Syracuse basketball is heading into 2026-27 with more hope than it had a year ago, but ESPN’s first bracketology of the season served up a blunt reminder: there’s still a long way to go.
The Orange finished 15-17 last season under former head coach Adrian Autry, and the expectation is that Gerry McNamara’s first team will be better. There are reasons to buy into that idea. Syracuse’s conference schedule looks manageable, McNamara has already shown at Siena that he can coach, and he brings built-in familiarity with the program from his time as both a player and an assistant.
The roster has also been reshaped. Syracuse lost Donnie Freeman, Naithan George via transfer, William Kyle, JJ Starling and Nate Kingz to graduation, but McNamara and his staff have added a strong transfer portal class to go with returners Sadiq White Jr. and Kiyan Anthony.
There’s also real buzz around Fulton, N.Y. native Gavin Doty, who followed McNamara from Siena to Syracuse after helping the Saints reach the NCAA Tournament.
Still, optimism met a hard edge on Tuesday when Joe Lunardi released his first bracketology update for 2026-27. Even with the expanded field, Lunardi did not project Syracuse to make the 76-team tournament. He also left the Orange out of the last eight teams on the bubble, which means he doesn’t see them as one of the top 84 teams in the country heading into March.
Lunardi’s projection has the ACC landing seven tournament bids.
The new setup is a little different this year. Per original reporting from Pete Thamel of ESPN, the NCAA tournament will add eight teams and grow from 68 to 76.
The old First Four will become the “First 12,” with 24 teams playing before the first Thursday of the tournament. Those 12 winners will then join the 52 teams already waiting in the bracket, creating the 64-team field that opens on Thursday.
Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports reported that six of those “First 12” games will be for at-large teams, while the other six will feature automatic qualifiers.
Syracuse opens the season on Nov. 2 against New Haven at the JMA Wireless Dome.
In Other News...
Syracuse Fans Are Reopening A Recruiting Wound That Never Really Healed
Syracuse fans have been revisiting an uncomfortable pattern from the past decade, and the conversation has a way of circling back to the same place. The Orange have taken swings at highly regarded recruits, only to watch injuries, fit issues or a mismatch between promise and production keep those stories from ever fully landing the way everyone hoped. Donnie Freeman, Naithan George, Chance Westry and Benny Williams all fit somewhere on that spectrum, which is why their names keep surfacing whenever fans start sorting through the programs recent recruiting history.
What makes the debate linger is that none of these cases is simple, and the article makes clear it is offering an opinion rather than a verdict on the players themselves. Westrys path has already included a transfer and a fresh start, George has moved on after one season, and Williams remains the kind of prospect whose arrival once felt like a program-changing win. Freeman, meanwhile, is the latest reminder that even the brightest recruiting gains can come with a catch, and the full impact of his Syracuse chapter still feels like a story that has not quite finished writing itself. [Read more 🡒]
Boeheims Army Just Added A Name Syracuse Fans Definitely Remember
Boeheims Army has its group set for the Basketball Tournament, and the roster has a familiar Syracuse feel to it with six former Orange players mixed in with four additions from outside the program. The team will open a best-of-three series against Hall In on July 21, with Games 2 and 3 set for July 23 and 24 if needed, giving this summer run the kind of short-window urgency that has long defined the event.
The backcourt got a boost with the additions of Ty Nichols and Tyson Walker, while JaCorey Williams and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu round out the frontcourt. For Syracuse fans, the appeal is obvious: a roster built around names they know, plus a few new pieces meant to help Boeheims Army navigate a bracket where one off night can end everything. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Has A Receiver Fans Need To Reconsider Right Now
Elijah Moore arrived at Syracuse in January after starting his college career at Florida State, and the redshirt sophomore wide receiver is now in position to matter more than he did in his first season with the Orange. After a quiet 2025 in which he appeared in 10 games and finished with three catches for 52 yards, Moore is one of the names worth keeping in mind as Syracuse reshapes its passing game.
The timing matters because the Orange have moved on from their top receivers, opening the door for someone like Moore to climb the depth chart quickly. With a bigger role possible in the passing attack, he could become a much more visible piece of the offense and, in the right setup, a real third option in a spread look. [Read more 🡒]