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Syracuse pulled off a miraculous comeback against Boston College, defeating the Eagles 95-86 in triple overtime. In regulation, the Orange seemingly had the game in their hands, leading by five points with a minute left. But SU missed three straight front ends of a one-and-one — part of an 18-of-32 performance from the free-throw line — allowing Fred Payne to send the game to overtime with a 3-pointer.

The teams remained deadlocked in the first overtime, though Syracuse trailed by seven in the second period. The Orange went on a 7-2 run to force a third overtime where they allowed just one point to pull out a win.

Next up for Syracuse is a matchup with Miami, another bottom feeder in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes made the Final Four two seasons ago, but have steadily declined over the past two campaigns. They currently sit in dead-last in the conference standings and are likely to miss the ACC Tournament.

Here’s how our beat writers feel Syracuse (11-13, 5-8 ACC) will fare against Miami (5-18, 1-11 ACC):

Zak Wolf (21-3)
Starling Stars
Syracuse 83, Miami 77

Syracuse finally created some separation between it and the bottom three teams in the ACC. Barely. If SU didn’t miraculously come back against BC, this game would hold much more pressure. With Saturday’s win under their belt, the Orange are going to take care of business once again, this time in a slightly easier fashion.

Miami has been a mess all season. Jim Larrañaga retired midway through the season, but even before then, the Hurricanes were widely underperforming. In the preseason ACC poll, Miami was picked sixth, yet it’s only won one conference game this season. With Nijel Pack — who was on Miami’s 2023 Final Four team — still injured, Syracuse doesn’t have a lot to fret about defensively. Matthew Cleveland (16.3 points per game) is a threat on the perimeter, but outside of him, Miami’s threat is minimal.

The Hurricanes also give up an ACC-worst 80 points per game. For a below-average Syracuse offense, Miami’s porous defense shouldn’t be a concern. I sound like a broken record, but Syracuse will look to Starling to be the driving force behind it trying to leave Miami with a win. He once again started slow against BC and turned it on late. Starling has a knack for taking over games this season when SU needs him to.

A win gets the Orange closer to the ACC Tournament in March, something that shouldn’t be a concern but now is due to the state of the program.

Aiden Stepansky (21-3)
Roadkill
Syracuse 76, Miami 72

Syracuse hasn’t produced much away from the JMA Wireless Dome this season. The Orange are just 2-5 on the road, taking down Boston College and California. Following SU’s first win over the Eagles, as Justin and I enjoyed the thrills of navigating the Conte Forum, a clear sign was written on the whiteboard in Syracuse’s locker room: Roadkill.

The Orange will capture their third road win of the year, taking down the Hurricanes in a battle of the bottom of the conference. While SU has seen its fair share of struggles, Miami might be one of the worst teams in Division I. The Hurricanes have won one game in the last 57 days, only defeating Notre Dame on Feb. 1. Through that stretch, Miami is 1-11, building its overall record to 5-18.

To put it simply, a Syracuse loss to the Hurricanes would be the ultimate embarrassment of the season. Yes, SU is bad. We’ve seen multiple 25-plus point losses and it’s barely scraped by other bottom-tier ACC teams. But a loss here would be for the first time — to me, at least — that Adrian Autry would be put on the hot seat. Luckily for Autry, the Orange will once again survive.

Justin Girshon (19-5)
All About The U
Syracuse 79, Miami 70

Following Syracuse’s loss to Duke last Wednesday, Autry went on a tangent about college basketball’s changing landscape. At first, Miami was one of the early beneficiaries of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness, helping it make the Final Four in 2023.

However, college basketball’s changing landscape has come back to bite the Hurricanes. Following a disappointing 15-17 campaign last season, Larrañaga saw his program significantly change and resigned early into the 2024-25 season, citing NIL as the reason why.

Based on the aforementioned information, it’s no surprise Miami is among the worst teams in college basketball this year. While Syracuse hasn’t fared too well itself, I see it cruising to a near 10-point win facing a far inferior team despite being on the road.

Published on February 10, 2025 at 10:42 pm