The Syracuse Orange (7-4) have begun to struggle a little bit as the season continues to go on.
After a huge upset win against Tennessee, Syracuse has seen itself sputter in recent weeks, with the worst
of it coming in a 70-69 loss to Hofstra in the dome. As we look forward to closing out this non-conference slate, now is a good time to see how the Orange look compared to the national field, and see how they stand in the ACC with conference play just a few weeks away.
NET
Syracuse now ranks 96th in the NET rankings, good for 13th in the ACC, only ahead of Stanford, Florida State, Pitt, Boston College, and Georgia Tech. After a huge win against Louisville, Tennessee has jumped back up to being a Quad 1 win, while the Hofstra loss sits on the Orange’s resume as a Quad 3 loss. Tennessee sits at 24th in the rankings, while Hofstra sits ahead of the Orange at 88th.
Syracuse now has a 1-3 record in Q1 games, no Q2 games, an 0-1 record in Q3 games, and a 6-0 record in Q4 games. While Syracuse still sits within the top 100, there is still plenty of work to do if they want to put a resume together for March.
The top 10 teams in the ACC by NET are Duke (#2), UNC (#15), Louisville (#17), Virginia (#21), Clemson (#32), Miami (#33), NC State (#34), SMU (#43), Virginia Tech (#58), and Wake Forest (#59). Syracuse only plays one of these teams in their first five conference games, against Clemson at home.
KenPom
In KenPom, Syracuse is currently ranked 80th, also placing 13th in the ACC. Their adjusted offensive efficiency is ranked at 118th in all of college basketball, while the adjusted defensive efficiency cracks the top 50 at 44th.(#BRAND) This puts Syracuse at 15th in the ACC in offense and 7th in the ACC in defense.
Their strength of schedule is ranked 214th in college basketball, although it’s worth noting that their opponents rank 13oth defensively. This also puts Syracuse at 11th in the ACC with its strength of schedule.
The ACC has fallen off a little in recent weeks, as Duke has dropped to 8th in the rankings, and the ACC now only has four teams in the top 25. We have to go out west to see the closest ACC teams to Syracuse, as Cal sits a few spots ahead at 75th, and Stanford is a little behind at 87th
Bart Torvik
Bart Torvik seems to be the nicest metric to the Orange, as they currently sit at 67th in the rankings, good for 12th in the ACC. Bart Torvik seems to like the Syracuse offense more than other metrics, as they are ranked 102nd in adjusted offensive efficiency and 42nd in adjusted defensive efficiency.
Comparing the numbers, it seems like a lot of respect has started to be placed on the Orange defense; however, the offense has dropped out of the top 100 in both Bart Torvik and KenPom. The Orange offense also continues to rank low in shooting percentages, showcasing the issues on the offensive side of the ball for Adrian Autry’s squad.
A lot of similar ACC teams sit ahead of the Orange in Bart Torvik, although it is worth noting that Tennessee is ranked at #12 in the metric, their highest rank among all three statistics, meaning that that win likely plays a big role in the Orange’s comparative high ranking in the metric.
Potential Resume-building opportunities
While the next two matchups against Northeastern and Stonehill don’t add much to the Orange’s resume, the ACC games after are the ones that could make or break Syracuse’s season. The game against Clemson to open ACC play has just fallen out of Q1 range, but would still be a quality Q2 win that could very well move up to Q1 later in the season. Cuse doesn’t play their first Q1 game in ACC play as of right now until the go on the road to take on NC State on Jan. 27th.
While the conference slate starts relatively easy for the Orange, they will face some tougher games as the season progresses. The current ACC schedule breakdown is as follows:
- Q1: seven games, one home and six away
- Q2: six games, all home
- Q3: five games, two home and three away
- Q4: None
Looking at this breakdown, those six away Q1 matchups for the Orange are going to be brutal, especially considering they play three of those in their last five games, and one of their home games during that span is against North Carolina. Our best bet will be looking to see if any of those borderline Q2 games can sneak their way into being Q1 wins to bolster our resume come March.
Bracketology
The ACC seems to be slightly recovering from a down year last year, as after a disappointing four attendees of the dance last season, most brackets now have seven or eight teams punching their ticket to March.
ESPN’s most recent bracketology update has eight ACC teams making the field, these being Miami, UNC, Duke, NC State, Virginia, Clemson, SMU, and Louisville. Three more teams, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and Wake Forest, are in the first four out or the next four out.
Jon Rothstein’s bracket breakdown, on the other hand, only has seven ACC teams as of right now. These are the same teams as ESPN’s above, but without NC State, as they land in the first four out.
The loss to Hofstra has seemed to be detrimental to a lot of experts’ opinions on the Orange, as they do not find themselves in any major bracketology. It seems like the Orange are going to have to fight to get back a lot of respect from these analysts.
Syracuse will try to bounce back from some recent performances when they host Northeastern at the dome on Saturday afternoon at 4 pm.
