Duke Basketball: Syracuse still fired up to be hosting the No. 1 Blue Devils

It’s has been a rollercoaster of a week for the Syracuse Orange, but the fans are still very excited to welcome in the Duke Basketball team on Saturday night.

After a 95-91 overtime victory back in January in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Syracuse Orange and its fans are very excited to be playing the Duke Blue Devils in the Carrier Dome.

The team at Ball Durham once again teamed up with Paul Esden Jr. of Inside The Loud House, Syracuse’s FanSided site, for a Q&A ahead of the rematch between the two teams.

Q: Have the Orange changed anything in terms of its offensive scheme since the last time these two teams met?

A: Not even a little. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim is in his 43rd season and he has been labeled stubborn and he has stuck with his principles.

Can you blame him?

Jim has accomplished everything you can in college basketball including but not limited too: a National Championship, has won multiple coach of the year awards, and five Final Fours. He certainly knows what he’s doing, but on occasion, I think he can be stubborn to a point. Offensively Syracuse lives and dies by the three and when they’re hitting from outside they’re hard to beat with the 2-3 zone as the backdrop. That’ll be the case throughout this season.

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Q: Obviously, Syracuse is coming off of a major victory at home against Louisville, but the tone quickly changed Thursday morning for very unfortunate reasons, what is the mood like in Syracuse and specifically around the basketball team?

A: An emotional roller coaster for all involved.

First off I want to send my condolences to everyone affected by this horrible tragedy.

With that being said, the tone around Syracuse has been confused. Syracuse fans aren’t sure how to feel. All sources have indicated this was simply a horrible accident, but even still a human life was lost.

That weighs heavily on Jim Boeheim and Syracuse fans everywhere. Even with all of this happening, there’s still the biggest basketball game of the season coming on Saturday between Syracuse and Duke.

Even with what happened, Syracuse picked up arguably its biggest win of the season and now must gather themselves for this game. Long story short to answer the question, the mood has been dampened somewhat and we’ll see how that affects the sold-out crowd on Saturday.

Q: There are many reasons why opposing teams sell out arenas when Duke comes to town and this year especially it’s to see Zion Williamson. With his status very much in the air for Saturday night, are fans still excited to see the Blue Devils coming to town?

A: I think the best way to address this question is with a tweet thread:

This is a Syracuse basketball town.

People live and breathe Orange hoops. So the record-breaking crowd will still be raucous on Saturday night.

So fans are still excited for this game and this has become an interesting competitive rivalry. I spoke with several Syracuse players in the locker-room after the game (prior to the tragic accident obviously) and the players were jazzed at the opportunity to take on Duke for a second time.

When I brought up the notion of Syracuse being slightly looser heading into this game, being that they won the first matchup, I was immediately shut down by Oshae Brissett who said every game is different we aren’t even thinking about that. The team is hungry to join some historic company of taking out a “No. 1 team” twice in one season.

Q: Since the Syracuse win over Pittsburgh back on February 2, the Orange have been alternating wins and losses, what must Syracuse do to find consistency for the remainder of the season?

A: That’s an interesting trend going on and if that continues I guess Duke is going to win this one in blowout fashion on Saturday. Prior to the season, I thought Syracuse could survive without consistency, let me explain.

Last season Syracuse had a limited bench so if their top three guys weren’t scoring (Tyus Battle, Frank Howard, and Oshae Brissett), the Orange weren’t winning.

This season Syracuse has a ton of depth. I assumed (wrongly apparently) that with depth some guys could play inconsistently and it wouldn’t matter because there are enough players who can carry the Orange.

Elijah Hughes found his form in the second half of the Louisville game, Tyus Battle continues to rock and roll (Duke fans know this well). Syracuse needs consistency from Paschal Chukwu who grabbed 18 rebounds in the first Duke game, but I’m not sure he’s had 18 rebounds combined since that game.

Q: This is Duke’s first ‘revenge game’ of the season, what will Syracuse have to do again to knock off the Blue Devils.

A: Luck.

This Duke team from everything I’ve seen and heard from experts I trust say this Blue Devils team is one of the best ever constructed.

Syracuse needed a lot of funky things to happen to beat Duke the first time. Not trying to take anything away from the win: Cam Reddish minutes before tip was ruled out, Tre Jones got hurt in the first few minutes after dominating defensively, and Tyus Battle had to make some impossible shots to dig Syracuse out of that massive hole.

I don’t think that strategy is sustainable to win this time around, which means Syracuse has to find a way to win that is sustainable. Which would include another monster performance on the boards by Paschal Chukwu, Oshae Brissett continuing to build his confidence from the outside and Tyus Battle leveling the team in tight situations.

This won’t be easy, but Syracuse is at home and they beat Duke already, I anticpate this being another close game.

We would like to that Paul for his time in answering these questions and the Blue Devils and the Orange will tipoff at 6:00 pm ET from the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Syracuse Orange.

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