The Syracuse Orange (19-10 overall, 9-7 ACC) travel to Chapel Hill to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels (23-6, 12-4). These two teams met January 9th in the Carrier Dome, with the Tar Heels defeating the Orange 84-73. The Orange will be looking for a big-time signature road win to boast its rather vanilla NCAA tournament resume
Who’s Hot- Michael Gbinije
The senior struggled to score against Pittsburgh, but Gbinije exploded against NC State on Saturday. He scored a career-high 34 points while adding 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 blocks. Gbinije took 13 threes—the Orange as a team took a ludicrous 32 threes as a team, its most since the opening game of the season when it took 34—hitting 8 of them; he shot 11-18 for the game, good for 61%. Gbinije is the best player on the team, and when he is going, the Orange is a hard team to stop.
“Mike was unbelievable today,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said after the NC State game. “He just put us on his back and carried us.”
SU vs. North Carolina @ 7 PM Countdown to tip-off @ 6:30
Who’s Not- Tyler Roberson
After being called out publicly by head coach Jim Boeheim after the Pittsburgh game, Roberson only played 14 minutes against NC State—a season low for the junior. Roberson’s playing time as decreased tremendously over the last few games; after playing 38 minutes against Boston College on Valentine’s Day, Roberson has played 24, 25 and 14 minutes in the three games that followed. Roberson is in Boeheim’s doghouse, and that is bad news for an Orange team with an already thin rotation.
Can the Orange protect the paint?
In the first meeting between these two teams, the Orange out-rebounded the Tar Heels, something that was unthinkable before the game given UNC’s size and the Orange’s lack of it. However, the Tar Heels still won the game despite being out-rebounded 35-33. UNC did, however, shoot 52.5% from the field, despite only making 3 three-pointers the entire game. The Orange’s big weakness is down low, and that is bad news considering the plethora of talented big men UNC can throw at you.
“We played well here offensively against them,” Boeheim said. “We had a very poor defensive game against them here. So we’re going to have to play well offensively and play better on the defensive end, for sure.”
Key Matchup- The three-point shot
Syracuse isn’t built the same way UNC is; the Orange rely heavily on its guards to score the basketball, while UNC’s leading scorers—Brice Johnson (16.9 ppg) and Justin Jackson (12.4 ppg)—are both forwards. The Orange only made 9 threes in the first meeting between these two. If the Orange can hit its outside shots, they might have a chance for an upset that would automatically secure them a spot in the field of 68.