Syracuse Basketball: Besides Duke, ACC’s upper tier is totally up for grabs

With its 12-point conquest of Cornell a few days ago, Syracuse basketball has wrapped up its 2021-22 non-conference docket, unless scheduling issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic continue to crop up, which is certainly possible.

By taking down the Big Red and Brown in recent days, the Orange finishes up its challenging non-conference slate at 6-5. Not great, by any means.

Having already beaten Florida State by three points on the road, the ‘Cuse is 7-5 overall as Syracuse basketball gets set to begin Atlantic Coast Conference competition in earnest when Virginia comes to the Hill on Saturday, Jan. 1, in the early evening.

Due to Covid-19 protocols, the Orange already had to postpone a late December conference clash with Georgia Tech, and we’ll of course monitor whether that home game will get made up.

Syracuse basketball now has a tough ACC calendar to endure.

It’s no secret that the ACC isn’t having a stellar 2021-22 so far. In taking a glance at the league’s standings, as of this writing, at least 11 of the conference’s 15 squads already had four or more losses.

Duke, in the latest top-25 polls, checked in at No. 2 across the country, but no other ACC groups were ranked, which is pretty sub-par.

Naturally, this could change over the course of the next few months, but I can foresee this conference struggling to grab more than four to six bids to the 2022 Big Dance.

Of course, I hope that Syracuse basketball continues to pile up wins and is able to re-enter the conversations for a potential berth in this spring’s NCAA Tournament.

In the ACC’s pre-season media poll, the Orange was projected to finish at No. 7 in the league’s standings. Honestly, with how inconsistent the ‘Cuse has been to date in 2021-22, I could see Syracuse basketball being lower or higher than that.

So what are the Orange’s ceiling and floor? Given the ACC’s struggles, the ‘Cuse could absolutely finish in the top four. But if Syracuse basketball doesn’t shore up its defense, rebounding, turnovers and inconsistent shooting, the team could perhaps fall in the No. 8 to No. 10 range.

Since the Orange only went 6-5 in the non-conference, it has a lot of ground to make up in conference encounters. Assuming all 20 league games are played, the ‘Cuse would need to go 13-7 (no easy task) just to make it to 19 total victories prior to the ACC Tournament.

I’m not saying that Syracuse basketball is destined for the NIT, but the Orange did dig itself a bit of a hole in the non-conference portion of the 2021-22 stanza.