The Syracuse University Men's Basketball team prepares for its 5th Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with more than a few questions about how this season might play out. While some players, coaches and fans believe the Orange's 19-13 record, and a winning 10-8 record in the tough ACC conference, are enough to ensure a bid to the NCAA tournament, that invitation is not engraved in stone just yet.
Syracuse is coming off of a 67-55 defeat to Clemson in the regular season finale. The team also has lost five of its last seven games, though also has impressive victories over Duke and Louisville to make a case.
ACC Tourn SU vs Pitt/BC at 9:00 p.m. @88.3 WAER
The team also had halftime leads against all the last four opponents it eventual lost to. But Coach Jim Boeheim dismisses any pattern of fading in the second half of games.
“It’s absolutely irrelevant. When you’re on the road you can get a lead, but the better teams are going to win in the long run and that’s what happened here. Virginia did that to us but tonight it was really more of a rebounding thing than anything.”
Syracuse finished as the #6 seed for the ACC tournament and thus earned a bye past the first day. The team will play the winner of a matchup between Pittsburg and Boston College. SU beat each team twice during the regular season. A win would set up another meeting with Duke, which SU played tough twice, splitting the season series 1-1. A victory also gets the Orange record to 20 wins and would allow most fans and the team to breathe a little easier about NCAA selection Sunday.
The Orange’s ACC tournament history is not stellar. The Orange have a 1-4 record in the previous four conference tournaments. However, after losing in their second game of the ACC tournament last year and sneaking into the NCAA field, the Orange went on a run to the Elite 8 round.
It will be the last conference postseason for Seniors Frank Howard and Pascal Chukwu and could be the last for top scorer Tyus Battle if he decides to jump for a chance at the pros.
