Visions of Keith Smart, my friends. Ugh.
Syracuse basketball and its new head coach, Gerry McNamara, will reportedly battle Big Ten Conference member Indiana in the upcoming 2026-27 season. College basketball insider Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports reports that the Orange and the Hoosiers will meet on November 9 of this year at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Rothstein's article cited multiple sources. He characterized it as a neutral-site game, which is kind of funny, considering this non-conference contest will transpire in Indy.
In the 2025-26 campaign, the 'Cuse went 15-17 overall, marking its second straight losing season. Last month, head coach Adrian Autry was let go, and GMac was brought in. Indiana, meanwhile, sported an 18-14 overall record this past term.
The Hoosiers were eyeing a possible bid to this spring's NCAA Tournament, but Indiana's 1-6 stretch to close the season squashed those hopes. In 2025-26, Darian DeVries was in his first stanza as the Hoosiers' head coach.
In their all-time series together, per SU Athletics, Syracuse basketball is 6-1 against Indiana, but the Orange's lone loss to the Hoosiers sure stings, as it came in the 1987 national championship game, when Smart hit the game-winner with a few seconds remaining to prevail, 74-73.
Syracuse basketball has another intriguing non-conference game on its docket.
Not too long ago, Rothstein also reported that the Orange will face Big East Conference school Providence at the TD Garden in Boston during the 2026-27 season. A date for this encounter hasn't been determined.
In that game, the 'Cuse and McNamara will face a Friars program that is now being led by head coach Bryan Hodgson. Most recently, he was the head coach at South Florida, and Hodgson was rumored as a possible candidate for SU's head coaching vacancy.
BREAKING: Our @NeilAdlerSU just got the following statement from a Syracuse basketball spokesperson: "Syracuse will not be participating in the 2026 Players Era Championship." Neil had written about this topic earlier on Wednesday. 🔽 https://t.co/psOVgphyr4
— InsideTheLoudHouse (@LoudHouseFS) April 1, 2026
We'll have to see how the rest of the Orange's non-conference docket in 2026-27 shakes out, but I did get confirmation on Wednesday afternoon from a team spokesperson that Syracuse basketball will not compete in the 2026 Players Era in Las Vegas. The 'Cuse played in this NIL-driven event in 2025, going 0-3 against Houston, Kansas and Iowa State.
I assume that SU will have a game in the annual ACC-SEC Challenge. This past season, at the JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse basketball knocked off then-No. 13 Tennessee, 62-60, in this event.
A few days ago, McNamara told Syracuse.com that he was hoping to get both Colgate and Cornell back on the Orange's schedule in 2026-27. "Those are two really good programs at the mid-major level that are gonna have a hard time finding games," he said. "It’s important for their survival that they get the right ones. And Syracuse, Colgate, Cornell just makes sense."