The Orange have long been known as Cardiac Cuse because they never seem to play in blowouts. Winning or losing, no matter the margin, the game always seems to end up as a nail-biter (look no further than Sunday’s crushing loss to Georgia Tech). Well, Cardiac Cuse can apply to this entire season and now we are in the final minute of the 2016-17 season and the Orange need to pull another rabbit out of the hat to make the tournament.
Recent losses to Georgia Tech and Pitt have pushed the Orange to the very edge of the bubble and the team is in desperate need of one more big win to give the committee a reason to put them into the big dance. Look no further for that chance than Wednesday night when the red hot Blue Devils come to the Carrier Dome. This is not the Duke team of early-mid January. Coach K is back and the Blue Devils are playing some absolutely phenomenal basketball, having rattled off seven straight wins, including double digit victories over Notre Dame, UNC and Virginia.
Syracuse does have one thing going their way on Wednesday; they are playing at the Carrier Dome. It is no secret that the Orange haven’t had much success on the road this year but in the last month, the Orange knocked off two top ten opponents at home in Florida State and Virginia and took a third in Louisville to overtime. However, we are past the point of being content with giving an elite team a good game. Syracuse needs to put together a signature win. There are two chances to do it, but if one thinks that the task on Wednesday is daunting, they might want to forget about the Orange’s next game on the road against Louisville. Surely most Syracuse fans have blocked out any memories of last season’s 72-58 defeat to the Cardinals where Louisville essentially ran their own dunk contest for the final ten minutes.
Never say never, but it sure seems like Wednesday is a must-win game for the Orange. It should be a good one in front of 30,000 at the Carrier Dome.
