The Syracuse Basketball Squad Goes Trick-Or-Treating

With that juicy “Orange” holiday known as Halloween nearly upon us, we decided to have some fun with the Syracuse basketball program.

The upcoming college-basketball campaign is just a few weeks away.

Thank, gosh.

Now, expectations for the 2017-18 SU hoops outfit are fairly muted, and with good reason. The roster is inexperienced and young. There are a lot of question marks. Yet, head coach Jim Boeheim and his staff possess in this current crew a ton of promise.

I can’t wait to get things going, and see how the Orange fares this season. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Cuse isn’t ranked at the onset, which actually makes me really happy. The pressure is less, and the bar is set pretty low for our boys.

Given that Halloween is right around the corner, I figured this would prove a delicious time to provide some trick-or-treating banter. A “trick” is a possible outcome that isn’t all too favorable. A “treat” is something for which we hope occurs.

Please take everything that I write here with a grain of salt. This is for pure entertainment purposes only.

Trick: The Carrier Dome crowds once again fail to unseat Kentucky as the country’s college-basketball attendance leader.
Treat: We dethrone Big Blue, with Central New York’s premier university setting all-time records.

Trick: Our beloved bunch never climbs in to the national rankings.
Treat: A handful of strong out-of-conference triumphs propels the Orange in to the top 25, and SU stays on the happy side of the polls indefinitely.

Trick: Radio and television announcers frequently mispronounce the names of several Syracuse players, in embarrassing fashion.
Treat: Radio and television announcers frequently mispronounce the names of several Syracuse players, in embarrassing fashion. Hey, let’s face it: this is going to happen no matter what.

Trick: Speaking of the non-conference slate, the ‘Cuse follows up a disastrous 2016-17 in an even worse manner, marking JB’s poorest showing, at 7-6.
Treat: SU gels as a cohesive unit from the get-go, upsetting highly ranked Kansas, while also besting Connecticut (yay!), Georgetown (yay!!) and Maryland (yay!!!). The Orange goes 13-0 before conference competition kicks off.

Trick: The federal government’s investigation into corruption as it pertains to college-basketball

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recruiting hits a bevy of powerhouse schools, including Syracuse.
Treat: While other universities get stung, the ‘Cuse is not one of them. Phew.

Trick: JB is caught picking his nose on national TV.
Treat: JB is caught picking his nose on national TV. Come on, it’s virtually impossible that this doesn’t ensue.

Treat: Former long-time assistant Mike Hopkins does extremely well in his initial year as the boss at Washington. No “trick” here. Hopkins is an awesome dude, and we all must cheer him on!

Trick: Boeheim gets into another spat with a city in one of the Carolina states (hi, Greensboro).
Treat: Boeheim gets into another spat with a city in one of the Carolina states. This kind of fodder is just too good to pass up.

Trick: The largest number of regular-season losses recorded by JB (15, a stanza ago) is eclipsed in 2017-18.
Treat: This doesn’t occur.

Happy Halloween.

Trick: Syracuse is terrible on the road – again.
Treat: SU claims an abundance of triumphs away from the Carrier Dome, and versus ranked teams!

Trick: The Orange remains winless in the ACC Tournament since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013-14.
Treat: The ‘Cuse captures the ACC post-season title after finishing in the top six (let’s not get greedy) during the regular season.

Trick: Our group’s nine primary players – South Florida graduate transfer Geno Thorpe; juniors Paschal Chukwu and Frank Howard; sophomore Tyus Battle; redshirt freshman Matthew Moyer; and freshmen Oshae Brissett, Marek Dolezaj, Bourama Sidibe and Howard Washington – take a long time to come together. They struggle a bit. And it’s completely understandable.
Treat: Everyone is better than “advertised,” and Syracuse surprises the sport’s “experts” by performing admirably.

Trick: No SU guy receives an ACC or national honor.
Treat: Battle lands on the All-American and All-ACC first teams. Brissett is named ACC Freshman of the Year.

Trick: East Carolina transfer Elijah Hughes doesn’t see any court time. Oh wait, he can’t.
Treat: Hughes lights it up in practice and sets himself up as a pivotal contributor in 2018-19.

Trick: We don’t pick up any additional recruits in the 2018 class. Whatever.
Treat: Our present prospects – Darius Bazley, Buddy Boeheim and Jalen Carey – continue to crush it in high school. They shoot up the national rankings (although Bazley can’t go much further), JB & Co. snag another quality target, and SU ends up with a top-10 class.

Trick: Battle bolts for the NBA, and someone else transfers out.
Treat: Battle remains in Central New York for another term, the roster stays intact, and SU has a bright outlook for the foreseeable future.

Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History

Trick: At this stanza’s conclusion, the Syracuse basketball team fails to qualify for the Big Dance, and exits the NIT early on.
Treat: Despite all of those pundits leaving SU out of the conversation for a March Madness invite, the ‘Cuse not only gets in to the 2018 NCAA Tournament, it wins the whole darn thing. The Orange follows its 2003 path – NIT the year before, unranked to begin the current campaign and, ultimately, the national champions. Can I get a heck yeah???

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