Hopefully, Syracuse basketball can regain momentum during home-stand

Syracuse basketball is about halfway through the 2021-22 regular season, unless of course more games are canceled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Orange is stuck in a three-contest losing streak, having fallen recently to Virginia by five points on the Hill, and then on the road to Miami and Wake Forest by one point and three points (in overtime), respectively.

So, it’s true that the ‘Cuse (7-8, 1-3) has a sub-par record to date in 2021-22, but if we’re looking at things with a bit of optimism, the Orange is hanging close with quality Atlantic Coast Conference foes.

Now Syracuse basketball is set to embark on a three-game home-stand, and my fingers are crossed that a trio of league battles in Central New York will be a recipe for the ‘Cuse to turn its season around.

Syracuse basketball has three winnable encounters on the horizon.

Now, when I said turn its season around, I’m not being naïve in thinking that the Orange is going to seriously contend for a Big Dance berth in the spring. The ‘Cuse would have to go on a ridiculous run to achieve that.

More realistically, I’d simply love for Syracuse basketball to start closing out these tightly-fought meetings with triumphs, not setbacks. On top of that, I remain somewhat optimistic that the Orange can maintain its decades-long streak of generating winning stanzas under head coach Jim Boeheim.

First, though, Syracuse basketball really has to hold serve on the Hill over these near-term games. The ‘Cuse will host Pittsburgh (6-9, 1-3) on Tuesday, Jan. 11, Florida State (8-5, 2-2) on Saturday, Jan. 15, and Clemson (10-5, 2-2) on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

Early last month, Syracuse basketball stunned the Seminoles in Tallahassee, Fla., by three points. The Panthers aren’t all that great, although to be fair they did sweep the Orange in 2020-21. Finally, the Tigers are a good squad, but by no means are they a dominant one.

If somehow, someway, the ‘Cuse could grab conquests in all three of these duels, that would put the Orange at 10-8 overall and 4-3 in league competition.

Then on Saturday, Jan. 22, Syracuse basketball would have a daunting trip to Duke, and Durham, N.C., is always an extremely tough place to play.

To date in 2021-22, the ‘Cuse is 5-2 at home, 1-3 on the road and 1-3 at neutral sites. So as I said earlier, notching some wins in Central New York is paramount to Syracuse basketball building up some momentum.

At the time of this writing, Clemson and FSU had better KenPom and NET rankings than the Orange, while Pittsburgh came in below the ‘Cuse in both metrics.

Putting these ratings to the side for a second, Syracuse basketball has displayed an ability to hang around with good opponents. Now the Orange has to prove it can finish these foes off.