Never too early to look at Lunardi’s projections
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The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team has missed the last two NCAA Tournaments and right now many early projections expect that streak to extend another year.
Even though the transfer portal is still open, and NBA Draft decisions, haven’t been made, you’ve got to get the off-season bracketology work in. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi released his early 2024 NCAA Tournament projections and Syracuse wasn’t included.
The ACC only got five teams in this early projection: Duke (1), North Carolina (4), Miami (5), Clemson (10), Virginia (11 play-in). Next year the Orange are scheduled to play UNC and Clemson twice, they will host Miami and travel to Duke and Virginia.
Possible Syracuse opponents in Maui are all over this bracket projection. Marquette (1), Tennessee (2), Kansas (3), Gonzaga (3), Purdue (3) and UCLA (5) means the Orange will get opportunities to get quality wins before December. Add in a game in the ACC/SEC challenge and Adrian Autry’s honeymoon period might not be optioned for a future Hallmark movie.
We know that the Orange will also travel to Georgetown so it’s likely that the rest of the non-conference schedule will lack big-name opponents. Unlike this year, Syracuse’s computer numbers should be a lot stronger and it’ll be up to the revamped roster to take advantage.
We’ll keep an eye on this updates during the off-season as once rosters get a bit more settled, there should be movement at the bottom of the bracket.
