The Virginia Cavaliers and the Syracuse Orange engage in a marquee conference matchup this coming Monday. The Cavs are hoping to win out the regular season to secure the ACC regular season title, while the Orange are looking to slay a giant at home to add glimmer to their March resume. See the latest odds for the Cavs and the Orange to win the national tournament here.
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Betting Preview for the Virginia Cavaliers vs. Syracuse Orange College Basketball Game on March 4, 2019
Where: Carrier Dome, Syracuse
When: Monday, March 4, 2019, 9:00 PM ET
Line: Virginia Cavaliers (odds) vs. Syracuse Orange (odds) – view all NCAA Basketball lines
TV Broadcast: ESPN
Betting on the Virginia Cavaliers (26-2 Overall / 14-2 Conference)
Save for perhaps the Duke Blue Devils, there’s no team Virginia fans could confidently and reasonably say the Cavaliers could slow down. The Cavaliers own the best defense in the nation, an assessment that numbers would support. The Cavaliers are tops in the nation in scoring defense with just 54.3 points allowed per game. They are not a great shot-blocking team nor one that generates plenty of steals, but they will put the clamps on their opponents’ offense and shut it down. The Pittsburgh Panthers are the latest to taste that punishing defense, as Virginia took them down on Saturday, 73-49. Virginia is letting opposing teams shoot just around 37 percent from the field. That’s bad news for Syracuse, which is already among the worst in the ACC in field goal shooting percentage and comes with a middling effective field goal shooting percentage.
Dating back to 2008, Virginia is 3-1 against the spread (ATS) in its last four road games against Syracuse.
Betting on the Syracuse Orange (19-10 Overall / 10-6 Conference)
Syracuse can beat any team in the nation. You wouldn’t call it an unfair of Syracuse or a huge reach. After all, Jim Boeheim’s boys have already victimized the likes of Duke and Louisville. The Orange are also coming off a dominant 79-54 road win in Winston Salem over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday. It’s the Orange’s consistency that’s hard to trust, though. In any case, Syracuse has serious talent. Take for example the pair of Tyus Battle and Elijah Hughes. Battle, a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft, is leading the team with 17.6 points per game. Battle showed he can deal serious damage to any type of opponent once again when he dropped 29 points and had five rebounds and five assists while hitting four 3-pointers, albeit in a 93-85 loss in Chapel Hill to the North Carolina Tar Heels on Feb. 26. Syracuse’s defense needs to step up against Virginia’s efficient offense, and one thing the Orange can do is avoid easy looks at the rim to the Cavaliers. Syracuse is No. 1 in the ACC in terms of defensive block percentage.
Syracuse is 10-8 ATS at home on the season. The under has also gone under in the Orange’s last three home games.
Writer’s Prediction
Virginia wins, 64-56.
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