Louisville vs Syracuse Odds, Lines and Spread

• The Louisville Cardinals (11-4, 6-3 ACC) play the Syracuse Orange (10-5, 4-4 ACC) on Wednesday, February 3rd
• Both teams are heading into this game after much needed conference wins
• See the odds, spread, analysis, and best bet below

The Louisville Cardinals and Syracuse Orange will meet for the first time this season at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday (Feb. 3rd, 7:00 pm ET).

Both schools are on the outside looking in when it comes to the ACC standings but they both took steps in the right direction in their last game. The Cardinals soundly beat a better than average Georgia Tech side 74-58 on Monday. Meanwhile, the Orange came back from a double digit deficit to beat North Carolina State on Sunday.

This series has gone back and forth with both teams winning two out of the last four meetings but the Cardinals slaughtered the Orange 90-66 in the last one on February 19, 2020. The current odds are showing Syracuse as a 1.5-point favorite in this matchup.

Louisville vs Syracuse Odds

Odds as of February 2nd at FanDuel.

Louisville Is A Good Team

Last week was an up and down experience for the Cardinals. They entered the week in the AP Top-25 after beating the Duke Blue Devils 70-65 on January 23rd. They promptly went to Clemson and were beaten by the Tigers 54-50 four days later, then had their January 30 game against Boston College postponed due to Covid-19 concerns.

Even though the Cardinals were likely to fall out of the top-25 this week because of the Clemson loss, they didn’t let it stop them beating the brakes off of Georgia Tech 74-58 on Monday.

Highlights from the Cards 74-58 win over Georgia Tech.#GoCards pic.twitter.com/BSpd7bemJH

— Louisville Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) February 1, 2021

Louisville started and finished their game with the Yellow Jackets unlike the game against Clemson. They took a 4-point advantage into the locker room at halftime before blowing the game open in the second half. David Johnson and Samuel Williamson became the first pair of Louisville teammates to score at least 20 points and grab at least 10 rebounds in the same game since Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier accomplished the feat on February 11, 2015 against Pittsburgh.

Syracuse Can Score

The Orange are ranked inside the top 50 in the country in points per game this season at 77.7 per contest. They are an efficient bunch that is 31st in the nation in offensive efficiency when adjusted for opponent according to KenPom. They needed every bit of that offense in their last game against the NC State Wolfpack.

🎥 Highlights

Syracuse 76
NC State 73 pic.twitter.com/aq9i3iiIzO

— Syracuse Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) February 1, 2021

The Orange defense was non-existent in the first half which lead to a 47-38 deficit going into the second half. They turned it around in the second half limiting the Wolfpack to 26 points while hanging 38 more themselves. Syracuse got a balanced effort in the scoring department as five players reached double digits led by Alan Griffin’s 19.

Best Betting Angle

This has all the makings of a close game played by two fairly evenly matched teams. Syracuse has the slightly better offense and Louisville has the better defense ranking 31st in the country in efficiency when adjusted for opponent. The side looks about where it should be barring an outlier shooting performance from either team but there could be value on the total.

Syracuse has only lost one game at home this season. They can score the basketball on good defenses because they can shoot free throws. They are currently seventh in the nation hitting almost 80% of their free throw attempts. Even if Louisville can slow them down offensively they might not be able to keep them away from the charity stripe. The Cardinals are 258th in the nation in fouls per possession.

Given the pace-up spot for Louisville versus a sub par defense and the cheat code points for Syracuse, this game could see more points than the books think. A wager on the over is not a bad idea.

Pick: Over 140.5 (-110)