Syracuse Basketball: For powerhouse teams, this season has proven ugly

Syracuse basketball, with an 11-6 mark after beating N.C. State on the road earlier this week, is on the outside looking in as it pertains to the 2021 NCAA Tournament, according to virtually all of the major bracketology projections at this juncture.

It’s not completely out of the realm of possibilities that the Orange may have to win out during the remainder of the regular stanza, or only suffer a single defeat, and have a strong showing in the ACC Tournament, if the ‘Cuse wants to re-enter the conversation for an at-large berth to March Madness.

Residing on the proverbial bubble is something that the Orange has dealt with on numerous occasions in recent years, and that naturally has left many ‘Cuse fanatics frustrated.

But if we’re solely focused on the present term, Syracuse basketball is far from the only historically successful program that is struggling to one degree or another in 2020-21.

Fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Duke and SEC juggernaut Kentucky are both below .500. Additional blue-bloods Kansas and North Carolina are having so-so seasons. Michigan State is absolutely in danger of missing the upcoming Big Dance. The list goes on and on and on.

Syracuse basketball isn’t the only big-time squad with a modest record.

Mike Waters of Syracuse.com put out a really cool story earlier this week, in which he noted that all 13 of the winningest teams in the sport’s history are currently not in the Associated Press top-25 poll.

That includes the Orange and several others mentioned above, along with historically accomplished groups such as UCLA, Indiana, Arizona and Notre Dame. Pretty remarkable stuff, in my humble opinion.

Now, given all of the basketball-related pauses, game postponements and significantly reduced practice time due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it’s understandable that 2020-21 would amount to a strange kind of campaign.

A wide variety of teams across the country have faced a range of challenges brought on by the pandemic, and some of those obstacles are more heightened for units, including Syracuse basketball, which have halted their hoops activities more than once.

But, in the end, every squad is having to overcome adversity. Perhaps 2020-21 will prove an anomaly. Nothing more. Nothing less. Or maybe the college basketball landscape is shifting.

Who knows at this point. Only time will tell. One thing is fairly clear, though. This season, unequivocally, is unlike any other that we’ve ever seen before and will ever see again down the road.