Our Actual Rivals in 2019

[Trueblue25]

Who do people actually consider our on court rival? Still Georgetown? I wouldn’t put them in my top 3.

1. Louisville
2. Pitt
3. Uconn imo

 

[Headmaster 9]

Unfortunately since the move to ACC we don’t really have any. We have teams that we have had good games with ( such as Duke), that we really struggle with (like UVA), but no real rivals.
We have a high quality conference to play in, but the lack of rivals has taken something away from regular season hype.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Meh. I thought it could be UVA after the Elite 8 game, but they’ve destroyed us since.

 

[Trueblue25]

Hoping competitors like Girard, Hughes and Guerrier will shoot some life into our team and give syracuse basketball a scrappy edge again. Maybe then we’ll get more rivalry game feelings once more.

We’ve been playing like an emotionless AAU team the past few years. No real emotion

 

[cusefan88]

It's only Pitt at this point. Maybe Gtown. Should Cuse get back to playing UConn every year I would add them

 

[DNABB5]

Syracuse vs. the world brah

This has been a long topic. The NE heritage we USED to have many rivals. Every BE opponent was a rival. Now I think of Georgetown still and Duke is slowly replacing them as the primary but I don't have the inherent disdain built in with say Georgia Tech than with Providence. I always liked Clemson and Virginia, it's hard to hate them. Va Tech yea cuz Buzz but how do you hate Wake Forest? It is such a different feel to these ACC games, so much more of a "gentlemans league"

But to answer the question...

G'town
Duke
Pitt
BC
Va Tech

NC (we have to win first)
Virginia?

 

[OrangeDW]

Hoping competitors like Girard, Hughes and Guerrier will shoot some life into our team and give syracuse basketball a scrappy edge again. Maybe then we’ll get more rivalry game feelings once more.

We’ve been playing like an emotionless AAU team the past few years. No real emotion

All these kids come up playing all these showcase tournaments that are all about the individual and doing one on one workouts with “trainers”. It’s only natural that’s going to bleed into the game. Team rivalries seem to largely be a thing of the past.

 

[PauliePeppas]

Ncaa infractions committee

 

[ORRange]

1) Pitt
2) Duke



out of the mix because we can't beat them
NC and Calipari (recruiting)

 

[cliftonparksufan]

1) Pitt
2) Duke



out of the mix because we can't beat them
NC and Calipari (recruiting)

I can see why people say Pitt but it's not like Krausner and Troutman are walking through the door.

 

[OrangeDW]

I can see why people say Pitt but it's not like Krausner and Troutman are walking through the door.

I haven’t gotten worked up about Pitt since the Ennis shot. That one is mostly dead, IMO.

 

[Doc5120]

I can see why people say Pitt but it's not like Krausner and Troutman are walking through the door.

Oh man - I could not stand those two! Krauser throwing up the "X" was about as irritating as could be!

 

[Doc5120]

All these kids come up playing all these showcase tournaments that are all about the individual and doing one on one workouts with “trainers”. It’s only natural that’s going to bleed into the game. Team rivalries seem to largely be a thing of the past.

I agree with this. I also think the current state of college basketball where there are so many one and dones and large roster turnover from year to year makes it difficult to develop rivalries. Taking an example from last season, how can Zion/Barrett truly hate UNC and likewise for Coby White/Nassir Little with Duke.

Rivalries take time and multiple matchups with a fixture of the same set of core guys. I always tune in for Duke/UNC, but the "rivalry" is nothing like it used to be even 10-15 years ago with guys like Hansbrough and Redick. Overall there are very few, if any, real rivalries in college hoops anymore. This is one of the reasons I prefer college football to college basketball these days.

To answer the original question, I'd say Louisville and then maybe Uconn. But I don't have the same level of hate for Uconn/G'town that I used to.

 

[OrangeDW]

Oh man - I could not stand those two! Krauser throwing up the "X" was about as irritating as could be!

Troutman, Krauser, Blair, Fields, Page...they had some guys who really killed us.

 

[Doc5120]

Troutman, Krauser, Blair, Fields, Page...they had some guys who really killed us.

Those names bring back horrible memories. DaJuan Blair was a man and I hated having to watch him play against us.

 

[DNABB5]

Troutman

reading the name feels like a moving pick

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Personally I hate everybody.

 

[two3zone]

Personally I hate everybody.

I like Hop, Buzz and Brey. Outside of that I'm comfortable using the word hate.

 

[rrlbees]

Gtown. Always will be Gtown. And now Ewing is the coach. The hatred for Gtown and Ewing runs deep.

 

[Arangeman]

Who do people actually consider our on court rival? Still Georgetown? I wouldn’t put them in my top 3.

1. Louisville
2. Pitt
3. Uconn imo

Louisville barely knows we are alive

 

[Cusefan0307]

We need to start winning at least 12 ACC games before the hate starts flowing toward us again.

 

[Scooch]

I still hate UConn more than anyone else, and we rarely play them, so meh.

I love the Georgetown history, but it hasn’t been heated since the Big East died, and likely long before that.

We’ll never have a true rival in the ACC. Sucks but it is what it is.

 

[pfister1]

Rivalries are ideally reciprocal. The other team gets as amped up to play and beat us as we get to play and beat them.

In that context Pitt might be the closest thing we have to a rival in the ACC. It doesn't matter that they've had a couple of down years, rivalries are not formed from a two or three year run. Pitt is geographically close, they are in our current conference and we play them twice per year, we have a reasonably long history (same conference since 1982) and regular matchups prior to that (116 historical meetings) and we've each had periods of relative dominance over the other. To me, like it or not, they are our best current prospect for a "traditional" rival.

If we can continue to play either Georgetown or UConn on a regular (at least every other year) basis, I think either or both would also maintain status as a rival. Villanova would be a good third option. I couldn't care less if we ever play Rutgers, Seton Hall, Providence or St. Johns; they are more nostalgic than rival.

Conference opponents that are the best candidates to become rivals, aside from Pitt, would be BC (if BC upgrades some) and possibly Notre Dame. Mostly because they need rivals, we are and have been competitive with them and we have history.

Until we get the program back to a place where other teams are worried about having to play us, I don't see any traditional ACC memeber truly being a rival. We may get amped up for a game against Duke (15 all time meetings), UNC (16 all time meetings) or UVA (13 all time meetings); but I think we are a novelty to them and any sense of "rivalry" is a creation of the ESPN marketing machine. If we get back to a position where we are occasionally favored against those guys, maybe we'll form a rivalry, until then it's pretty one sided.

As fans we should embrace Pitt, Georgetown, UConn, Nova, BC and Notre Dame as rivals and stop worrying about whether playing them will somehow help them more than us or be beneath us.

 

[orangecuse]

Rivalries are ideally reciprocal. The other team gets as amped up to play and beat us as we get to play and beat them.

In that context Pitt might be the closest thing we have to a rival in the ACC. It doesn't matter that they've had a couple of down years, rivalries are not formed from a two or three year run. Pitt is geographically close, they are in our current conference and we play them twice per year, we have a reasonably long history (same conference since 1982) and regular matchups prior to that (116 historical meetings) and we've each had periods of relative dominance over the other. To me, like it or not, they are our best current prospect for a "traditional" rival.

If we can continue to play either Georgetown or UConn on a regular (at least every other year) basis, I think either or both would also maintain status as a rival. Villanova would be a good third option. I couldn't care less if we ever play Rutgers, Seton Hall, Providence or St. Johns; they are more nostalgic than rival.

Conference opponents that are the best candidates to become rivals, aside from Pitt, would be BC (if BC upgrades some) and possibly Notre Dame. Mostly because they need rivals, we are and have been competitive with them and we have history.

Until we get the program back to a place where other teams are worried about having to play us, I don't see any traditional ACC memeber truly being a rival. We may get amped up for a game against Duke (15 all time meetings), UNC (16 all time meetings) or UVA (13 all time meetings); but I think we are a novelty to them and any sense of "rivalry" is a creation of the ESPN marketing machine. If we get back to a position where we are occasionally favored against those guys, maybe we'll form a rivalry, until then it's pretty one sided.

As fans we should embrace Pitt, Georgetown, UConn, Nova, BC and Notre Dame as rivals and stop worrying about whether playing them will somehow help them more than us or be beneath us.

'Like it or not,' you are dead on IMO with this assessment.

 

[miamicuse]

No real rivals now.

I don't think rivals happen until there is a bench clearing fist fight, elbows thrown with broken noses and dislocated jaws, chairs tossed, ejections, spicy sound bites at pressers. Both teams competitive and turn up an extra notch when playing and one upping each other. JB did throw his jacket once, but Duke is not a rival.