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Syracuse’s final road game of the regular season on Saturday ended with an 84-77 loss to Georgia Tech, and the Orange return to the Carrier Dome to face North Carolina on Monday. The Tar Heels won the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 12, using 24 offensive rebounds and 24 second-chance points to hold off Quincy Guerrier’s 23 points and Buddy Boeheim’s 18.

UNC also just picked up its best win of the season Saturday against Florida State, using 20 points from Walker Kessler off the bench and 13 from Kerwin Walton to knock off the No. 11 Seminoles.

Here’s what The Daily Orange’s beat writers think will happen when SU faces UNC again:

Andrew Crane (14-7)
Carolina state of mind
North Carolina 82, Syracuse 74

Two straight losses have all but officially derailed the Orange’s chances for an at-large NCAA Tournament spot — instead, they’ll have to earn the guaranteed one in Greensboro, North Carolina to have a chance. North Carolina is coming off its best win of the season against Florida State, and it dominated Syracuse on the boards the first time these two teams met this season.

If the solution to defeating the Tar Heels involved small offensive or defensive adjustments, then maybe the Orange could pull off a win. But they don’t have the size to fix the rebounding problem, and that’ll help UNC cruise again. Syracuse’s most important trip to Carolina will come next week, where it’ll aim to avoid ending the 2020-21 season with a whimper.

Anthony Dabbundo (17-4)
Sleeping in March
North Carolina 80, Syracuse 78

Welcome to the best month of the year, March. Normally, I’d look to pick against North Carolina on a road trip with a short turnaround after the Tar Heels’ biggest win of the season. This is a nightmare spot for UNC, sandwiched between FSU and Duke next Saturday. But this is also a terrible matchup historically for the 2-3 zone and Syracuse. The Orange are 1-9 against the Tar Heels in the last six seasons because Syracuse has struggled to rebound, and UNC is consistently great on the offensive and defensive glass.

Syracuse should get a response from back-to-back road ACC losses. The team should be able to exploit UNC’s mediocre perimeter play. A NCAA Tournament, or even a bubble team, should win this game at home. But the Orange haven’t shown consistency, aren’t a Tournament team and don’t match up well with the Tar Heels. Georgia Tech felt like the end of the Orange’s at-large chances, and I wonder if that affects the locker room Monday night. Syracuse has zero wins over top 40 KenPom opponents in the last two seasons, and that will remain true after Monday in a close defeat.

While the elite of the college basketball world will have to wait to sleep in May, Syracuse’s role in March Madness will be short-lived.

Danny Emerman (14-7)
Garrison Cooks
North Carolina 85, Syracuse 71

Syracuse is trending in the wrong direction, and nothing about its final home game will halt the descent. North Carolina’s not just the best rebounding team on SU’s schedule, it’s the best rebounding team in the nation — the Tar Heels rebound over 40% of their misses. Like it did in the first matchup, UNC will dominate on the glass, which will negate its lack of outside shooting. Forward Garrison Brooks at the free-throw line is a problem, and SU will have to scramble for solutions.

Published on February 28, 2021 at 11:08 pm