The first year of the Gerry McNamara era brings a schedule that doesn’t leave Syracuse much room to settle in.
The Orange are set to play 32 games after three exhibitions, with 14 non-conference matchups and 18 ACC games before the conference tournament. Nine of those non-conference games are at home, five are away from the JMA Wireless Dome, and the ACC slate breaks evenly with nine home and nine road contests. Syracuse also has 23 games lined up against Power 5 opponents.
That’s a lot of opportunity, but not much margin. Syracuse hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since the 2020-21 season, and this schedule gives the Orange plenty of chances to improve that standing - while also creating plenty of ways for things to go sideways.
One of the biggest issues is where the most meaningful wins are available. Syracuse will play 10 of its 32 games against teams currently projected to make the NCAA field, according to ESPN’s latest bracketology update.
Because eligibility situations remain unsettled for a number of players, including Syracuse transfer Amarri Monroe, those projections could shift. Still, those 10 games are the ones that matter most when it comes to building a tournament case.
Four of those games come outside the Dome in the non-conference portion: Providence, Indiana, Oklahoma and St. John’s.
Every one of them is either on the road or at a neutral site, and all four arrive early, before ACC play begins. That means Syracuse has to be ready right away if it wants to stack a few resume-building wins.
The ACC doesn’t offer the same level of reward. EvanMiya’s rankings have the conference fifth among the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East, which limits the upside of piling up league wins. Syracuse can still help itself there, but the conference slate isn’t likely to do the heavy lifting on its own.
ESPN’s bracketology currently projects seven ACC teams into the field, and Syracuse will face six of them: Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Virginia, Miami and Clemson. The only projected NCAA team the Orange avoid is NC State. Syracuse also gets SMU and Virginia Tech, both currently listed in “Next Four Out” territory.
The split is clean: Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Virginia all come to Syracuse, while Miami, Clemson, SMU and Virginia Tech are road games. That gives the Orange the more difficult conference opponents at home, which is a plus. It also leaves open some useful NET chances against SMU and Virginia Tech.
Right now, the number that seems to matter in the ACC is seven. Several outlets, including Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and Basket Under Review, have Syracuse in that range.
The challenge for McNamara is not just surviving the schedule, but handling the early stretch before the team has time to find its footing. Indiana and St.
John’s are the third and fourth games on the calendar. Then, just two games into ACC play, Syracuse runs into Duke, Miami, Pittsburgh and Louisville in succession.
That kind of stretch can’t be approached as something to recover from later. The Orange have to put themselves in position before it arrives.
Using EvanMiya’s current numbers, Syracuse’s schedule is loaded with top-100 opposition. Here’s the full list:
Duke (No. 2), home
St. John’s (No. 11), neutral-site
Miami (No. 13), road
Louisville (No. 15), home
Virginia (No. 23), home
Oklahoma (No. 32), road
Clemson (No. 51), road
Indiana (No. 52), neutral-site
Providence (No. 53), neutral-site
Virginia Tech (No. 54), road
North Carolina (No. 55), home
SMU (No. 59), road
Florida State (No. 65), road
Pittsburgh (No. 74), home and road
Notre Dame (No. 83), road
California (No. 87), road
Rutgers (No. 92), neutral-site
Wake Forest (No. 100), home
In all, 19 of Syracuse’s 32 games are against top-100 EvanMiya opponents, which is almost 60 percent of the schedule. Only six of those are at home in the Dome, while the other 13 are true road games or neutral-site contests.
There are five top-25 games and six top-50 games, which means there are more chances to grab winnable results on paper - but also more spots where a loss could do real damage. Of those 19 top-100 games, 13 fall between No. 51 and No. 100, and 10 of those 13 are on the road or at a neutral site.
It’s a demanding path from the start, and Syracuse won’t have much time to ease into it.
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