What Does Syracuse Need to Do in the ACC Tournament?

Well here we are on the paw print at center court at Little John Coliseum. The Clemson Tigers

take down the Syracuse Orange 90-75. I'm Francesco Simone and if I had to take

one takeaway from this game it's simple. You have to look at a big picture and Syracuse's

resume when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. Now it already looked dire coming into today

On no brackets anywhere that you're going to find would see Syracuse in the field. Some you saw in

the next four out, some even first four out. Joe Leonardi had them as the 13th team out of the

NCAA Tournament and today's loss to Clemson is certainly not going to help that. And it's not

that they lost to Clemson, that's the big deal. It's that they lost the chance and a big resume

boosting win probably would have been their second biggest win of the season behind the home win

against North Carolina a couple of weeks ago. So now Syracuse puts itself in a situation where

it basically either has to win the ACC Tournament or at the very least go to the

ACC Tournament Championship Game to have a chance to make it into the NCAAs. And obviously it's going

to be difficult because Syracuse is not going to have a double bye. It's going to be either the 5

the 6, or the 7 seed in that ACC Tournament. So that means either three wins in three days at

the very least or potentially even four wins in four days to win that ACC Tournament. And

if Syracuse wants to do that it's going to need all hands on deck. And the issue that Syracuse

has right now is it's only really got six hands. You have Judah Mintz, J.J. Starling was shaken up

today. That's not going to help things at all. Chris Bell didn't really play well. Justin Taylor

was quiet offensively. Guido Coppola had himself a nice game offensively but not much else after

that. And Malik Brown was Malik Brown. But can you count on it six guys to give you three wins in

three days again at the very least or even four wins in four days? It's going to be very, very

difficult for Syracuse to make it past that ACC Tournament in DC next week. But I will say this

though. Even if Syracuse does not go to the NCAA Tournament as obviously it seems like it's not

going to happen right now. If you're a Syracuse fan you should be happy with the way the season

has gone. You've won 20 games. The last two years you've been basically a 500 team. Take the step

forward and run with it with a team next year that could be even better. Now you don't want to think that way obviously. You want to go to the NCAA Tournament every year. But you have to be

realistic and you have to give Adrian Autry a ton of credit taking over again a 500 program

winning them 20 games in his first season as head coach with a whole bunch of injuries having

Benny Williams kicked off the team. It's a really, really good job that Autry has done

Syracuse still has an outside chance. It's not looking likely but hey you never know

So even if it doesn't work out I think you should be pleased with the season. Take it into next year

and if it does work out you know what we'll see you towards the end of March. So again either way

you should be happy if you're a Syracuse fan. Be excited for the present because again that

chance is still there and most importantly be excited for the future