The days of this year’s Syracuse basketball team have been numbered. Orange fans will not be anxiously watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, the NIT Draw, or even the ACC tournament with their team in mind, and yet for some reason fans are still trying to find a purpose in the games that Syracuse will play over the next month. For these people it’s time to face the facts: the remainder of the Syracuse basketball season is meaningless, and nobody living outside of the Syracuse area will be caring about what this team does.
A quick disclaimer: this isn’t to say that Syracuse players have nothing to gain from the games that the Orange will play in the next 30 days. Kaleb Joseph, Trevor Cooney, and pretty much everyone else on the roster have room to improve and will get valuable experience from playing the top teams in the ACC. A strong finish should catch the eye of Thomas Bryant as well.
Whether it’s for a player’s individual improvement, to attract recruits, or in the case of Rakeem Christmas: to raise draft stock, everyone in the organization has reason to still give 100 percent for the Orange’s last eight games. However, Syracuse fans have to realize that none of it has to do with winning basketball games. Are the Orange constantly looking to better themselves as a basketball team? Obviously. Would winning games be an added bonus? Of course. Just don’t be mistaken into thinking that winning is the primary goal.  This team is already looking to the future, and I can’t say that I blame them.
This season will no longer be remembered by Syracuse’s record, but rather as the year that the Orange kicked themselves out of a tournament they probably wouldn’t have made in the first place in an attempt to apologize to the NCAA. Nobody will remember how well Syracuse does in the upcoming month. None of it matters.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Posted:  Nathan Dickinson
