Online Sports Betting – Syracuse Now Owns Golden Opportunity

The Syracuse Orange began the week thinking that they’d likely be forced to play four games in order to win the Big East Tournament. Now online sports betting cappers know that they’re in a position to get a double-bye for the tournament.

DePaul Blue Demons @ Syracuse Orange

Saturday, March 5th – 4:05 PM ET.
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY.
TV: ESPN3, ESPN Full-Court

At the beginning of this week, all signs pointed to the St. John’s Red Storm getting the fourth and final double-bye for the five-round Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York. All St. John’s needed to do was put away Seton Hall, one of the lower-division finishers in the conference, on Thursday night in Newark, New Jersey. Had the Red Storm been able to take care of business, they would have had a layup against South Florida on Saturday to wrap up the double-bye and move straight to the quarterfinals. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the Garden: St. John’s lost to Seton Hall.

Now, the Syracuse Orange – who were likely expecting to have to play next Wednesday in the Big East Tournament’s second round – can now unseat St. John’s for the number four seed in the event and an automatic spot in Thursday’s quarterfinal round. This is a big prize for Syracuse; the Orange endured a four-game losing streak in the middle of their Big East season and teetered on the edge of irrelevance at times. Gaining a double-bye makes winning the conference tournament a realistic possibility. Getting two days off, not just one, will help keep this team reasonably fresh before the NCAA Tournament, so it’s clear that coach Jim Boeheim’s team has an awful lot to play for in this contest.

Online Sports Betting: What DePaul Must Do To Win
 
The Blue Demons simply need to max out. DePaul has won only one conference game this year, at Providence. Last year, DePaul won only one Big East game, versus Marquette. In 2009, the Blue Demons went 0-18 during the Big East regular season and grabbed a solitary conference scalp in the league tournament against Cincinnati. This is an inept and impotent program on an historically bad scale. New coach Oliver Purnell left an NCAA Tournament team at Clemson in order to get a megabucks deal at the suburban Chicago school. Purnell’s checkbook is fatter, but his win total has been severely reduced. The program that once gained high seeds in the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis in the Ray Meyer era is now a laughingstock in major college basketball. DePaul has to do everything really well for 40 minutes and hope that Syracuse plays one of its poorest games of the season. The visitors from the state of Illinois need to make perimeter shots in order to extend Syracuse’s defense and then set up dribble penetration into the paint. If DePaul can do that, it can compete.
 
Online Sports Betting: What Syracuse Must Do To Win

Show up. DePaul is a very limited and under-resourced team, to say the least. A solid, workmanlike effort with a reasonable amount of energy and an appreciable degree of focus is all Syracuse really needs to win this game. Syracuse has gotten casual in previous home games, and as a result, the Orange almost paid the price in a lucky overtime escape against Rutgers a few weeks ago. Syracuse can’t take this game for granted; as long as the Orange arrive at the arena and act like they want to be there, they should be in perfectly good shape.
 
Outlook & Online Sports Betting Pick
 
No, don’t over-think this game. It really isn’t very complicated. Syracuse is a very solid team, DePaul a plainly poor one. Syracuse is playing at home on Senior Day before a big crowd and has a lot of incentive to win. Pick the Orange for every conceivable reason in the book.

Online Sports Betting Pick: Syracuse