Syracuse closes its trip to the Bahamas and Battle 4 Atlantis tournament with a consolation-bracket game against No. 19 Auburn on Friday, advancing after a victory over Arizona State. The Tigers defeated Loyola Chicago 62-53 on Thursday to do the same.

Auburn represents the first ranked opponent the Orange will face this season, therefore their first chance to pick up a resume-boosting win, and another benchmark for Atlantic Coast Conference play, which starts on Dec. 4 against Florida State. Two regular Auburn starters — K.D. Johnson and Jabari Smith — average double-digit points per game while Wendell Green Jr., who started its first three games of the season before coming off the bench in the two tournament games, averages 12.6.

Here’s what The Daily Orange’s beat writers think will happen when Syracuse (3-3) and the Tigers (4-1) meet for the second time in SU history, and the first since the 2003 NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

Andrew Crane (2-3)
Lost opportunity
Auburn 86, Syracuse 82

For everything that went wrong against VCU, SU’s performance against Arizona State on Thursday made it seem, if only for the brief window of a game, like most of their problems through four games do have solutions. Jesse Edwards fouled out on Wednesday, then scored a career-high 21 points the next night. Cole Swider has struggled mightily from beyond the arc, then sunk 4-of-5 shots. And the Orange scored 92 points despite 1-for-5 3-point shooting from Buddy Boeheim — an area he’s 3-for-15 from this tournament. SU’s defensive problems are glaring at this point of the season — and the reason why I’m picking Auburn here — but I think Syracuse will keep the game close throughout the first half and most of the second half, especially if Buddy finds his stroke from 3. Auburn’s defense will cause enough disruption to force turnovers from Joe Girard III and foil SU’s first chance to pick up its first resume-boosting win of the season.

Roshan Fernandez (3-2)
Fatigue setting in
Auburn 72, Syracuse 60

Auburn sits at No. 19 in the latest AP Poll with its only loss of the season coming in double-overtime against UConn. The Tigers are ranked 27th in offensive efficiency and 35th in defensive efficiency, per KenPom, and despite being an inexperienced team with a lot of turnover from previous years, they’re still a strong unit. The Tigers have three scorers who average double-digits.

Syracuse had a good shooting day against Arizona State on Thursday, but its starters all played significant minutes. Going into the third game, the Orange will be fatigued, and their defense is still a work in progress. Auburn will capitalize on that in the final Battle 4 Atlantis game, and Syracuse will leave the Bahamas back at .500.

Gaurav Shetty (2-3)
Hard pressed
Auburn 75, Syracuse 65

Syracuse picked up a solid win over Arizona State after stumbling against VCU’s stifling defense on Wednesday. A big part of that win was Syracuse’s renewed success shooting the ball. The Orange shot just 21.7% from 3 against VCU, but that number doubled to 42.1% against the Sun Devils. A large chunk of that increase came from Swider who finally made his first 3 in three games. However, Syracuse’s success likely came at the expense of its starters: all five of the Orange’s starters played over 35 minutes against ASU and everyone but Jesse Edwards did the same against VCU. When your starters are playing almost the entire game, the third game in three days becomes that much harder. Head coach Jim Boeheim already noted that Auburn is a good pressing and defensive team which will only serve to wear the Orange down even more. I just can’t see Syracuse beating the strongest opponent of this three-game stretch when four of five starters have played almost two full games in two days.

Published on November 26, 2021 at 1:38 pm