Syracuse Basketball: There’s Work Left to Do
By David Stone
After a thrilling overtime win against Virginia Tech, Syracuse basketball is one step closer to the NCAA tournament, but there is still plenty of work left to do.
Whew, what a couple days. Between National Signing Day for football, and Syracuse basketball’s thriller on Tuesday night, it’s been a whirlwind for Syracuse athletics. Thankfully Syracuse has nine days of recovery time before their next game against Florida State, because they absolutely need it.
What they also need is to keep on winning. Yes, this 6-1 stretch has been outstanding and has gone a long way to pulling Syracuse basketball out of the abyss they were in after an 0-4 conference start, but they can’t take their foot off the pedal yet. With seven games left in the season, a lot can happen and there’s still some very big games if this team wants to be dancing in March.
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The first of those big games comes against Florida State at home on February 11th. This is by no means an easy game. FSU sits at 15-7, 5-5 in the ACC, and are coming off three straight wins. Four of their seven losses this year have come to ranked opponents, and two others were against Pitt and Clemson.
Florida State is a big, tough, physical team that could give Syracuse basketball fits. They are led by the freshman duo of Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon. You won’t find a much better tandem in all of college basketball. The duo have combined for 33.8 points and 11.6 rebounds per contest. Combined with Xavier Rathan-Mayes, this three-guard lineup has played some outstanding basketball all year, including wins over VCU, Mississipi State, Florida, and Virginia.
That game is followed up by a two-game road trip to Boston College and Louisville. Although Syracuse crushed BC in the first matchup, I wouldn’t expect the same in game two. Boston College shot just 32% overall and 23% from 3, and while some of that can be credited to smothering SU defense, some of it was just an off night for BC. At home, things could be very different.
Then comes Louisville, a team Syracuse has struggled against ever since Rick Pitino became the coach. Syracuse basketball is just 5-9 against Louisville since he came on board. They did win last year, but both teams were significantly different then. Syracuse doesn’t have Rak, Louisville doesn’t have Harrell, among other key differences. As always, this game will not be easy, but will be especially difficult on the road.
After that, it’s a home game against Pitt, another SU zone killer. Syracuse basketball is an abysmal 6-13 against Pitt since Jamie Dixon took over. He’s one of those coaches who just knows how to attack the zone, and has a team of solid passers who know exactly where to get the ball to beat us. Pitt already won the game earlier this year in their home arena, so hopefully Syracuse can get some payback.
Following that is a game against NC State. Although State have been pretty awful this year in conference play (2-8), they’ve beaten both Miami and Pitt so are clearly no slouch. They also crushed Syracuse last year in the final game of the season. Again, another chance at payback for the Orange.
Syracuse basketball closes the season with another two game road trip. This time it’s against UNC and then FSU. Ouch. Talk about a tough way to end the season.
It’s very possible Syracuse will need one of those two games as a “W” to have serious consideration for the NCAA tourney, and that will be a tall order. North Carolina is a top 5 team and even when SU played about as good as they could, UNC still won the game by 11 in the dome. It will take a nearly flawless game for the Orange to pull it out. FSU on the road won’t be much easier, especially if they are a bubble team as well.
These seven games are all crucial for the Orange. If Syracuse basketball can somehow get through the stretch at 5-2, I think they’re pretty much a lock for the NCAA tournament. That would put the overall record at 21-7, with an 11-7 ACC mark. 4-3 puts things into murky water. 20 wins overall and a 10-8 conference record looks a lot shakier and would probably require a couple wins in the ACC tournament. Anything less than that, and we would probably need to win the ACC tourney for the automatic birth.
Next: Syracuse Basketball Defeats Virginia Tech 68-60
So like I said at the beginning of this article, there is still a lot of work to be done. SU can absolutely do it, as they’ve shown they can hang with pretty much anyone in the country, but they need to show up every game. If they play like they did for 38 minutes against Virginia Tech, they could lose to any of the teams left on the schedule.
Let’s hope that’s not the case and Syracuse basketball can finish strong. Check back throughout the coming week for some more in-depth analysis of the team as a whole and a sneak preview of the FSU game.