Syracuse Basketball: Mapping out glorious, daunting non-conference slate

The Syracuse basketball non-conference schedule for the upcoming campaign could ultimately amount to one of the toughest dockets that the Orange has endured over the last bunch of seasons.

As we’ve detailed, Syracuse basketball is planning to battle former Big East Conference rival Villanova in the 2021 Jimmy V Classic at the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City, according to CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein.

The Wildcats should enter the 2021-22 term as a pre-season top-five group. The ‘Cuse will travel to Washington, D.C., to face another former Big East foe in Georgetown, which this past March captured its league’s post-season tournament to land an invite to the Big Dance.

The Orange is expected to host a game at the Carrier Dome in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Big Ten Conference has proven a juggernaut in recent years.

That’s three non-conference encounters. Then, I believe that Syracuse basketball will play three games in the 2021 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis, an event whose field includes Arizona State, Auburn, Loyola Chicago, Michigan State, Connecticut, VCU and Baylor, the 2021 NCAA champion.

This brings us to six contests. Assuming that the ‘Cuse will play long-time Empire State rivals Colgate and Cornell, and that makes eight. If, in 2021-22, the Orange has the full assortment of 11 non-conference opponents, this leaves three games remaining.

Other squads that we want on the Syracuse basketball non-conference calendar.

Given the novel coronavirus pandemic is still here, perhaps the Orange may want to schedule some games versus groups that aren’t too far away, geographically speaking.

If that’s the case, I have a few possibilities in mind for the last three spots.

One is St. Bonaventure out of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Bonnies, projected as a pre-season top-25 team by numerous national commentators, should prove an excellent unit in 2021-22.

Next up is Iona from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Rick Pitino, a former assistant under Orange head coach Jim Boeheim many years ago, took the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament in his first stanza at the helm of Iona. Boeheim versus Pitino is always must-see TV.

I’d be all for consecutive seasons in which Syracuse basketball throws down with Bryant, a member of the Northeast Conference. In the 2020-21 opener, the ‘Cuse barely snuck by the Bulldogs on the Hill, and Bryant performed quite well in the recently concluded term.

Last but not least, UMBC was supposed to play the Orange a campaign ago, but the pandemic resulted in schedules being completely revamped. I think that it would be fun for the Retrievers to make a trip to Central New York.

UMBC, out of the America East Conference, put forth a solid mark in 2020-21, and we all know how the Retrievers made history in the 2018 March Madness by becoming the first No. 16 seed to top a No. 1 seed (Virginia) in the Big Dance’s round of 64.