Of course, trends are also easily broken.
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As you’ll unfortunately recall, the Syracuse Orange’s final regular season Big East game ended in blowout fashion: a 61-39 loss at the Georgetown Hoyas. Since then, SU’s had the upper hand by a 3-2 margin (plus an additional “W” from earning a trip to the 2013 Final Four in the Hoyas’ home arena).
But more specifically, all five of those contests have been decided by single digits, and two of those have gone to overtime, with both of those resulting in Syracuse wins.
A quick review of the last five contests:
- 2018: 72-71 win at Syracuse (on a Tyus Battle buzzer beater)
- 2017: 86-79 win at Georgetown (overtime)
- 2016: 78-71 loss at Syracuse
- 2015: 79-72 loss at Georgetown
- 2013: 58-55 win in Big East Tournament (overtime)
While the 2013 regular season finale breaks up that streak, you can even look further back to see a trend of close contests in this matchup. The six games before that (from 2010 to 2013) also came down to single digits. And 12 of the 16 games before that were the same.
It shouldn’t surprise that a heated rivalry largely predicated on being two of the top three programs in a (former) conference features so many close games. Still, this one appears to run as close as they come.
... To be clear, though, the most important thing is winning this game. And whichever team loses this one is probably going to have its fans feeling like they want to chug bleach. But this is an article worth reading, I swear.
Here, look at Tyus Battle crushing the Hoyas last year.
