Syracuse Basketball: Rutgers out for football, but hoops get a chance?
By Neil Adler
Syracuse basketball is projected to face off with Rutgers out of the Big Ten Conference in Joe Lunardi’s latest mock field of 68.
Orange football is no longer going to suit up against Rutgers this fall, due to a decision by the Big Ten Conference to go with league-only contests, but perhaps Syracuse basketball will have an opportunity to battle the Scarlet Knights.
ESPN’s resident bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, has unveiled his most-recent projections for the field of 68 in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and the Orange is slotted as the No. 11 seed in the East Region, where it would play former Big East Conference foe Rutgers, the No. 6 seed.
According to Lunardi, Syracuse basketball is receiving one of the last four byes, along with Saint Louis, Connecticut and Arizona State.
The top-eight seeds in Lunardi’s East Region, in order, are Villanova, Michigan State, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Rutgers, Purdue and Alabama. Fellow Empire State program Colgate is the No. 15 seed in this region.
Lunardi’s No. 1 seeds are Villanova, Gonzaga, Baylor and Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia. The Cavaliers, by the way, are deemed a pre-season top-five crew by many national pundits heading into the 2020-21 campaign.
The ACC, which likely would have gotten only four or five squads into this past spring’s March Madness following a down stanza, is forecast to possess nine bids in 2021, which would rank it tied for first with the Big Ten, per Lunardi.
As far as the ACC goes, the participants are No. 1 seed Virginia, No. 2 seed Duke, No. 5 seed Florida State, No. 5 seed North Carolina, No. 6 seed Louisville, No. 8 seed Miami, No. 11 seed Syracuse, No. 11 seed Clemson, and No. 11 seed Virginia Tech.
Clemson and Virginia Tech are both placed by Lunardi in the First Four, as two of the last four teams in the field, along with former Big East opponents Marquette and Seton Hall.
Two other notable groups to mention are No. 8 seed LSU, as the Tigers are scheduled to play the ‘Cuse in the 2020 Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as well as No. 14 seed Buffalo.
If Illinois transfer Alan Griffin, a rising junior wing, gets an NCAA waiver for immediate eligibility on the Hill, it wouldn’t surprise me if Syracuse basketball moves up to an even better seed in Lunardi’s bracketology.