The Syracuse Orange and Iowa Hawkeyes are playing live on the 2K Classic NCAA College Basketball tournament schedule on Friday and the game is on ESPN2 on TV and streaming online from WatchESPN starting up past 5 pm ET and it will be at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Syracuse comes into the game at 2-1 on the season and they are ranked 23rd in the nation and come in after losing to Cal on Thursday. The team played that game on the road and after this matchup, they have a game against Loyola and that will be back at the Carrier Dome. The ACC is very tough this season with Duke, North Carolina and Virginia, but coach Jim Boeheim thinks the Orange can make a run.
The team has a tough schedule and early in the season they have games against ranked teams like Michigan and Villanova. The team plays against Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech to open the ACC schedule and their first big conference game comes on the road in Chapel Hill against the Tar Heels. UNC is currently ranked in the top 10 along with Duke and the Orange also will have to deal with top 10 ranked Louisville.
The final stretch of the season will be tough, as the team plays Duke twice in a month and they also end the season with three of four on the road. The team opens Feb with games on the road against Pitt and Boston College and after that they have back to back games against Duke and Louisville. After that the team hosts Pitt and then they play on the road against Notre Dame and Duke. To end the season Syracuse has Virginia and North Carolina State and those games will be tough heading into the ACC tournament.
Rakeem Christmas is leading Syracuse in scoring and rebounding to start the season and he is averaging a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds early on. Iowa comes into the game after a loss as well and that was to Texas, and now both teams are 2-1 after a 2-0 start and that adds some weight to this matchup. There are some tough teams in the Big Ten this season, as Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State all are ranked and could be sleepers, while Wisconsin is strong and look like the favorites. Iowa has a tough stretch later in the season, as they play Ohio State, Wisconsin home and away and Michigan in a span of five games.
The Orange could be one of the sleeper teams in the ACC and this is a nice test to see how the team bounces back from a tough loss this season.
Check here for the Syracuse Orange and Iowa Hawkeyes live coverage.
