Candy Stripe Scoop – Is It Real? IU Faces Syracuse Monday (Week Two)
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis, IN) How to Watch: FS1 (and in our forum here) Opponent Glance: The Syracuse Orange are 2-0 head coach Gerry McNamara’s first campaign in charge. They opened with a 16-point victory over New Haven and then drilled Central Connecticut State 102-49 on November 5. During the exhibition season, Syracuse lost to UConn (72-52) and narrowly beat Siena. The Orange are led by Siena transfer Gavin Doty and Kiyan Anthony. Both are 6’5” guards or wings that are averaging better than 15 points per game. Jaeden Mustaf figures to draw the assignment on at least one of those individuals and the Hoosiers will probably lean on a variety of others to defend the second leading offensive weapon for Syracuse. The Orange have not been inclined to play a quick pace (299th in adjusted tempo) so this probably won’t turn into a track meet but IU should have an advantage down low as Syracuse has some height but lacks the kind of bulk Indiana can throw at them with Samet Yigitoglu, Aiden Sherrell and Sam Alexis. IU’s defense has shown the ability to really bother opponents with length and size but the attention to detail on that end has been inconsistent thus far and DeVries will be needing to see 40 minutes of high-intensity defense in order to win.
