Syracuse Basketball: Orange will play Mercer, for the first time, on Dec. 13
By Neil Adler
The Syracuse basketball non-conference schedule in 2020-21 is getting more and more clear, with Mercer coming to the Hill.
Syracuse basketball will attempt to do something that its Atlantic Coast Conference adversary Duke couldn’t do back in 2014 – beat Mercer.
The Orange will welcome the Bears to Central New York on Dec. 13, according to an announcement from cuse.com. It will represent the inaugural instance that Syracuse and Mercer will go toe to toe, assuming the 2020-21 campaign does occur amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Bears are guided by head coach Greg Gary, who is entering his second stanza leading Mercer, a school located in Macon, Ga.
In 2019-20, the Bears finished at 17-15 overall, and 11-7 in the Southern Conference, good for fourth place in the league. Mercer, seeded fourth in the Southern Conference post-season tournament, fell to fifth-seeded Western Carolina in the quarterfinals.
According to the cuse.com statement, the 17 victories achieved by Gary in 2019-20 “equaled the best first-season total for a Mercer basketball coach.” Previously, Gary served as a long-time assistant coach at Purdue, out of the Big Ten Conference.
Putting all of this to the side for a moment, a fun fact about the Bears is what they did to Duke a few years back.
In the 2014 March Madness, as a No. 14 seed, Mercer upset the No. 3 seed Blue Devils in the round of 64. The Bears then fell in the round of 32 to No. 11 seed Tennessee.
Mercer’s top-two scorers from the 2019-20 term, guards Djordje Dimitrijevic and Ethan Stair, were seniors. Returning for the team, per cuse.com, is redshirt junior guard Jeff Gary, who at 11.5 points per game checked in at third in scoring for the Bears a campaign ago.
Jeff Gary, by the way, is the nephew of head coach Greg Gary. Some cool family ties for both Mercer and obviously the Orange, with head coach Jim Boeheim and his son, rising junior guard Buddy Boeheim.
To date, Syracuse’s non-conference calendar for 2020-21 features Mercer, Jacksonville State, Green Bay, Georgetown, UMBC, and LSU.