court who goes bigger than 6-foot-9. UNC has five different men of that size or bigger who it will rotate in and out over the course of the game.
The Tar Heels actually lost the rebounding battle in the first game of the year between these two, but they really dominated in the paint offensively, led by Isaiah Hicks and his 21 points. Syracuse also attempted a whopping 31 threes in that game, accounting for just under half of its total shots.
If the Heels are able to take away Syracuse's ability to work on the inside on either end of the court, they're going to end up covering this game as well, as they'll ultimately just wear down the Orange.
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
Let's remember a couple things from that first game of the year. Trevor Cooney scored 27 points. Marcus Paige scored just three and shot 1-of-8 from the field. Kennedy Meeks hardly played in the game, as he was just coming off of his injury. On top of that, the NCAAB game was played at the Carrier Dome.
Senior Day in Chapel Hill is a big deal, and we can't imagine that Roy Williams' team is going to take this one lightly even though that last annual showdown with Duke is on tap.
We expect to see the likes of Joel Berry II, Brice Johnson and Hicks have big games once again in this one, and when that turns out to be the case, the only way the 'Cuse can stick around is by knocking down a ton of threes. They didn't do that at home, and they sure as heck aren't going to do it at the Dean Dome on Senior Day either.
North Carolina 88, Syracuse 74
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