Syracuse basketball looked dead in the water after its humiliating loss to Boston College to open ACC play. Since then, Syracuse has rattled off back-to-back home conference wins over Miami and Pittsburgh.
In the words of Lee Corso, NOT SO FAST!!!
Syracuse is again relevant in college basketball. The Orange beat Pitt by double-figures at the Carrier Dome to win their 2nd straight game.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) January 7, 2017
It’s encouraging to see Syracuse taking care of business at home. For the Orange to completely overcome its dreadful non-conference start though, SU must win on the road.
Here are the team’s next four games.
at Virginia Tech
vs. Boston College
at North Carolina
at Notre Dame
The “weakest” opponent on that list is Boston College and Syracuse nearly gave up a 100-spot to the Eagles in Boston a little over a week ago. The other three teams have all been ranked at one time this season (Notre Dame and North Carolina will almost certainly be ranked by the time SU plays them).
Miami and Pittsburgh were must wins to get the season back on track. Now it’s all about resume building.
Syracuse is yet to win away from the Carrier Dome this season. Obviously that needs to change if the Orange wants to get back into tournament contention. In the next few weeks, Jim Boeheim’s team has three opportunities to show that the earlier blips on the road are a thing of the past.
Looking back to last season
Last year and this season are already starting to draw parallels. SU lost twelve regular season games a year ago and snuck into the NCAA Tournament field. The Orange will have a similar number of regular season losses this year.
Last season Syracuse started conference play 0-4, this year the Orange recorded five non-conference losses.
No matter how you view things, here is a fact. Winning in Atlantis was the main reason why SU made the 2016 tournament. BUT, Syracuse also beat Duke at Cameron Indoor in conference play and that made a difference as well.
To have a chance this time around, SU must win on the road (and at a better clip than last season when the team finished 3-8).
The opportunities are there, now it’s time to take them.
Posted: Connor Morrissette
