Since its season-opening loss to Virginia, Syracuse (3-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) ripped off three straight wins against nonconference opponents. In the first game of the NIT Season Tip-Off, which will be capped with two games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, SU faces Bucknell (2-3, 0-0 Patriot) as it looks to extend its winning streak to four.

Here are our beat writers’ predictions for Saturday’s noon game in the Carrier Dome.

Nick Alvarez (4-0)
O.K., cool, Hook’em?
Syracuse 74, Bucknell 56

That Cornell game was way too close late, right? Syracuse pulled away late, but the Big Red more than threatened the Orange off the performance of Jimmy Boeheim. To my knowledge, Bucknell doesn’t have a parental-tie to the 2-3 zone, so the Bisons shouldn’t have a chance here. SU’s best offensive lineup includes Buddy Boeheim, Joe Girard III and Elijah Hughes flying around the court, shooting 3s and they’ll need to be featured heavily to crack the Bison defense. Bucknell allows just 26.7% of its opponents 3s to go in, forcing teams to go inside where they’re weaker. SU has shown a reluctance to score efficiently in the paint if it can generate deep balls off the fast break. Meanwhile, on the other end, Bucknell will look to shoot and break the zone. Expect an up-and-down, run-and-gun contest that Syracuse ultimately dominates.  

Michael McCleary (4-0)
Horns down
Syracuse 77, Bucknell 53

The Orange have been on something of a hot streak as of late. Since they scored their lowest point total since the end of World War II, Syracuse has faced three teams ranked outside the top-100 in the nation, per KenPom, and they’ve played each team rather well. There are negatives, of course — letting Colgate stick around in the first half, a near second-half collapse against Seattle and a poor-shooting first frame against Jimmy Boeheim’s Cornell squad. But there have been enough positives to think that, eventually, this team will put it all together. Even if it’s for just 40 minutes before SU encounters its toughest nonconference opponent thus far in Oklahoma State. Syracuse’s defense can force tough shots and its offense can shoot a team out of the building, so maybe Bucknell is the opponent that gets the brunt of it all. The Orange will leave for Brooklyn in resounding fashion.

Josh Schafer (4-0)
Buckwild
Syracuse 78 Bucknell 51

This is another game where we get to see how Syracuse develops. As we’ve seen when Syracuse played a solid Patriot League opponent in Colgate, Bucknell is a good team in its own league. Unfortunately for the Bison, the Patriot League doesn’t compare to the ACC. With Bucknell often forcing teams inside, expect a big day from Bourama Sidibe or perhaps Marek Dolezaj’s breakout game of 2019 that we’ve been waiting for. There will be games down the road that Syracuse won’t shoot well and needs players down low to contribute as Quincy Guerrier did against Cornell. Against Bucknell, we’ll see a new version of Guerrier. Whether it be Dolezaj, Sidibe, or someone else, the Orange will continue to need that extra boost in scoring.

Published on November 23, 2019 at 8:40 am