Men's Basketball

Beat writers predict mixed outcomes for Syracuse’s matchup with No. 2 Virginia

Chase Gaewski | Staff Photographer

Syracuse faces No. 2 Virginia on Monday night in Rakeem Christmas' final home game. Our beat writers have mixed predictions for the Orange's matchup with the Cavaliers.

Phil D’Abbraccio (21-8): Virginia 58, Syracuse 49
Meet Virginia
Rakeem Christmas’ Carrier Dome career ends on a sour note. And if it isn’t capped off by another slow walk to the Syracuse bench after fouling out, it’ll be by a walk of dejection as Syracuse is stumped by another top-five team’s defense. The Orange appeared to have exerted all of its energy throwing punches at top 12 teams in Louisville and Notre Dame when it came time to square off with Duke. SU’s offense was listless then. And against a tougher defense Monday night, the Orange’s odds of putting the ball in the basket enough to win aren’t any better.

Jesse Dougherty (22-7): Virginia 55, Syracuse 50
Not hoo pretty
This is going to be an ugly one. Really, really ugly. Syracuse has a lot of trouble scoring against tight man-to-man defenses — see, Duke — and Virginia is without its best perimeter threat in Justin Anderson. So how these two teams will score is beyond me, but it has to happen, right? One of Michael Gbinije or Christmas will carry the offensive load for the Orange and the Cavaliers will get theirs going to the rim. In the end, SU can’t penetrate the UVA defense enough to stay in the game down the stretch.

Jacob Klinger (23-6): Syracuse 51, Virginia 49
Hoos ball is it anyway?
Virginia is like the 2006-07 Chicago Bears – all defense and really good in spite of its offense. But now the Cavaliers are without Anderson, which means it’ll be like actually having Rex Grossman playing basketball. And Syracuse shoots like — well, you’ve seen this season. So this becomes a game of chaos and rebounds. Christmas, a gloriously ugly finish and sports don’t make sense. So SU will win, barely.





Top Stories