Inside the Loud House
Fansided

Syracuse Basketball: I want Buffalo and Butler in our bracket!

By Neil Adler

SYRACUSE, NY - FEBRUARY 14: Syracuse Orange student fans give a deafening cheer during the first half of the game between the Syracuse Orange and the Duke Blue Devils on February 14, 2015 at The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Duke defeats Syracuse 80-72. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
SYRACUSE, NY - FEBRUARY 14: Syracuse Orange student fans give a deafening cheer during the first half of the game between the Syracuse Orange and the Duke Blue Devils on February 14, 2015 at The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Duke defeats Syracuse 80-72. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Joe Lunardi has released his latest version of bracketology, and you’ll find a ton of familiar foes in the Syracuse basketball squad’s region.

Now that the deadline has come and gone for underclassmen to either remain in the NBA Draft or head back to school (hi, Tyus Battle), college-hoops prognosticators are starting to update their pre-season polls and projected fields of 68.

With Battle returning to the Hill, SU is feeling the love from a handful of folks who have slotted the Orange in their top-25 – or, even better, in their top-10 – rankings for the 2018-19 campaign.

Of course, it’s super early, but these sorts of things are fun to discuss.

That brings me to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, who always seems to catch a lot of grief from ‘Cuse Nation. Honestly, a lot of the time, such whining from the Syracuse fan base about him is fairly misguided.

In any event, Lunardi unveiled his most-recent bracketology on Tuesday, and SU is placed as a No.

More from Inside the Loud House

4 seed in the Midwest Region, where it would face off with the No. 13 seed, the always-dangerous Stephen F. Austin, in the 2019 NCAA Tournament’s opening round.

Should Syracuse win its initial bruiser, it would then match up with either No. 5 seed Butler or No. 12 seed Buffalo. The former upset us in the Sweet 16 of the 2010 Big Dance (yuck), and we’ll have already played the latter in the non-conference portion of the 2018-19 campaign.

-sigh-

An abundance of additional teams in this region are ones which the ‘Cuse dueled with in 2017-18. Among them are No. 1 seed Kansas (ugh), No. 2 seed Michigan State (yay!), and two Atlantic Coast Conference members, No. 3 seed Virginia Tech and No. 8 seed Louisville.

Other notable groups are No. 6 seed Texas Tech, No. 7 seed Florida, No. 9 seed Nebraska, No. 10 seed Arizona and No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago, which made a tremendous run to the 2018 Final Four.

In summation, the Midwest Region looks extremely challenging, and pretty freaking awesome! I so want revenge against Butler for that stinging loss in 2010; if that doesn’t happen, I’m hoping for another encounter with Buffalo, to ensure that at least one crew from the Empire State makes the Sweet 16.

Lunardi has 11 ACC units in his mock bracket, including two No. 1 seeds, Duke and North Carolina, No. 2 seed Virginia, No. 5 seed Florida State and No. 6 seed Clemson.

Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History

All I can say is that, no matter where Syracuse ends up in the 2019 March Madness, it will prove juicy if our beloved Orange doesn’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday this go-round. I don’t know how much more of that I can take.

Home/Syracuse Basketball