Syracuse vs Baylor 3/21/19 - NCAA Tournament Picks & Predictions

The No. 8 seeded Syracuse Orange will play the No. 9 seeded Baylor Bears on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament West Region in Salt Lake City. The Orange were sixth in the ACC regular season and lost to the Duke Blue Devils on Thursday 84-72 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. Frank Howard led the Orange in the loss with 28 points while Buddy Boeheim scored 15.

Baylor finished fourth in the Big 12 during the regular season and lost its last outing on Thursday to the Iowa State Cyclones 83-66 in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals. Baylor is a very young team with just two players on the squad that had played in a Big 12 tournament prior to this week’s tournament. Baylor is reeling having lost four straight. Tyus Battle leads Syracuse in scoring with an average of 17.2 points per game. Two other Orange players are averaging double figures in scoring. Oshae Brissett is the leading rebounder with an average of 7.5 per game. Frank Howard leads the team in assists with an average of 2.9 per game. Syracuse is shooting 42.4% from the field and 33.0% from 3-point territory.

Tristan Clark leads Baylor in scoring with an average of 14.6 points per game. The leading rebounder is Mark Vital with an average of 7.2 per game. Makai Mason leads the Bears in assists with an average of 3.3 per game. Baylor is shooting 44.0% from the field and 34.0% from 3-point territory.