Monday night in CBB will see the top ranked Syracuse Orangemen travel to Cincinnati to take on the Cincinnati Bearcats as a part of Big Monday. The game is scheduled for a 7:00 pm tipoff and will be televised live on Espn. Currently Syracuse is favored by 5.5 points with the total being set at 136 for this game. Fresh off its first loss of the season, the Syracuse Orange will look to avoid a losing streak as they head to Fifth Third Arena for a Big East battle with the dangerous Cincinnati Bearcats.
Free Analysis: The Orange's 7-1 record in the Big East has them in sole possession of first place, but another defeat would give them the same total of losses as five another teams in the league. No. 1 Syracuse showed plenty of weaknesses in its first loss Saturday. Now it must try to show resiliency as it enters another hostile environment at Cincinnati.Head coach Jim Boeheim saw his team's 20-game win streak snapped as it was handed a 67-58 loss by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday. Despite their worst offensive performance of the year in the loss (58 points on 34% shooting), Syracuse is still leading the Big East in scoring offense with an average of 78.9 ppg on 48 percent shooting from the field and 35.4 percent shooting from three-point range. Joseph is the team's leading scorer with an average of 13.6 ppg, but he will need to do better than 4-of-12 from the field to score 12 points, as he did against the Irish, while Waiters is the only other starter averaging in double figures (13.0 ppg). The Orange are a very deep team as they have 10 players averaging in double figures in minutes played and 7 players that have averaged at least 7.2 ppg. A bigger issue for the Orange in that loss was their lack of defense as they allowed the Irish to hit 50% of their shots and put 68 points on the board. The fact that Fab Melo was missing really hurt at the defensive end as he is the Orange's blocks and rebounding leader and they will be without him for the second straight game as he attends to academic issues. Overall the Orange have allowed 60.7 ppg (39th) on 38.5% shooting (19th). The Bearcats are 9-3 at home and they have defeated their last 3 ranked opponents they have faced, including Wednesday's 70-67 win over 13th-ranked Connecticut. Cincinnati comes in with a 15-5 overall record after its 77-74 overtime loss to West Virginia on Saturday. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak and gave the Bearcats a 5-2 league record, their best start in Big East play yet. Although the Bearcats have the worst field-goal percentage (39.3) in league play, they will attack the Orange's patented 2-3 zone from deep as they have made the second-most three- pointers (57) in Big East action. With Melo out, Yancy Gates should be a big contributor for the Bearcats. Gates is averaging 12.2 ppg and a team-best 9.4 rpg, while Sean Kilpatrick is Cincy's top scorer with an average of 16.0 ppg and comes in having scored in double- figures in all but two contests this season. Dion Dixon is the team's second leading scorer with an average of 13.9 ppg, while Cashmere Wright is chipping in 10.8 ppg and a team-high 4.8 apg. The Bearcats come in averaging a solid 70.8 ppg, while permitting teams to score just 60.1 ppg. This will be just the ninth meeting between the Orange and Bearcats. Syracuse holds an 8-2 edge in the series after winning the last three encounters. The Orange handled Cincinnati in last year's contest with a 67-52 decision in a game played at the Carrier Dome.
Free Pick: The Orange had some problems on defense in their last game vs the Irish, especially on the inside without Melo there. Cooley for the Irish had a big game for the irish and Gates should have similar success. The Orange just don't have a presence on the blocks that will be able to contain him. No Im not looking at taking the Bearcats in this one, but rather the Over. The oranges deficiencies on defense will allow the Bearcats to get their share of points in this one. Now in their last game the Orange faced the Irish's BURN offense, but Cincy doesn't run that kind of game here and that will allow Syracuse to play this game at a much higher tempo than their last game. The will look to run and after being held under 60 points in their last game as they do not like playing a half court offense. The Orange have 7 players that have scored 7.2 ppg or better, but of those 7 Melo is the lowest at 7.2 ppg, so his points really won't be missed, but on defense it will be. The Orange will get their points in this one, especially vs a Cincy team that has allowed 74 ppg in their last 3 games, but they will also give up a bunch as well. I expect 140+ here.
Betting Strategies - College Basketball Home Court Value
Host Vegas Runner and Pregame Pro Bryan Leonard discuss that not all home courts created equal and every conference has different values.