Syracuse Orange Amazing at Home
The No. 9-ranked Syracuse Orange took down the No. 25-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish 63-47 at home on Monday night, a refreshing win for Syracuse after shockingly losing to ND last season. The Orange are a different team now, though; they face much higher expectations this season. In a weak college basketball landscape, the national title hunt is in full swing, and it’s anyone’s game. With their typically solid zone defense and shooting prowess, the Orange are in the center of that hunt. They were 9.5 point favorites in this game against their conference rivals, and they illustrated why they can’t be taken for graned in a 16 point blowout victory.
“This was a big win,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “Obviously, Notre Dame beat us last year. When you lose two games in a row in this league, you get nervous. Everybody does. This is a real good bounce-back win.”
Here were a few of the betting trends for both teams heading into the game, per OddsShark.com:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Trends:
When playing on Monday are 5-5
Before playing Louisville are 6-4
After playing DePaul are 6-4
After a win are 8-2
Syracuse Orange Trends:
When playing on Monday are 9-1
Before playing St. John’s are 6-4
After playing Pittsburgh are 4-6
After a loss are 6-4
Notre Dame Trends:
Notre Dame is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games on the road
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Notre Dame’s last 6 games on the road
The total has gone OVER in 4 of Notre Dame’s last 6 games when playing on the road against Syracuse
Notre Dame is 2-9 SU in its last 11 games when playing on the road against Syracuse
Syracuse is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home
Syracuse is 18-3 SU in its last 21 games
Syracuse is 9-2 SU in its last 11 games when playing at home against Notre Dame
Syracuse is 16-6 SU in its last 22 games when playing Notre Dame
Notre Dame struggled mightily on the offensive end, shooting just 34.6 percent from the floor and only making six of 20 three-pointers. Overall, Syracuse has been ferocious defending the three this season, allowing their opponents to shoot only 32.3 percent from beyond the arc. However, Notre Dame knows that it can’t expect to earn a victory at Syracuse with that kind of poor shooting (and rebounding; the Orange are the 12th best rebounding team in the nation, grabbing 40.7 boards per game) performance.
“We’ve got to make some more of those shots to escape here,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “When we’ve had success against them, we’ve made more 3s. But that’s not necessarily us missing. They have such length because their guards are so big this year. They come out and close out. It’s a rough shot. We fought, we battled, we tried. But we needed to get into a better scoring rhythm. It was hard against them tonight because of the way they defended.”
The win was critical for Syracuse’s morale after having lost two straight road games Villanova and Pitt. However, they’re one of the very best home teams that college basketball has ever seen; they have won 36 straight games at home, a school record and the longest active streak in Division I men’s college basketball. There’s a reason the lines for Syracuse basketball games are so dramatically high when they’re at home; if you wagered on the Orange on Monday night, you got a feel for just how emphatically Syracuse defends their turf.
