The season outlook for Syracuse Men’s Basketball is bleak.
Sure, there’s one big win (Tennessee) and a couple of close losses to good squads. But blemishes to Hofsta and Clemson really hurt the resume.
So what does Syracuse need? A lot of convincing ACC victories in the next months. A lot of them.
Tuesday night was the first big opportunity. A back-of-the-pack Georgia Tech team hosted Syracuse, and while it wasn’t easy, SU got an important double-digit win, 82-72. But like any Syracuse sporting event, there were a lot of highs and a lot of lows. So let’s check out the good news and the bad.
The good – Donnie Freeman is legit legit
Well, it seems like the injury is fully healed. Syracuse’s star sophomore went off for a career-high 27 points and carried SU to its first ACC and road victory of the year.
Syracuse fans should now be wondering what could have been if SU had been with Donnie the whole season. But one thing is for sure. There’s a clear top player on this team. And when he’s on his A-game, this entire team has a chance in pretty much any game.
The good – The offense has some ropes
This comes directly from the first piece of good news. Donnie Freeman being on the court opens up the offense in so many ways, and Syracuse took advantage. The Orange put up 44 points in the first half off of exciting threes and electrifying dunks.
While things tapered off in the second half, the first 20 minutes showed that SU’s offense…when put together…can work really well.
The bad – Keeping a lead should not be that hard
For the first 10 minutes of the second half, it seemed like Syracuse had a blowout win in the books. And then things turned south.
Syracuse couldn’t score. Every possession seemed to have a foul. And the defense got sloppy. It’s 2026, and SU still can’t play 40 full minutes. That’s not great.
The bad – It only gets harder from here
Like it says earlier, Boston College is a bottom-of-the-pack ACC team. Power rankings have BC in the bottom three. While SU’s next three matchups are against easier conference foes, Syracuse enters a tough stretch starting with Virginia Tech. Performances like this won’t turn out wins in those games.
