Syracuse Basketball: Three sneaky HUGE games this upcoming season

Much has been said and written about these obviously massive games on the upcoming 2021-2022 Syracuse basketball schedule.

The Duke games.

Georgetown.

Indiana.

But if you look a little deeper, there are some other sneaky HUGE matchups that come at key points this season.

Can the Syracuse basketball program finally deliver in the Big Apple?

December 7th vs Villanova (Jimmy V Classic, NYC)

Syracuse University used to market itself as “New York’s College Team,” and truth be told, there is a tremendous concentration of Syracuse alumni in the New York metro area…so it makes sense. The branding had merit. To that end, Syracuse basketball has long been dinged by national talking heads for playing games in “neutral, but not really neutral” NYC, with many even considering them de facto “home” games for the Orange.

Home games? Are they really? Someone needs to tell that to the Syracuse basketball players. And maybe to opposing players as well.

In back-to-back seasons (excluding last year’s COVID-affected campaign) in which the Orange played in NYC-based tournaments, they have gone 0-2 in each of them. In 2018-19, they lost to Connecticut (I was there — it was ugly) and then to Oregon at MSG, and then in 2019-20, they fell to Oklahoma State (I was there too — it was worse) and then to Penn State at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. And honestly, none of these losses were really that close, with three of the four ending in double-digit defeats, and one, the UConn game, somehow ending in only a 7 point defeat despite the team never really feeling in it.

Now enter Villanova, who will face off against Syracuse in this season’s Jimmy V. Classic on December 7th. Once again, a high-level opponent facing off against Syracuse in its supposed “home away from home”.

December 29th vs Georgia Tech (Syracuse, NY)

This game is significant for a couple of reasons. First, it does represent the kickoff of the bulk of the ACC season (there will be an isolated one game vs. conference opponent Florida State earlier in December).

But I also think its particular place in the schedule offers for some fabulous opportunity for a rare mid-season course correction.

This matchup vs. the Yellow Jackets comes on the heels of a stretch of 8 days off between games, far and away the longest such stretch of off-days once the season gets underway in earnest. This would seem to be a golden opportunity to make any necessary adjustments needed based on performance to date, just as the Conference schedule is about to get underway.

Indeed the coaching staff will have ample time to review recent game tape against an array of quality opponents, and this will be a prime chance to make scheme, play calling, and rotational adjustments based on what they see…what worked….who worked. That Georgia Tech game will be the first chance to see what that 8 days of adjustments have led to.

It could be a major indicator of things to come.

February 28th @ University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)

There is no excuse for any game against the University of North Carolina to ever be considered “sneaky huge” but, alas, there it is…overshadowed because it falls a mere two days after the big, huge, EPIC event that Coach K’s final appearance in the Carrier Dome is expected to be. That Duke game has the makings of an all-time classic as these two coaches face off one final time, and one would have to think both teams will be giving maximum effort to leave that February 26th matchup with a win.

Which is going to make it, win or lose, really difficult to come back, 48 hours later, for a game at UNC — with a travel day stuck in between nonetheless.

Indeed, this scheduling almost feels comical. It is going to take an exceptional effort for this team to come back around so quickly after such a major event. I have no doubt that Coach Boeheim and the rest of the staff will get the team where it needs to be mentally. But will their bodies have time to bounce back?

It’s small consolation, I suppose, that UNC also plays a game on the 26th, only two days earlier. And it’s a road game too, so they also have to travel back to Chapel Hill.

28 whole miles from Raleigh.