After a win over Georgia Tech last Saturday, Syracuse (15-12, 8-8 Atlantic Coast) travels to Pittsburgh (15-13, 6-11) on Wednesday night. The win was just Syracuse’s second in the last seven games, and the Orange previously defeated the Panthers on Jan. 25, 69-61.

Below, The Daily Orange beat writers predict whether Syracuse can sweep the season series.

Nick Alvarez (19-8)
Pitt-stop
Syracuse 73, Pitt 60

These teams aren’t that different from when they played a month ago. Syracuse skirted disaster against Georgia Tech and expect SU to avoid another bad loss Wednesday night. The Panthers can’t score consistently and they don’t have the height to take advantage of the Orange’s lack of interior defense. Pitt is also on a four-game losing streak. And despite a recent offensive slumber, SU still has the fifth-best offense in the conference, per KenPom. This Syracuse squad has proven it can handle bad teams this season. It’ll happen again. 

Michael McCleary (18-9)
Pitt-iful game
Syracuse 65, Pitt, 59

This game has all the makings of a close contest. But, that doesn’t bode well for the game as a whole. Hard to ignore the strong second-half Syracuse had against Georgia Tech, but the first half cemented the team as a middle-of-the-pack ACC squad. Pitt is too. This game perhaps could be devoid of offense, but because of that the better offense should win. The Panthers don’t have the type of interior defense to stop SU at the rim, so the Orange should take this one.

Josh Schafer (19-8)
Back to the Pitt
Syracuse 75 Pittsburgh 62

After watching the Panthers in the Carrier Dome in January, there’s no reason to believe Syracuse should lose this game. Pittsburgh just doesn’t match up well with Syracuse. They don’t shoot well from 3-point land or have a dominant physical presence down low. Syracuse doesn’t need anything crazy on offense just a solid game of scoring and the Orange will come away with a win. Last time Syracuse played Pittsburgh, Elijah Hughes scored 10 points and the Orange won by eight. Imagine if he scored his normal helping and Buddy Boeheim didn’t go cold after 18 points in the first half? Sounds like blowout potential to me. 

Published on February 26, 2020 at 12:21 am