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Message: [QUOTE="Niastri, post: 5263417, member: 722"] With the big game tomorrow that could be a huge boost to Syracuse's season, I decided to take a look at Tennessee's basketball team. Tennessee is 7-0 and just came back ranked #1 overall in the first NET ranking. They are 19.5 point favorites over Syracuse for tomorrow's game. Here are my thoughts: First, Tennessee's shocking lack of talent. I'm not kidding here, they have only 5 players that made the RSCI top100, and the highest ranked player, JP Estrella was only ranked 54 and is injured. Syracuse also has five top100 players, including two starters, Starling and Freeman, ranked higher than the highest Tennessee player. Looking at their roster and their results gives some credence to the recruiting ranking deniers. How did such an untalented team blow out everybody they played this year? The top 4 scorers for Tennessee are all un-ranked seniors. 6'10 224 pound Igor Milicic and 6'11" 230 lb Felix Okpara are their big men, and their only big men. Both average just under 7 boards a game. Now that Estrella is out, their only other big man is Cade Phillips at 6'9" 210lb. Tennessee is a three guard lineup team. These four players are all in double digit scoring, led by Chaz Lanier, a little under 18 per game. Their point guard, listed at 5'9" 160 lbs is from Long Island, and he's everything we hoped Carlos would be... He's averaging 12 points, 8 assists, and 2 steals in just under 33 minutes. He's led Tennessee in assists for three years. How does Tennessee dominate, with a 25 point average margin of victory? Tennessee plays slow, locks you down on defense (54.7 points allowed), gets all the rebounds (allowing opponents only 16 defensive rebounds per game, with a rebound margin of 12) and they make their shots. They make more than 60% of their two point shots so far, and 38% of their threes. They are all plus athletes and their motion offense gets them to the rim or gets open threes. Syracuse has a huge size advantage if Lampkin is healthy. Tennessee is thin in the middle. If we can get him and Freeman going inside, foul trouble in the Tennessee big men could be a major weakness. Nobody has exploited it yet. Syracuse and Tennessee both dominate the boards, so it could turn into strength on strength. Tennessee makes it hard to get inside, and they force a lot of bad threes, opponents are only shooting 27%. Most teams don't have Bell and Moore, though. The combination of superior interior size, and a hot shooting game from those two could let Syracuse secure a huge victory on the road against the NET's number one team. [/QUOTE]

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