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Tuesday night’s matchup between Syracuse (16-6, 7-2) and the 22nd ranked Florida State Seminoles (16-5, 4-4) will be a measuring stick game for the Orange.
Coming off back-to-back wins, Cuse welcomes a Noles team that is riding a three game win streak of their own. Syracuse defeated Pittsburg 65-56 Saturday night just a couple hours after FSU topped a struggling Georgia Tech team 59-49.
Playing host to a ranked conference foe should provide some clarity for a Syracuse squad that has been unpredictable all season. Is this the Syracuse team that lost to Old Dominion at home? Or the Syracuse team that beat top ranked Duke on the road? Maybe both. It is college basketball after all.
One thing that was confirmed over the weekend is that the Orange are in fact cable of winning without climbing on the back of Tyus Battle. The star guard had just 6 points in the winning effort versus Pitt. Osha Brissett and Frank Howard were able to pick up the slack with 18 and 15 points, respectively. The comfort of the Carrier Dome crowd, and the 36 points he drooped on the Noles last year are two reasons to believe Tyus will redeem himself come Tuesday night.
The Seminoles started their season on a tear holding just one loss heading into conference play, before dropping four of their first five ACC games. There isn’t one particular thing the Noles truly excel at. They are long and extremely athletic, making them a tough out for any opponent.
FSU will look towards leading scorer Mfiondu Kabengele to lead the way and for 7ft 4 center, Christ Koumadje to be their zone buster inside the Orange defense.
The two programs have met just ten times in the history of each other’s existence with Syracuse holding a 7-3 edge in the series. The last time Leonard Hamilton brought his team to the Carrier Dome, unranked Syracuse upset #6 FSU, 82-72.
The mail was starting to pile up back in Syracuse as the Orange haven't played in front of their home crowd in over a week. The Cuse will be welcomed back by over 20,000 people dressed in the same color, and by night’s end the image of the 2018-2019 Syracuse Orange basketball team should become that much clearer.