Syracuse ensured on Wednesday that the road for Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke Blue Devils to win an ACC title has to go through the Big Apple’s lone representative in the tournament.
The Jim Boeheim led Syracuse Orange handily defeated Florida State, 96-57, to set up a meeting between two of college basketball’s most storied coaches in the ACC quarterfinals. That means for the Orange a chance to play spoiler awaits them on Thursday with the national spotlight shining bright on the upcoming matchup.
It’s no secret that this year’s ACC Tournament in Brooklyn would focus heavily on the legendary coach’s final time leading Duke through it. Krzyzewski is stepping down as head coach at Duke where he has held the post since 1980 and his squad is expected to play with an increased sense of purpose to try and win for their coach, especially after losing their final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium last weekend to rival North Carolina.
For Syracuse, the idea is to not get too caught up in the outside noise.
“I mean, you just play your game,” Syracuse guard Joseph Girard III. “Not to really talk about another team, but I think last week we saw what North Carolina did when there was all that hype around their game. So we’re just kind of going in, taking it day-by-day. This is the ACC tournament. Anything can happen. We know that. We’re staying positive just like we did coming into today.
“Not to say it’s just like another game, but we know it’s do-or-die at this point. But we’re still taking it day-by-day and making sure we’re going into this game positive and confident and just going to do what we do.”
Syracuse finished the year far where it expected it would going .500 on the season and just 9-11 against ACC opponents. They lost their final four games to end the season, which included a 97-72 loss to Duke last month in upstate New York.
The Orange also lost an earlier meeting against Duke at Cameron Indoor.
“They’ve handled us both times with no problem. We haven’t been in the game with them,” Boeheim said. “They’re particularly difficult for us because of the big guy. They throw it over to the top to him. Ben Carroll’s really good in the middle, and they’ve got great shooters. They’re a difficult matchup, really difficult matchup for us in our zone. We’re going to have to play better offensively than we did in the two games with them to be in the game, but they’re a very difficult matchup. It is what it is.
“We’ve played everybody in the league tough, either beaten all the other teams in the league or lost by one. They’re the one team we haven’t been able to play against. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
The win over FSU should serve as a good boost for the Orange, who led for 36:24 of Wednesday’s win. Syracuse shot 38-of74 from the field and 11-of-28 from three.
Syracuse also held FSU to 36 points in the paint and won the rebounding battle, 52-35, and held Florida State to 15 second-chance points. They know they’ll need to replicate that on Thursday.
“I’m really proud of what they’ve done, how they played, and how they’ve hung together,” Boeheim said about his team this season. “These are crushing losses that we’ve had, and it would be very easy to let that get to you, and they haven’t done that. On the other hand, we’ve got a tremendous challenge tomorrow.
“Duke, I think, is a great team. They’re particularly good against our defense, and we’re just going to have to try to see if we can make some adjustments and try to play a little better tomorrow.”
