In his first season as head coach of the Orange, Adrian Autry has built a schedule that will test his team more than most in the country. Last year, the non-conference schedule was easy. Outside of the ACC-B1G challenge, and the annual Georgetown game, the best team SU played was St Johns. The Red Storm barely finished above .500.
This year, Autry has built a schedule that will show if the 2023-24 Syracuse Men’s Basketball team is legit or not. The season starts with its usual cupcakes: New Hampshire, Canisius, and Colgate. Then, right away it gets very difficult for the Orange. SU is competing in the Maui Invitational this year, one of if not the top early season tournaments in the country. In Hawaii, Syracuse will play at least two top-ten teams in the country, in the span of just a few days. Tenneseee is locked into the schedule, then they will play either Gonzaga or Purdue.
After Maui, the Orange will be thrown into the first edition of the ACC/SEC challenge less than a week later. SU takes on LSU, then the first ACC game of the season is Virginia on the Road just five days later. Before the year 2023 comes to an end, Syracuse also has to play at Georgetown, play Oregon on the West Coast, and play Pitt.
Then, on just the second day of 2024, SU has to go down to Durham to take on Duke in front of the Cameron Crazies. This will not be an easy first year for Autry by any means. The end of the ACC schedule is much lighter, offering some easy wins towards the end of the season. But, if Autry and co. want to make the tournament in their first year, they’ll have to have early success. There is a lot of optimism around the 2023-24 team, but they’ll have to prove their potential early.
