Know Your Foe: Syracuse

Written By Tucker Harlin

Logo World

By Tucker Harlin

#3 Tennessee (7-0) begins December with an orange (or black?) on orange battle against Syracuse (4-2) in the SEC/ACC Challenge at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.

The game tips at 7:30 p.m. ET and airs on ESPN. The Vols are favored by 21.5 points against the Orange.

Tennessee is 4-3 against Syracuse all time, winning each of the last three. Only one of those last three meetings was in my lifetime.

That meeting was Tennessee’s 73-56 victory in the Maui Invitational moved to Honolulu due to the wildfires just over a year ago today. Dalton Knecht led the way with 17 points while both Jonas Aidoo and Josiah-Jordan James finished with double-doubles.

In case you weren’t aware, Jim Boeheim very angrily left the world of college basketball in March 2023, handing the baton to Adrian Autry. A point guard for the Orange in the early 1990s, Autry has been on staff at Syracuse since 2011.

Syracuse didn’t appear in the NCAA in Autry’s first season at the helm, and it’s trending that way again this season. It’s very early in the season, but the Orange is among the bottom five power conference teams in the NET at the moment.

Syracuse’s largest margin of victory this season was in an 82-72 win over Cornell to close out November. Youngstown State, Colgate, and Le Moyne all stayed within single digits of the Orange.

The Feast Week result was a fourth place finish at the four-team UKG Legends Classic in Brooklyn. The Orange dropped two-possession losses to both Texas and Texas Tech.

There are two key players the Vols saw in Maui who returned for the Orange this season. However, guard J.J. Starling is going to miss Tuesday’s contest with a hand injury, a big hit to Syracuse’s production.

Syracuse’s best player against Tennessee last year was forward Chris Bell, who scored 16 on a 7/13 shooting performance. It’s been an up and down start to this season for Bell, but he also shined bright against Texas Tech with 22 points in the loss.

The Orange’s steadiest interior presences are forward Donnie Freeman and center Eddie Lampkin Jr.

Freeman is a five star freshman from IMG, averaging just shy of a double-double for the Orange in six games. You may remember Lampkin from recent NCAA tournaments when he was playing for TCU and Colorado. Lampkin has contributed ample portions this season, but he was limited to nine bench minutes against Cornell.

With the announcement of Starling’s injury, look for increased minutes and production from Jyare Davis and Jaquan Carlos.

Carlos is a former teammate of Darlinstone Dubar at Hofstra while Davis was a Delaware Blue Hen. Carlos is a regular starter for the Orange while Davis is a bench commodity.

Tucker Harlin
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