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The Syracuse Orange will take on the Florida State Seminoles Sunday evening and while the outcome of the game is still up in the air, there is one fast: This game will take years off of your life. Jim Boeheim does not apologize for this. You signed a waiver. Probably.
As for the outcome, let's see if we can figure it out...
Matt McClusky
Syracuse 67 - Florida State 64
Don't look now, but I think SU may start the ACC season somewhere around 6-0! As an aside: has a five-game win streak by a team make their fans less confident by the win like the current situation with Syracuse? I mean, soon enough, the Orange could be at 5-0 in the conference and everyone will be making plans for the College Basketball Classic instead of the NCAA or NIT! Nonetheless, this game has the stench of close and ugly and another nail-biting and eye-gouging W for Boeheim's boys.
Brian Tahmosh
Syracuse 72 - Florida State 60
Come on, we're just due for a solid, boring win here aren't we? Florida State hasn't beaten anyone who doesn't mysteriously knock the ball into their own basket, so as long as Paul Harris is kept far away from Jim Boeheim Court, the Orange should be fine. Georgia Tech exposed a new Syracuse weakness - lack of bulk on the wings for rebounding when McCullough and Gbinije are on the court - but the Seminoles have no one averaging more than 5.5 rebounds and no one who plays at least 20 minutes per game weighing more than 215 pounds, so that shouldn't be a problem here.
Michael Burke
Syracuse 75 - Florida State 58
This Florida State team certainly seems to have made strides since starting the season losing three of its first four, but keep in mind that the Seminoles are 0-2 on the road -- with one of those losses being a 20-point drubbing at Notre Dame. The Orange have to be itching to get back to the Dome, and with the students back on campus, there should be a pretty good crowd on Sunday night. Behind another strong performance from Rakeem Christmas, expect Syracuse to take care of business rather easily in its ACC home-opener.
John Cassillo
Syracuse 68 - Florida State 63
The Orange are able to generate a LOT more offense than they did this past Wednesday, and still.... it's a very close game. Rakeem Christmas leads the way as always, dominating in the paint and clearing the way for Syracuse's shooters to get some open looks. Things get a bit dicey at the end -- something you should be used to, by the way -- but SU hits enough free throws to get out alive. 3-0 is 3-0, I suppose.
Sean Keeley
Syracuse 61 - Florida State 57
You don't actually think the Orange are going to get an easy win, do you? You don't actually think this is going to be a fun experience, right? Hopefully you've learned your lesson by now but just in case, this game should solidify things for you. The Orange are good enough to win these games but not good enough to get out of their own way to make it easy. Go ahead and set your "A win is a win" tweet up." You shouldn't feel comfortable setting it to go live after the game, but, it'll probably be the only thing you can say.
How about you?