What the path ahead looks like for Syracuse with nothing but conference opponents left.
Starting Thursday, the Syracuse Orange will resume their 2024-25 season after a brief hiatus with just ACC opponents left on the calendar.
Spoiler alert: an absolute gauntlet of a conference schedule for the Orange looms and then some.
With Syracuse set to get back on the court, now is a good time to check in on the Orange’s season so far, further contextualize their opponents and identify what the updated path from now until the ACC Tournament looks like.
Here’s an up-to-date view at who Syracuse has played so far and a deeper dive at the upcoming conference slate:
Nonconference resume by the numbers
Syracuse went 6-5 overall in its 11 out of conference games this season. After several months on the court, here is how the Orange’s nonconference results translate according to the numbers:
(Writer’s note: “Simple Rating System” is a metric on sports-reference.com which takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule, not including non-Division I opponents. As seen in the chart above, it’s solidly close to NET with these rankings).
The overall resume is polarizing across the board, mainly with who Syracuse ended up playing. For context, only two of the Orange’s 11 out of conference games were against teams ranked between No. 100 and No. 200 in NET.
On the flip side, just over a third of Syracuse’s nonconference opponents rank No. 58 or higher in NET (including three in the top-45) while the other four place at No. 264 or worse in NET (which of which are outside the top-300).
Beating Missouri (11-4) in a neutral-site easily profiles as Syracuse’s best out of conference win. On second look, it’s really a shock considering how the Orange fared against its other truly tough opponents. Against the other three top-45 NET teams, Syracuse lost by double-digits in each one.
Rich Barnes-Imagn Images
The good news for the Orange in nonconference specifically — the team only has one truly blowout loss to a quality opponent (a 27-point neutral-site loss to Creighton).
The downside is Syracuse, unlike last year, didn’t fully handle business against teams it arguably should’ve beaten. The two clear results to point to are a three-point home loss to UAlbany and a 14-point loss to Saint Joseph’s (although the former was way worse than the latter; the Hawks are quietly a top-two team this year in the A10, but it’s still a non-Power 5 opponent).
The key stat: four of Syracuse’s out of conference opponents were to teams currently in the bracketology picture (Maryland, Creighton, UAlbany and Saint Joseph’s). The Orange lost all four of those games, three of which took place in the Dome.
In other words, Syracuse has certainly put up a fight considering all the roster turnover over the offseason, but still left a few potential quality wins on the board.
Update conference schedule by the numbers
As mentioned at the start: the ACC schedule this year for Syracuse really isn’t a joke.
Here is what the numbers look like for the conference slate:
So, Syracuse will certainly have the chance to play some quality opponents and boost the resume. The question will ultimately be how many can it ultimately take down?
For further context:
- Virginia and Pittsburgh are the only two teams Syracuse faces that are ranked outside the top-100 in NET.
- The Orange will play 14 games against top-75 NET ACC opponents, including eight in the top-45 and five in the top-30.
- 12 of Syracuse’s 18 total ACC games (66%) are against teams currently in ESPN’s latest bracketology update.
Looking at the entire picture of the conference schedule, the toughest stretch is easily (writer’s note: as predicted during the preseason) this one from February 13 to February 23: at Stanford and Cal, back at home for North Carolina and then a trip to Duke. It’s the only time Syracuse will play four teams in a row, all of whom sit in the updated bracketology projections.
Long story short: there will be plenty of high-quality opponents standing in Syracuse’s way heading into the spring.