Hoyas and Orangemen in Big East Bash

This is one of the storied rivalries from the Big East and it plays on in upstate New York. For Georgetown (15-3, 8-6 ATS), patience is truly a virtue. The Hoyas are at their best when the offense runs thru center Greg Monroe. The sophomore has displayed an acute awareness of how to play the game since arriving on campus and besides his ability to score, rebound and play defense, he has the knack of finding open shooters. He’s contributed assists to Austin Freeman and Chris Wright when they had career games this season. To the chagrin of backers, Monroe and mates are 5-10-1 ATS in January games over the last two seasons.

Syracuse (19-1, 12-4 ATS) hosted maddening Marquette on Saturday holding them off 76-71 as 8.5-point favorites and have quick turnaround for this battle. Besides the surprise element this team has produced, the Orangemen have been remarkably consistent, with very few valleys for coach Jim Boeheim. Wes Johnson has been a big reason for this, providing double-double’s most nights or close to it. Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku both do excellent work on the low boxes, which frees up visual lanes for shooters like Andy Rautins. In spite of distinguished record at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse is 13-23 ATS at home facing teams with win percentage of 80 or higher.

DiamondSportsbook.com has the Orangemen as six-point favorites with total of 146 and Syracuse has covered 12 of its last 16 home games. The Orangemen are the best shooting team in the country at 53.4 percent and drain 38.9 percent from beyond the three point line. This Syracuse club is more athletic and does an outstanding job in its 2-3 zone limiting teams to 37.6 percent from the field and is 10-4 ATS this season off a victory.

Georgetown is no slouch offensively, converting on 49.7 percent from the field and nailing 39.9 percent behind the arc. They shot 63 percent Saturday against Rutgers in 88-63 rout as 19.5-point home favorites, which was their fifth highest shooting percentage in 13 years. The Hoyas get the job done with greater effectiveness if Wright is scoring, since they don’t have a number of dependable scorers like the Orange.

Monday night brings out different variables for both teams, with G-Town 4-10 against the spread on this day of the week. They Hoyas are 6-1 UNDER on Monday’s while Syracuse is 8-3 UNDER, making the total worth noting.

The Orangemen are 8-1 and 6-3 ATS in previous nine home outings against G-Town.

This Big East battle begins at 7 Eastern on ESPN.