There's plenty of hoops left in the current 2024-25 season, but for the moment, Syracuse basketball and its Atlantic Coast Conference peers appear to be far behind several other leagues in the national pecking order.
Case in point, when the latest Associated Press top-25 poll came out on Monday, just two ACC members are included: No. 5 Duke and No. 25 Clemson, which barely remained in the ballot after suffering a heart-breaking home loss in overtime to Memphis over the weekend.
Over at the new Coaches top-25 ballot, it's even worse for the ACC, which only has No. 5 Duke included. To iterate, the 2024-25 regular season is only about one-third complete, but for the ACC to have just one, maybe two, ranked teams is alarming, concerning, frustrating and perhaps a tad surprising.
In recent years, a common theme has been for the ACC to only get around five of its schools into the NCAA Tournament, which isn't a great number, but then the ACC does a ton of damage in March Madness, such as this past spring in the 2024 Big Dance, when N.C. State took a magical journey to the Final Four while both Duke and Clemson reached the Elite Eight.
Syracuse basketball and the ACC seem to be lagging behind several other conferences.
Could that sort of trend continue in 2024-25? Well, in the latest mock field of 68 from ESPN's Joe Lunardi, he has four ACC squads in his projected bracket for the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Lunardi has 12 from the Southeastern Conference, 11 from the Big Ten Conference, nine from the Big 12 Conference and four from the Big East Conference.
But remember - in basketball, the ACC has 18 members, while the Big East has 11.
In the recent SEC/ACC Challenge, the SEC went 14-2 overall, absolutely putting a beat-down on the ACC. That included Tennessee, which is now ranked No. 1 in the country, crushing the 'Cuse, 96-70, from Knoxville, Tenn., earlier this month.
Following its four-point loss at the JMA Wireless Dome last Saturday to Georgetown, Syracuse basketball sits at 5-5 overall. The Orange's next game is this coming Saturday afternoon against Big Ten school Maryland at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
While the 'Cuse is struggling so far in 2024-25, let's provide some context, as not all is doom and gloom within the ACC. The Blue Devils look every bit the part of a Final Four contender. North Carolina's 6-4 record isn't great, but the Tar Heels have played a tough schedule so far and get a chance to knock off No. 7 Florida this Tuesday evening.
This Saturday, UNC also faces No. 18 UCLA. Also on Saturday, new ACC member Stanford will battle No. 10 Oregon, while another new ACC school, California, gets a crack at No. 23 San Diego State.
Moreover, ACC teams that, at this juncture, have at least eight triumphs in 2024-25 include Clemson, Pittsburgh, SMU, Duke, Stanford, Wake Forest and Florida State. Without question, the ACC has work to do to catch up to other conferences, but let's see how things pan out for the rest of the regular season.