I hate our schedule

[dasher]

We either have ridiculously easy games or really hard games. Nothing in between.
I think we should always play Cornell and Colgate. We have played those schools
for what seems 100 years. I think too much is on those 4 tough games. If we lose all
4 of them, and that is on the table even if we are decent, the season is in real jeopardy.
A couple of really good teams seems to me that would have helped this schedule.

 

[sufan59]

Schedule seems to be designed to help that stupid, but obviously very important metric in the NET. Win the very easy games by 20+, stay close against the Houston, Tennessee, and Kansas (hopefully pull at least one of these off). And we are in good shape in January. Not sure if the other ACC schools followed the program as well, but if they did and have somewhat similar results and perhaps wins against the P4, we will have plenty of Q1 and Q2 opportunities in conference play. Welcome to College Basketball in 2025!

 

[cusefan88]

We either have ridiculously easy games or really hard games. Nothing in between.
I think we should always play Cornell and Colgate. We have played those schools
for what seems 100 years. I think too much is on those 4 tough games. If we lose all
4 of them, and that is on the table even if we are decent, the season is in really jeopardy.
A couple of really good teams seems to me that would have helped this schedule.

For better or worse Cuse is doing what everyone else is doing and trying to game the NET. Once this nonsense is rectified you'll get the schedule you desire.

 

[dasher]

For better or worse Cuse is doing what everyone else is doing and trying to game the NET. Once this nonsense is rectified you'll get the schedule you desire.

I know. I just don't know that it will help us this year. Now, if we win two of those 4 games, all will be right in the world. I will still hate this schedule though

 

[sufan59]

I know. I just don't know that it will help us this year.

We just have zero to gain from a metric perspective playing Colgate and Cornell. They are good enough mid majors to keep the margins close on a good shooting night. We have problems if our very easy games are not blowouts.

 

[dasher]

We just have zero to gain from a metric perspective playing Colgate and Cornell. They are good enough mid majors to keep the margins close on a good shooting night. We have problems if our very easy games are not blowouts.

I understand the why. It just doesn't sit well with me.

 

[sufan59]

I understand the why. It just doesn't sit well with me.

I agree it’s the same thing on the football side. Like the bottom line should always be about wins and losses. Which is why the Big Ten and SEC try to pull the P2 argument. They want the ACC to be given the same treatment as Conference USA with wins and losses.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

We either have ridiculously easy games or really hard games. Nothing in between.
I think we should always play Cornell and Colgate. We have played those schools
for what seems 100 years. I think too much is on those 4 tough games. If we lose all
4 of them, and that is on the table even if we are decent, the season is in really jeopardy.
A couple of really good teams seems to me that would have helped this schedule.

The ACC conference is the “in-between” on our schedule

 

[dasher]

The ACC conference is the “in-between” on our schedule

I know

 

[HyattsCuse]

I understand the why. It just doesn't sit well with me.

They are going to need a bunch of easy games to get a break from that murderer’s row of my Binghamton Bearcats, Houston, Kansas, and Tennessee.

 

[dasher]

They are going to need a bunch of easy games to get a break from that murderer’s row of my Binghamton Bearcats, Houston, Kansas, and Tennessee.

One school is out of place there. You give way too much credit to Tenn

 

[NineOneSeven]

We aren’t playing Colgate or Cornell? That is news to me

 

[JonB]

The NET is a good statistic. If you WIN games against good teams, you’ll have a good computer metric. If you don’t win those games, you’ll won’t. Syracuse has not beaten good teams in recent years. Can they this year? Of course they can, that’s why they play. Just beat the teams in the schedule. How does everyone know with certainty that the teams that are supposed to be good will be good, and the teams that are supposedly bad will be bad? They don’t. Just win games. Period.

 

[grepal]

We either have ridiculously easy games or really hard games. Nothing in between.
I think we should always play Cornell and Colgate. We have played those schools
for what seems 100 years. I think too much is on those 4 tough games. If we lose all
4 of them, and that is on the table even if we are decent, the season is in real jeopardy.
A couple of really good teams seems to me that would have helped this schedule.

The ST. Joe's game appears to be the type of game you want more of. Maybe Temple, Cincinatti, W. Virginia, schools of that ilk.

 

[RF2044]

We either have ridiculously easy games or really hard games. Nothing in between.
I think we should always play Cornell and Colgate. We have played those schools
for what seems 100 years. I think too much is on those 4 tough games. If we lose all
4 of them, and that is on the table even if we are decent, the season is in real jeopardy.
A couple of really good teams seems to me that would have helped this schedule.

What I hate about it is that the tone for the ENTIRE season will probably be set so early. We don't have a lot of runway / tune up games to gel -- this team is either going to produce, or show that they are not that good.

Which could make for a long season, if that tournament goes poorly.

 

[RedtheGOB]

As several have said this is the schedule of a team trying to guarantee a tourney appearance.

I actually love the schedule btw.

-Playing in the most prestigious Preseason tourney in the league
-4 cupcakes before and then 5 cupcakes after the Houston/Kansas/Tenn gauntlet before league play
-No more stupid ACC game in the middle of the non-con which we always lose
-Clemson ACC opener, they have to fly up to CNY New Years Eve. We're gonna smoke them and then send them home that night /
-It's possible we can roll through all of Dec/Jan and stack a ton of wins.
-Seems like more Saturday home games than in the past.
-After Tenn I think every game at the dome is winnable

Outside of the talent and then the coaching issues, the next major problem is the terrible play at the dome and zero momentum to start the season. We have been stalled out in December before we even get to league play.

We've seen it over and over that in the NIL/Portal era that teams build momentum and get their fanbases invested in new faces on their team by blowing out teams at home in front of big crowds. Even with the son of a legend on the team this year, no one is going to care about this team unless they crush some teams at the dome early on. They haven't done that in a long time.

 

[Niastri]

What I hate about it is that the tone for the ENTIRE season will probably be set so early. We don't have a lot of runway / tune up games to gel -- this team is either going to produce, or show that they are not that good.

Which could make for a long season, if that tournament goes poorly.

The fact is, every team is in the same situation every year. We have 11 new players, but at least two starters return from last year.

Our transfer starters, Kingz, George, and Kyle all have tons of experience playing for P4 schools.

So do our top reserves, Betsey and Souare. Only once we get to Fennell, Anthony and White do we worry about inexperience.

But also, Freeman, Kyle, Kingz and Betsey all are coming into their second season playing P4 basketball... We could see some sophomore surge improvement from some or all of them.

I actually think playing a handful of extremely important games in November will give our experienced players a chance to shine while our competition is still figuring out what they're doing.

In particular, Houston and Kansas are replacing a ton of production, and expecting low major transfers playing their first P4 games, or highly ranked freshman, to fill in that gap.

For ages, JB teams were dominant in nonconference tournaments in November, and a large part of that is because of the experience we always brought to the table.

 

[jncuse]

It’s due to NET.
Under the RPI playing too many sub 280 teams was playing with fire. The sweet spot for gaming the RPI was trying to schedule teams you knew you could beat but were not terrible — somewhere in the 100-150 area. View it as the Q3 home game.

Now you want to avoid those teams in the 100-180 area and beat up on su 280 teams under the NET. That’s why such a low % of OOC games for power conference teams are in Q3.

That being said it’s still relative margin. If you aren’t winning those games by an average of at least 20 points or more you are not helping yourself. And if you win them by amounts like we did last year you hurt yourself badly.

It’s why I push for a ranking system that is 50% old RPI and 50% NET. The weaknesses of each offset each other and encourage more balanced scheduling.

 

[RedtheGOB]

It’s due to NET.
Under the RPI playing too many sub 280 teams was playing with fire. The sweet spot for gaming the RPI was trying to schedule teams you knew you could beat but were not terrible — somewhere in the 100-150 area. View it as the Q3 home game.

Now you want to avoid those teams in the 100-180 area and beat up on su 280 teams under the NET. That’s why such a low % of OOC games for power conference teams are in Q3.

That being said it’s still relative margin. If you aren’t winning those games by an average of at least 20 points or more you are not helping yourself. And if you win them by amounts like we did last year you hurt yourself badly.

It’s why I push for a ranking system that is 50% old RPI and 50% NET. The weaknesses of each offset each other and encourage more balanced scheduling.

Well said. Also as much as the committee says it's all Net, there is also an eye test and human factor. No one is going to care about Syracuse losing to Houston and Kansas on the road especially within a 24 hour period. We do have to win games down the stretch against other bubble teams like UNC and UVA/NCState/SMU though.

We just have to stack a ton of wins. Honestly I think we scheduled exactly like UNC did last year. They made the tourney going 1-13 in Q1 games, with their bets win against 7 seed UCLA. They just beat up all their Q2-Q4 games. That's what we need to do too.