Following a win over the Connecticut Huskies (6-3, 0-0), SU prepares for its next matchup. Saturday, the Carrier Dome plays host for the 170th contest between the Orange (7-1, 0-0) and the Raiders (3-5, 0-0).
For Syracuse, it is coming off a 72-63 bounce-back victory over UConn at Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V Classic. Oshae Brissett’s fourth double-double of the season and Tyus Battle’s team-leading 22 points of the game lifted the ’Cuse over the former Big East rivals.
Colgate, however, has lost three in-a-row and four of their last five. Most recently, the Raiders suffered a 78-76 loss to Marist University, despite having four double-digit scorers in the game.
SU versus Colgate starts at 2:00. Countdown to Tip-off begins at 1:30 on WAER, 88.3 FM.
As for this matchup, though, Syracuse has dominated the 115-year history between these two teams by an overwhelming margin. The Orange is 124-45 all-time against the Raiders. In fact, Colgate has not beaten SU in the last 51 contests. The maroon-and-white last won when JFK was president, and Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” was at the top of the charts, in 1962.
If anything will be a problem for the Orange it will be the three-point line. Syracuse has been outshot beyond the arc in five of its eight contests thus far. Meanwhile, the Raiders post 11.3 3s per game, good enough for tenth in the country. For comparison, SU has only hit 27.4% of its 3s this season; Colgate has hit 39.6%.
After Saturday, Syracuse heads to Georgetown for another former Big East rival to take on the Hoyas on December 16th.