Four ACC games, three nail biters.
The game went to overtime, but Syracuse survived an 86-83 win over Wake Forest, Tuesday.
Jim Boeheim has said every conference game is a tough one and thus far, that is exactly what his team has experienced. The issue is that it is only going to get tougher.
Look at the teams SU has played. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Wake Forest. This was supposed to be the part of the schedule that was easier than what is to come. These are the games Syracuse needs to win in order to make its best dent in the ACC standings before the second half of conference play against the ranked opponents of the conference.
With Chris McCullough out for the remainder of the season that prompted the emergence, or continued emergence of Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney, Michael Gbinije, and Tyler Roberson.
First off, Christmas had 35 points. Clearly when Syracuse needs a bucket, this team knows how to get it down low to Christmas because he knows how to finish. Gbinije hit clutch deep balls when the two teams were battling it out point-by-point in the mid to late second half. Although he doesn’t need to score, Roberson is doing his job of grabbing rebounds, something McCullough really brought to the table.
Although this team hasn’t had the blowout wins early on, the experience is what will help it when it gets deeper into the season, namely the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, should they reach it.
Christmas has been there three times already. He knows it is time for everyone to pull their own weight because it does get tougher.
“These wins carry into our other games,” Christmas said. “The games are starting to get harder and harder so we need all these wins that we can get.”
Posted: Austin Pollack
