We know the predominant color of the night when the Syracuse Orange (3-3) travel to Champaign to play the Illinois Fighting Illini (5-1) and their famous “Orange Krush” student section. Syracuse has a very young team, and we will see how they perform in their first true road game of the season and also in the first time they’ve been underdogs all year with Illinois a -12.5 point favorite at the offshore sportsbooks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 3-3 start to the year is almost unheard of for Orange coach Jim Boeheim, but it’s not unexpected as he tries to adjust to life without his son – and last year’s leading scorer – Buddy Boeheim<\/strong> who had 19.3 ppg last season. Boeheim’s other son Jimmy also chipped in 13.3 ppg in 2021\/22 as he completed his graduate transfer season<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s now a youth movement in upstate New York as Syracuse is going to rely heavily on freshman like Judah Mintz <\/strong>(16.2 ppg), Justin Taylor<\/strong> (25 points on Saturday), and Chris Bell<\/strong> (14 points Saturday). The Orange do have some ‘old-timers’ too, as Jesse Edwards<\/strong> grabbed 21 points on Saturday and Joe Girard<\/strong> is second on the team with 15.7 ppg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n