#BeatDuke

The day is finally here. Duke. Syracuse. Carrier Dome. Boeheim. Coach K. Damn.  So what should we expect?  Well, don't let the #17 next to Duke fool you, this team is for real and Coach K will have them ready to disappoint the 35,446 fans in the Dome.  Jabari Parker is the real deal and the team will be ready to go tomorrow night.

1,897 wins and a few Freshman

These kids mean business and
Jimmy B's squad better be ready

So as most of you know Boeheim is 2nd all time in career wins in college basketball.  Well the guy who is in the top spot will be sitting across the scorers table.  Mike Kryzewski has coached at Duke for a measly 34 years and amassed 901 wins with the Blue Devils and 957 wins overall in his career.  He and Jimmy B are actually good friends that have coached together many times as the coaches of the USA national team.  So, if you think that the Orange's patented 2-3 zone is news to Coach K take a lap, because these two know each other well and this will be a battle.  Let's move on to the people who actually put the ball in the hoop.  Jabari Parker was the #1 (#2 on some rankings) recruit in the nation this summer.  Tyler Ennis was the #20 ranked recruit.  Funny thing is that Ennis has moved ahead of Parker on many people's "Rookie of the Year" lists.  Even though Ennis has been, as Jay Bilas said, unflappable, he doesn't have either the size or the shooting range that Parker does.  Parker averages almost 19 ppg and 8 rpg.  If those numbers don't make your jaw drop go to youtube and type in Jabari Parker, because then your jaw will drop.  This kid is the real deal.  His body type is like a mix of KD and LeBron.  He's fairly tall like KD but he's got some girth to him like LeBron.  He has had some down games but don't count on that to happen tomorrow.  This game means just as much, if not more, to the Blue Devils than it means to us.

Oh yeah, the rest of the team

Yeah, don't let the 4 losses fool you about this team.  Andre Dawkins may not have the astounding numbers that Jabari Parker has but he does have something.  Experience.  The 6-5 senior guard also has the potential to drop 20 on a team, as Jamie Dixon's Pitt squad found out.  And then there's Rodney Hood, a 6-8 forward who is averaging more that 17 ppg and almost 5 rpg.  Hood, a sophomore transfer from Miss. St. is shooting over 50% from the field and almost 45% from 3-pt land.  He could cause some real issues for the syracuse forwards who haven't really had to deal with very big opponents so far this season.  You can expect CJ Fair and Jerami Grant to be firing out of the zone early and often to cover this big man.  Speaking of big men, Amile Jefferson is a 6-9 forward that gobbles up about 7 boards per game.  While Syracuse has been playing much better on the boards, I can see the rebound numbers dipping a little with the trees that wear blue and white swallowing up the boards.

Prediction

OFFENSE!!!!

So this what everyone looks to see in the posts anyways right? OK so I think that if Syracuse's offense continues its current slip-N-slide that its on there could be some MAJOR problems.  Now I'm not saying this is best I've ever seen SU's defense play, but it is the 2nd best, only to how they played in the NCAA tourney last year.  the 20-0 record you see next to Syracuse is 160345693405% because of the defense.  The problem is that we need the offense to start stepping up.  Cooney needs to find his stroke again, and find it fast.  Like really fast.  This all being said, I think Syracuse does not disappoint the largest on-campus crowd in history and pulls out a close one, 65-62.

Your Orange Foreign Corespondent

-Ron