KenPom isn’t buying into a quick Syracuse basketball turnaround just yet.
The preseason ratings released Monday have the Orange at No. 80 nationally entering the 2026-27 campaign, a modest jump from where Syracuse finished last season. That 2025-26 team went 15-17, marking the program’s second straight losing season.
There’s a new man in charge now. After the season, Syracuse parted ways with third-year head coach Adrian Autry and turned to another former Orange guard, Gerry McNamara, to steer the program. His job is straightforward and huge: pull Syracuse back to the NCAA Tournament, where it hasn’t been since 2021, and get the program back to “national relevance.”
KenPom’s numbers also paint a pretty plain picture of where Syracuse stands in the ACC pecking order. The Orange checks in at No. 14 in the 18-team league, leaving it firmly in the middle of a conference that still looks top-heavy at the moment.
Here’s how KenPom ranked the ACC in its preseason ratings:
No. 1 Duke
No. 15 Virginia
No. 17 Louisville
No. 22 Miami
No. 37 North Carolina
No. 50 Clemson
No. 52 Virginia Tech
No. 60 SMU
No. 65 N.C. State
No. 66 Pittsburgh
No. 67 Stanford
No. 73 Florida State
No. 76 Wake Forest
No. 80 Syracuse
No. 83 Notre Dame
No. 95 California
No. 101 Georgia Tech
No. 114 Boston College
Syracuse also has a nonconference schedule that will ask plenty of questions, at least according to KenPom’s preseason view of power-conference opponents. The Orange’s listed foes include No.
23 St. John’s, No.
29 Oklahoma, No. 39 Providence, No.
47 Indiana and No. 82 Rutgers.
Of course, preseason projections only tell part of the story. Still, one number stands out for Syracuse: KenPom has the Orange at No. 59 in adjusted defensive efficiency, a sharp improvement on last season’s No. 95 finish in that category.
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He is expected to open the season as a backup guard, which makes his early role fairly clear even if his long-term one is not. Freshmen do not often arrive with a direct path to meaningful minutes, especially in a rotation where the staff will want reliability from the outset, but Moesch has the kind of local connection and recruiting pedigree that can keep him in the conversation if he proves ready. How much he plays may be decided over time, and that gives Syracuse one of its more intriguing subplots as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Gets An Early Reality Check Against UConn
An exhibition against Connecticut is never a soft landing, and Syracuse got an early reminder of that in Uncasville. The Orange met the Huskies at Mohegan Sun Arena in a game that offered a first real look at how Syracuse's women might handle a national heavyweight, with the article tracking scoring swings, lineup choices and the way both teams tried to impose their style from the opening minutes.
For Syracuse, the value went beyond the final score line. The start of the game also provided a snapshot of where the Orange stand under their current coaching setup, with key players in place and a broadcast audience watching the matchup unfold. Against a program built to expose mistakes, the exhibition served as a useful checkpoint on what worked, what needs sharpening and how far Syracuse has to go before the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]