2/14/2025
It is difficult to make jokes about Syracuse basketball after it needed three overtimes to beat Boston College and then lost to Miami.
We can assume the UNC game will be pretty ugly right from the jump. If you can think of anything humorous about the situation, send it to Coach Autry; I'm sure he needs the laugh.
2/7/2025
It isn't funny that, after barely managing to stay within 30 points of conference leader Duke, Syracuse kinda sorta needs to beat B.C. just to remain as the final qualifier for the ACC tournament. There are plenty of jokes this week, but all seem to be about how bad the Orange are. So: write your own punchline this week, folks.
1/31/2025
If you fell asleep before Stanford toppled Syracuse in the ACC's transcontinental battle of the "Big S," you get another chance to sleep through a game on Saturday when the team visits Cal in the Pacific time zone. If we're lucky, we can sleep through the rest of the season, too. It looks as if the team will.
1/24/2025
This piece about Syracuse men's basketball is not written by AI. So you can believe that I am human when I say: "The Orange are having a lousy year."
Here is how AI puts it: "Syracuse's average of 6.1 made 3-pointers per game is 1.6 fewer made shots on average than the 7.7 per game Pittsburgh allows." Oh.
The AP uses AI to preview games now. It is not an improvement over the "eye test."
Anyway, the Orange keep making their way through a bloated and underachieving ACC when they host Pitt this weekend. Watch at your own peril.
1/15/2025
To think, I laughed when, before the season, the Louisville fans insisted their team was back. Well, the Orange are certainly not back, having been crushed by those Cardinals ahead of a weekend rematch with Notre Dame. Here's hoping the Irish aren't as good as their football team is.
1/9/2025
After a sloppy win over Georgia Tech, Syracuse may be back in the conversation to make the tournament.
No, not the NCAA or NIT. Those seem far out of reach. The ACC Tournament.
Because of the league's continent-spanning expansion, three squads will be left out of the field for this year's gathering. Here's hoping the Orange can claw back to relevance just enough to make the opening round in Charlotte.
1/1/2025
Syracuse visits Florida State this weekend, an ACC team that is, somehow, in more disarray than the 0-2 (in conference) Orange are. With former players suing Leonard Hamilton, it can't be long before he does a Larrananga and Bennett and quits.
12/27/2024
The year 2024 cannot end soon enough for so many reasons. Syracuse fans hope the Orange can survive Bucknell and Wake and manage to finish above .500 for the year.
12/19/2024
Syracuse and Maryland are set to renew the rivalry they would have had if the Terps hadn't bailed on the ACC for the big money (and big losses) of the Big Ten. When they meet on Saturday, it'll be the third time the Orange have played at Barclay's Center in Brooklyn this year. No doubt Doug Gottlieb is whining that they "haven't left New York."
12/13/2024
Syracuse coaches are working hard to reel in five-star recruit Jordan Smith Jr. Last week, Adrian Autry and an assistant were on hand to watch him play at a national tournament in Maryland. Smith would look great in Orange (everyone does) it is difficult to imagine he would be with Red for more than a year. After that, he'd either head to the NBA or chase an NIL deal at a higher-profile university. Still, the juice is worth the squeeze.
12/8/2024
Syracuse, Pitt, and Boston College left the Big East Conference that they had founded (to strengthen their basketball) to play in the ACC because of its supposed strength in football. It turns out there isn't much strength there. The league commish is now begging the playoff committee to add Miami to the playoff bracket, and the committee is saying, "Nah." The only team that will make it is Clemson, which will be a 12-seed. SMU, which has been in the ACC for less than six months and presumably brought its strength with it rather than gaining strength by playing ACC games, got dumped in the "ACC Championship game."
As for basketball, the ACC was once great at that (as was the Big East when Syracuse was a founding member.) The expanded ACC just went 2-14 (not a typo: 2-14) in two days of games against the SEC. We already knew the SEC was better at football, and it is also better at hoops. So. The new, continent-spanning ACC features weak football and weak basketball.
Remind us again about the upside of the Orange flying to Berkley, California? We've forgotten...
12/5/2024
J.J. Starling decided he wanted to spend more time in Syracuse for some reason, so he came home to play for the Orange. But this weekend, he can show his teammates around South Bend, where he spent his freshman year. Then, we hope, he can lead the Orange to its first ACC win.
11/28/2024
The Orange Men do not have basketball down to a "T." Their two losses have come to Texas and Texas Tech and they face a tough Tennessee team this week. On a positive note, win or lose, there are no more teams that start with "T" on the regular season schedule.
11/15/2024
As the Orange head to Brooklyn to face Texas for the second time (we recall that the first was in New Orleans in a National Semifinal in 2003), former Longhorn Royal Ivy (seen on posters everywhere) must be wondering whether Hakim Warrick has landed, yet.
11/12/2024
Orange fans hope the team can pull another upset against powerhouse Colgate, after losing in two of the last three years to the Red Raiders
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