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Saturday, February 18, 6:00pm ET, ESPN
JMA Wireless Dome
It will be another sellout in Syracuse to watch a lackluster Duke team. It’s the same old Syracuse zone, with abysmal defensive rebounding and tons of 3s allowed. The one thing Syracuse does at an elite level is block shots without fouling. They’re #2 nationally in block percentage and #12 in minimizing opponent free throw rate. Kyle Filipowski can expect to get his face, throat and arms destroyed at the rim in this game without fouls being called.
Syracuse’s best player is their 4th year center, Jesse Edwards. Edwards doesn’t have 3pt range, but he has great touch for a center from anywhere else. He’s shooting 69% at the rim, 41% from midrange and 72% from the line. On defense, he has an 11% block rate and 24% defensive rebounding rate. It’s a testament to how bad the rest of Syracuse’s roster is that they can have a guy like this in the middle of the zone and still be around #150 in defensive efficiency. The problem for Duke will be trying to exploit those other defenders on the perimeter and in the midrange - this could be gross as a weakness-vs.-weakness exercise all game.
Expect Duke to be a small favorite.