The No.10 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies will try to get back into the win column on Saturday night as they return home to host the Syracuse Orange.
The Orange are not a team anyone wants to play right now. The team showed its worth with a massive upset win against Duke at the Cameron Indoor Stadium and has followed that up with a victory at home over Pittsburgh. They hit the road again on Saturday. Could they have another top-10 upset on them for Saturday’s game?
The Hokies will be ready for the Orange. Virginia Tech has lost two of its last three games, falling to UNC and Virginia, but both those losses came on the road. The Hokies will defend their home floor in this one.
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Syracuse Orange vs. Virginia Tech Hokies
Date and Time: Saturday, January 26, 2019, 8 p.m. ET
Location: Cassell Coliseum, Blacksburg, Virginia
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Orange vs. Hokies TV Coverage: ESPN
The Orange are on a bit of a roll right now after wins over Duke and Pittsburgh. The win over the Blue Devils in Durham obviously sticks out as Syracuse got the major upset while scoring 95-poitns in what turned into an overtime shootout.
The win over the Panthers, however, shouldn’t be ignored. The team will take on Miami on Thursday, but Saturday’s game represents a huge matchup against another top-ranked team.
Of course, the Orange have already proven they can win in a tough environment against an even tougher team, but can they do that more than once or was it a fluke?
In the game against Duke, Syracuse shot 44-percent outside and held the Blue Devils to less than 39-percent shooting from the floor to keep pace and ultimately come out on top. The Orange also played exceptionally well against the glass.
In the game, Paschal Chukwu dominated the game in rebounds. He played 32 minutes off the bench with 18 rebounds and added three blocks. He was the only Syracuse player with more than eight rebounds as the team notched 51. He also had 10 points.
Chukwu was one of five players in double-digits. He was also one of only six to score at all. Chukwu and the foursome of Tyus Battle, Elijah Hughes, Frank Howard and Oshae Brissett did all the damage. Battle scored 32 in the game while Hughes had 20 and the other two had 16 and 14 respectively.
Battle took 28 shots in the game and scored 12 while Hughes sank four outside. Hughes is the team’s best outside shot though the team isn’t usually a great shot on the outside.
Hughes, Brissett and Chukwu are all quality forwards while Battle is a quantity shooter mostly from mid-range and Frank Howard is also not an overly strong outside shooter, but both are solid defensive guards.
As a team, Syracuse is solid defensively and can hold its own on the boards. Chukwu is a good blocker and the team has four players with more than a steal per game. Offensively it can be a bit rough if the team isn’t shooting well and that comes and goes. The overall shooting percentage is rather low at just 42.4-percent from the floor and 31.4-percent outside.
Flipping to the other end of the floor in this one, the Hokies are quite the opposite from the Orange when it comes to offensive efficiency.
Virginia Tech is shooting just shy of 50-percent form the floor and 42.1-percent from three-point range. The team has four players with at least 13 PPG and eight with double-digit minutes. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Kerry Blackshear Jr. head the list. Alexander-Walker leads the team with 18.3 PPG though both he and Blackshear are high percentage shots with Alexander-Walker a great outside shot and Blackshear the main threat inside the paint.
The Hokies don’t have an overly impressive number of rebounds nor are they high on blocks. Instead, Virginia Tech plays a fast-paced game that thrives on the strength of its offense and shooting accuracy.
The team has just three losses this year. It also ranks in the top-10 in both the AP and Coaches Poll and sits No.11 according to KenPom, losing a couple spots in the adjusted efficiency margin due to a more average defense compared to one of the nation’s most efficient offenses.
The team is coming off a loss to UNC where the defense allowed 103 points in a 21-point loss. Before that, Virginia Tech beat Wake Forest in Blacksburg, but lost the game before that to Virginia in Charlottesville.
The Hokies have lost two of their last three, but those came on the road against top-ranked teams. Despite Syracuse’s road win against Duke, the Orange aren’t as good as UNC or Virginia and this game is in Blacksburg where the Hokies are undefeated in 10 games.
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Thanks to the team’s strong shooting all over the court, Virginia Tech ranks third in adjusted offense according to the Ken Pom ratings. While the defense is quite as strong, the team as a whole nets out well in adjusted efficiency margin due to the offensive wherewithal.
Syracuse, meanwhile, boasts a superior defense to the Hokies, but falls well back offensively, though still above average overall.
Watch to see if the Orange can out-perform the offensive metrics again against the Hokies as the team did against the Blue Devils. Syracuse has the defense suppress Virginia Tech’s offense to some extent, but the shooting accuracy has been a real drain on the team’s ability to sustain success.
Keep an eye on the early shots Syracuse has and how well the team—and namely Battle—is doing efficiency wise.
If Syracuse is able to find a hot hand, it may be a beneficial bet to take the over on the total or under on the spread in the live betting opportunities at BookMaker.eu.
Key Player
The Hokies will score, but the team is guard-heavy with Kerry Blackshear Jr. the primary player inside the paint. At 6’10”, the Orlando native plays an integral role offensively and defensively on this team and serves as an intimidating presence on an otherwise rather undersized squad.
While Blackshear is the key player for the Hokies, the key player in the game is Paschal Chukwu as he’s seen an uptick in playing time and shown some good promise of late.
With Hughes and Brissett, Syracuse has a deeper frontcourt, but to exploit that potential edge Chukwu is important.
At 7’2”, the senior center adds more size than Blackshear and can pick up key blocks and rebounds. He’s coming off back-to-back double-digit rebound games. He had that monster game against Duke, but followed it up with 26 minutes on the court and 11 rebounds against Pittsburgh. He didn’t get as many chances to score in that game, but shot well—at least from the floor—in his limited opportunities.
Orange vs. Hokies Live Betting
It would be optimistic—even for a Syracuse fan—to expect another massive upset on the road, but the Orange have shown they can hang in with the big boys. This time, however, the Hokies will be less likely to overlook Syracuse compared to Duke a couple weeks ago.
Count on a big offensive output by the Hokies and another shootout for the Orange, much like the Duke game only this time, the game should end in regulation and an upset seems unlikely.
Look for a big game from . Meanwhile, Syracuse should have trouble finding consistent shooting. They’ll get a few more chances thanks to an edge on the boards, but that won’t be enough and Virginia Tech will win by a baker’s dozen.
Check out all of the live betting at BookMaker.eu for this weekend’s college basketball action.
NCAA Basketball Score Prediction: Virginia Tech 85, Syracuse 72
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