Syracuse Basketball: Bracketology shows ACC depth, dearth of high seeds

Syracuse basketball has one of the last byes in the latest ESPN bracketology.

If the most recent mock field of 68 from ESPN resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi is any indication, Syracuse basketball and a bunch of its Atlantic Coast Conference peers will earn invites to the 2021 Big Dance.

However, with the ACC’s depth in the present stanza also comes a complete absence of excellent seeds among the league’s participants.

Case in point, Lunardi has nine ACC members in his latest bracketology, but the best seed among them is Florida State, at No. 5. The Orange, by the way, is slated to host the Seminoles, the conference’s regular-season champion in 2019-20, next Wednesday, Jan. 6.

The nine ACC squads in Lunardi’s projected bracket are the aforementioned FSU as a No. 5 seed, followed by a quartet of No. 6 seeds in Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Clemson, No. 7 seed Louisville, No. 9 seed Virginia Tech, and No. 10 seeds Syracuse basketball and N.C. State.

The ‘Cuse and the Wolfpack are in Lunardi’s “last four byes” category.

Syracuse basketball is in a loaded region within a new ESPN bracketology.

The 10th-seeded Orange is placed in Region 4 of Lunardi’s mock field of 68, where it would face No. 7 seed Colorado out of the Pac-12 Conference in the round of 64.

The Buffaloes are a solid Pac-12 group, and it looks like this could represent the first-ever meeting between them and the ‘Cuse, per a review of orangehoops.org.

Lunardi’s four No. 1 seeds are Gonzaga, which from my perspective is by far the most dominant team in the sport, along with Baylor, Villanova and Kansas.

The region where Syracuse basketball resides is stacked. It features the top-seeded Jayhawks, No. 2 seed Wisconsin, No. 3 seed Creighton, No. 4 seed Missouri, No. 5 seed Ohio State, No. 6 seed UNC, No. 7 seed Colorado, No. 8 seed Michigan State, No. 9 seed Virginia Tech, No. 10 seed Syracuse basketball and No. 11 seed Northwestern, among others.

Other March Madness entrants to note here are No. 4 seed Rutgers, which dispatched of the ‘Cuse last month in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, as well as a trio of Empire State squads in No. 15 seed Colgate, No. 15 seed Hofstra and No. 16 seed Stony Brook.

A lot of Syracuse basketball fans give me grief for writing stories about mock brackets so early in the season, and that’s fair. At the same time, these projections from Lunardi and other bracketologists sure are fun to debate!