A few quick thoughts.
Like the placement of Binghamton right before the ACC tourney, gives the team a chance to pick up two late wins if needed for the tourney (Colgate being the other).
Agreed that the 4pm start times seem very weird. Don't recall to many 4pm start times before. Though its better then the Sunday night game against Army last year that made zero sense.
Toughest stretch is clearly JHU, Duke, ND back to back to back. SU always plays a tough stretch but it would have been nice to break that up a little bit. The next three games after that Hobart, Cornell, UNC isn't exactly a picnic. 4 of those 6 games are on the road as well, less then ideal.
Not a huge fan of the Hobart game going back to a Tuesday night that early in April when its on the road. Hobart is running the risk of a weather related issue. Game has been played on Tuesday nights for years but usually later in April.
Going to be imperative that Syracuse is 4-1 after the first five games. Biggest potential roadblock outside of UVA obviously is probably Albany but Army is always a concern from a defensive standpoint when you have a young offense. To early to tell what Albany is going to look like without Thompson. Still a lot of firepower there but I suspect there going to miss Thompson a lot more then Scott Mar or their fanbase is willing to admit.
Unless its an oversight I like the fact that St. Johns is back at the Dome. After two straight years down in Georgia I don't really see the need to play there again for a while. With this being the even year schedule SU plays a ton of road games so getting one back in the Dome is a big plus.
Key for Syracuse is going to be the ability to get a win or even 2 against the three game juggernaut of Hop, Duke, ND. Best bets are probably Hop and ND, I don't think SU matches up well with Duke this year. Good news is that most of Duke's offense is in their final season including Jones, Class etc.
If SU goes O fer in that three game stretch noted above or is just struggling in general the end stretch of Hobart, Cornell, North Carolina, Binghamton offers plenty of opportunity. The first three teams much like Syracuse lost a lot to graduation and its not unrealistic to think SU could go 3-1 or even 4-0.
