Duke Basketball vs Syracuse: 80 - 72

This was an all Duke game.  Wait, what do I mean by this when Syracuse was up by 11 with 3:10 left in the first half?  The major reason Syracuse was up was due to the fact that former Duke guard Michael Gbinije was hitting everything.  He'd just walk up the court and sink it in from beyond the arc.  He had 19 points in the first half.  After Gbinije made his point, Duke got things under control by raining threes, as well.  Quinn Cook, Justise Winslow and Matt Jones all hit threes in the final minutes of the first half.  The half ended with Duke down just by 3, 36 - 39.

Even though Duke eventually went on to win by 12, it never felt like Duke really had the game fully in hand.  Syracuse kept it competitive.  Gbinije was held in check, but other Syracuse players stepped up.

Unfortunately, for Syracuse they have a really short bench this year.  They went 8 deep according to the box score, but one of those players only played 2 minutes.  Everyone talks about Duke having a short bench, which is true, but even with Rasheed Sulaimon gone Duke is still going with an 8 player rotation.  In past seasons, Duke has played only 7 deep so I say going 8 deep for Duke indicates a rather deep bench.