Wednesday night college Basketball and we will see the Louisville Cardinals travel to the Carrier Dome to take on the Syracuse Orange. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds have Louisville listed as 2.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 130.5.
Analysis: The Louisville Cardinals come in off a very bad 74-65 home loss to NC State, in which they were double digit favorites in. The loss has dropped them 20-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC. The Cards have gone 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record and 9-2-1 ATS in the last 12 games in the series. Louisville has been a good offensive team, as they come in ranked 81st in scoring (71.6 ppg), 183rd in shooting (43.4%), 312th in 3 point shooting (30.5%) and 231st in FT shooting (67.5%). Defensively the Cardinals have been excellent, ranking 19th in points allowed (59.0 ppg), 9th in defensive FG% (37.6%) and 18th in 3 point defense (29.4%).
The Syracuse Orange really have nothing to play for this year after the put self-imposed bans on themselves, which will keep them from any post-season play this year, including the ACC tournament. Its starting to show with this team as they have won just 3 of their last 8 games to fall to 7-5 in the ACC for the year. Syracuse has gone 4-15-2 ATS in their last 21 vs. the ACC and 1-7-1 ATS in their last 9 games overall. The Orange have been a decent offensive squad this year, ranking 122nd in scoring (69.7 ppg), 145th in shooting (44.0%), 263rd in 3 point shooting (31.8%) and 311th in FT shooting (64.8%). The defense for this team has been solid as they come in ranked 94th in points allowed (63.1 ppg), 49th in defensive FG% (39.7%) and 64th in 3 point defense (31.5%).
Pick: I look for the Under in this one. This should be a dogfight from the get go with more defense than offense. The Orange have been in some higher scoring games for them of late, but this will not be one of them. The Orange has allowed just 58.9 ppg at home this year and Louisville comes in struggling on offense, having scored just 64 ppg in their last 5. On defense the Cards have really tightened it up of late as they have allowed just 62.6 ppg in their last 9 (Regulation) and they do come in off a 74-65 home loss to NC State, so you can bet that defense was at the forefront of their discussions sine that last game. We also note that both teams are horrible from long range and at the charity stripe, so don't expect a ton of points from those two areas on the floor. The Under is 21-10-1 in Louisville's last 32 off a SU loss and I expect that trend to continue here.
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