Golden Gophers, Golden Grizzlies... doesn’t matter, there’s only one team with a true color nickname. The Syracuse Orange will face both of those teams soon, and while some of you are hopefully checking out our bowl content too, we know you’re really here to see our predictions for tonight’s men’s basketball game against Oakland. Let’s get right to it:
Dom
Syracuse 83, Oakland 63
On paper, this should be an easy victory across the board. Jesse Edwards is coming off a career-best scoring performance against an experienced Notre Dame lineup. It’s hard to see Oakland standing a chance with Edwards’ size on both ends of the court. At the guard positions, expect a big game from the starters as well. Unless the Golden Grizzlies can get hot from three, this should be an easy victory for the Orange. Then again, we’ve seen ACC teams like Louisville and Florida State completely tank against inferior programs. Until the result is final, I’ll be holding my breath.
Mike
Syracuse 86, Oakland 59
Think back to the home game against Duke last season: the eldest statesman’s team dominates play from the start and has the game well out of his second-most-senior’s reach by halftime. That should happen again here, only this time it’s Jim Boeheim and Syracuse doing the routing and Oakland and Greg Kampe on the receiving end. It’s a good opportunity to give Edwards a rest from completely carrying the offense and let others, especially the bench, take over for a while. If the Orange lose this game, I’m demanding that Boeheim reveal when he is joining Coach K in retirement - and then immediately getting thrown out of the locker room.
Kevin
Syracuse 84, Oakland 70
The Orange should get the offense rolling in this one. Oakland is one of the worst defensive teams in the country so we should get to see Jim Boeheim go deep in the rotation here. It would be good if this is a game where Quadir Copeland and Maliq Brown can get extended minutes. Syracuse needs to use this stretch of games to find some units that can be efficient on the offensive end while playing solid defense.
Christian
Syracuse 85, Oakland 68
Oakland is not a good team, plain and simple. Even with all the flaws in this Orange team, Syracuse should waltz to an easy and comfortable victory. I really don’t need to reiterate what everyone else has said, because you know what to expect from these types of games - Lots of time for rotation players to prove themselves as useful pieces before Jim Boeheim inevitably shortens his bench.
Szuba
Syracuse 91, Oakland 66
Yeah, this game won’t be close. Oakland is off to a 2-8 start and one of those wins came against a division III team. The Grizzlies defend about as well as Louisville wins basketball games these days. As much as Syracuse has struggled to score of late, look for the Orange offense to get going behind Girard, Mintz and Edwards. Edwards shouldn’t have much difficulty inside as Oakland’s two tallest players (Chris Conway and Will Shepherd) get less than 12.0 minutes per game. The rest of the team is 6-foot-6 and under. Syracuse wins big and it’s a well-deserved Mario & Salvo’s pizza party for everybody in the locker room. Where’s Marek Dolezaj when ya need him?
Poll
Who wins the game between Syracuse and Oakland?
This poll is closed
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91%
Syracuse wins and our comments are calm for a few days.
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8%
Oakland wins and a nuke goes off in our game thread.
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