(Oh yea, and there's some football game tomorrow too).
The day Cuse fans have been waiting for since the schedule was first announced is upon us.
1,914 career coaching victories. Two candidates for National Freshman of the Year. The preseason ACC Player of the Year. An undefeated record on the line. The #2 and #3 teams in Kenpom. College Gameday in the house. An expected record-breaking crowd. All those storylines are in play at the Dome tonight. I guess you could say the announcers should be happy.
Since I'm a professional, I will try to take an unbiased look at some of the key storylines of this game and not just waste all my words bashing Duke.
I'll let this video do that for me instead...
On to the game!
1) Duke's 3-point shooting
One of the strengths of the 2-3 zone is that it entices opponents to settle for lots of deep three-point attempts. The flip side of that is that the zone is susceptible to a very good, very hot three-point shooting team.
Entere Duke. Duke has 4 players getting regular minutes who shoot at least 45% from deep. And that doesn't even count Jabari Parker, who has to at least be considered a threat to drain a couple from beyond the arc as well. The Blue Devils are also coming off a road victory at Pittsburgh on Monday night in which they shot 13-25 from three. If they have a shooting performance like that again, they will be in a very good spot to pull off the road upset.
Syracuse will try to combat that by throwing more length at the Duke shooters than they are used to seeing, with Jerami Grant and C.J. Fair running out at shooters in the corners and on the wings. Also working in the Orange's favor is the difficulty to break down the zone defense through dribble penetration, a Duke speciality. Instead, they will have to get their open looks by swinging the ball around the perimeter and on the fast break.
Hopefully, Duke wasted their hot shooting on the Panthers earlier this week and Syracuse is able to keep the bombs from deep at bay.
(For your viewing pleasure, we will end each segment with a photo of a Duke player getting dunked on. A prestigious fraternity of which Jerami Grant and C.J. Fair will try to become members of tonight).
Syracuse is #9 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage. Duke has no player taller than 6'9" and plays multiple players 6'5" and shorter for long stretches.
Jerami Grant is licking his lips.
Grant has been a terror on the glass in ACC play. 3 times he has had double-digit rebound games and he has had 8 or more in all but 2 games. C.J. Fair has been no slouch either, having at least 6 in every game. But as steady as C.J. has been, Grant has been spectacular. The offensive rebounding numbers he is putting up are just stupid.
Grant has had 4 or more offensive rebounds in more than half the conference games, including 7 in the victory over Wake the other night. Put in other words, Jerami Grant has as many offensive rebounds against Wake as Duke's starting big man averages total rebounds per game.
That is obviously huge for Syracuse because those rebounds often lead to either (1) Sportscenter Top 10 put-back slams or (2) foul trouble on the opposing teams big men when they foul on the follow-up attempt.
If Grant can crash the glass at the clip he's been doing the last few weeks, it will be a good sign for the Orange.
3) Tempo
Syracuse has not allowed an ACC opponent to crack 60 yet this season. Duke has only been held below 70 in ACC play 3 times. What's that saying about the immovable object meeting the unstoppable force?
In one of his recent press conferences, Jim Boeheim was discussing how everyone has taken the tack of trying to slow down Syracuse and play a "grind-it-out" type of game and make it a close game. He pointed out that sooner or later someone is going to switch it up and try to run with Syracuse.
My money is on this game being that game.
It will be a welcome relief for Syracuse fans to finally get to see some high-paced action, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the offense translates over. On the one hand, slower paced games seem to play into Syracuse's strengths because they don't have a lot of catch and shoot players. Most of their offensive comes from running off multiple picks and breaking down defenders. On the other hand, getting into a running game could make it much easier for Trevor Cooney to find some open three-point attempts in transition and could lead to some breakaway dunks for Jerami and C.J. All of these things are good things for potentially having the fans blow the roof off the Dome.
Although I think a game in the 50s or 60s favors the Orange, and a higher scoring game makes it more of a toss-up, I'm still excited to potentially see a game in the 70s. It will be a great learning experience for potential matchups down the road in the NCAA Tournament to see whether Cuse can still succeed getting in a running game, or if they need to try to make all these contests the slower, more plodding games they have been playing most of this year.
Syracuse has not allowed an ACC opponent to crack 60 yet this season. Duke has only been held below 70 in ACC play 3 times. What's that saying about the immovable object meeting the unstoppable force?
In one of his recent press conferences, Jim Boeheim was discussing how everyone has taken the tack of trying to slow down Syracuse and play a "grind-it-out" type of game and make it a close game. He pointed out that sooner or later someone is going to switch it up and try to run with Syracuse.
My money is on this game being that game.
It will be a welcome relief for Syracuse fans to finally get to see some high-paced action, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the offense translates over. On the one hand, slower paced games seem to play into Syracuse's strengths because they don't have a lot of catch and shoot players. Most of their offensive comes from running off multiple picks and breaking down defenders. On the other hand, getting into a running game could make it much easier for Trevor Cooney to find some open three-point attempts in transition and could lead to some breakaway dunks for Jerami and C.J. All of these things are good things for potentially having the fans blow the roof off the Dome.
Although I think a game in the 50s or 60s favors the Orange, and a higher scoring game makes it more of a toss-up, I'm still excited to potentially see a game in the 70s. It will be a great learning experience for potential matchups down the road in the NCAA Tournament to see whether Cuse can still succeed getting in a running game, or if they need to try to make all these contests the slower, more plodding games they have been playing most of this year.
4) Freshmen
Jabari Parker. Tyler Ennis.
Tyler Ennis. Jabari Parker.
ACC Freshman of the Year. ACC Player of the Year. National Freshman of the Year.
Put the players in whatever order you want, but they are neck and neck for all three of the above awards. There is a chance that whichever player / team gets the better of their two matchups this year, could potentially sweep all three of the awards listed above.
The amazing part of the above sentence is that 2 months ago, Parker was an early front-runner for National Player of the Year and Tyler Ennis was completely off the national radar. Now here we are today and Ennis has burst onto the scene and forced his way into the national conversation.
These freshmen have been dominating the ACC leaderboards, with Parker 2nd in scoring and Ennis 2nd in assists and 1st in steals.
As far as tonight goes, Jabari will probably be much more noticeable. He is just a high volume player who makes some super athletic plays that fill up the highlight reel. But Tyler Ennis may have a bigger impact on the game in terms of all the plays he makes to set up the rest of his team. I also don't think Ennis will be phased by the atmosphere, whereas I could see Parker pressing to really have a huge game and potentially shooting his team out of its offensive game plan at some point.
Jabari Parker. Tyler Ennis.
Tyler Ennis. Jabari Parker.
ACC Freshman of the Year. ACC Player of the Year. National Freshman of the Year.
Put the players in whatever order you want, but they are neck and neck for all three of the above awards. There is a chance that whichever player / team gets the better of their two matchups this year, could potentially sweep all three of the awards listed above.
The amazing part of the above sentence is that 2 months ago, Parker was an early front-runner for National Player of the Year and Tyler Ennis was completely off the national radar. Now here we are today and Ennis has burst onto the scene and forced his way into the national conversation.
These freshmen have been dominating the ACC leaderboards, with Parker 2nd in scoring and Ennis 2nd in assists and 1st in steals.
As far as tonight goes, Jabari will probably be much more noticeable. He is just a high volume player who makes some super athletic plays that fill up the highlight reel. But Tyler Ennis may have a bigger impact on the game in terms of all the plays he makes to set up the rest of his team. I also don't think Ennis will be phased by the atmosphere, whereas I could see Parker pressing to really have a huge game and potentially shooting his team out of its offensive game plan at some point.
5) Wings
Of course, Tyler Ennis and Jabari Parker don't figure to find themselves face to face very much on the court tonight. There will be some equally enticing head-to-head matchups though.
Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood vs. C.J. Fair and Jerami Grant
This might be the best matchup of wings that you will see all season. All 4 are currently projected to go in the NBA Draft next season, with all but Fair projected to go in the lottery. And Fair was the preseason ACC Player of the Year. So yea, I'm looking forward to watching these 4 go at each other all game.
In fact, is it too late to try and convince ESPN to just turn the game into a 2 on 2 NBA Jam style matchup between these three? We can watch Rodney Hood drain threes from half-court and Jerami Grant break backboards with super 720 degree power jams when they catch on fire. Come on Bill Simmons, get on this already.
My personal best scenario for tonight? A couple Trevor Cooney threes and at least one Jerami Grant Sportscenter Top 10 quality dunk. A double-double for C.J. Fair. A 2-10 performance from the field for Jabari Parker. And a fairly stress-free 78-67 victory for all 35,000+ fans to celebrate on Marshall Street afterwards.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go aimlessly pace around my house for the next few hours to get rid of all my energy so I only scare my daughter 7 times during the game with unnecessary yelling.
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