Tomorrow is a must win

[jncuse]

Yes. But we’d have to go like 13-5 // 14-4 in the ACC and that’s probably a tall task

Not this year - to that extent anyway. The ACC is far stronger this year than last year, and that will allow for more quality wins on your resume via conference games (see the bold below) If you do nothing stupid in ACC (no bad losses), 12-8 in the ACC should be more than enough to get you in the ACC tourney. With the right mix, with no stupid in OOC, 11-9 in ACC might be enough.

Here is the big difference from last year:
- At the end of 2025, 5 ACC teams were top 60 in KP. and 7 were in top 75. (using KP as it closely approximates NET)
- Right now, the ACC has 10 teams in top 60, and 13 in top 75. Given that top 75 road games are Q1 wins, and top 75 games are Q2 wins at home, these will allow ACC teams to accumulate much more quality resumes within conference. (Assuming they win of course)

Of course going 11-9 or 12-8 in the ACC this year is far tougher than going 11-9 or 12-8 last year, The conference is better.

 

[Dinkyspond]

I don’t want wildhack making that decision. I have 0 faith in him.

I guess you're right, why let a guy who goes 0-2 get worse at 0-4 potentially

 

[RF2044]

Got it. I guess I'm skeptical of saying that game #7 is a "must win". But I agree that losing would be very bad.

I think it's more about the composition of the schedule. We have tomato cans lined up for the ENTIRE pre-conference schedule, EXCEPT for this tournament and the ACC/SEC challenge. 4 chances to get a marquee win. We're 0-2.

So...

Must win, might be more like necessary win. Because I don't see how we can qualify for the NCAA if we don't get an OOC victory over anyone a step up from a traffic cone.

 

[Scotch]

Wildhack is going to have to hire a new basketball and football coach in a 9-month period beginning in March 2026. He's got his work cut out for him.

Oh please.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Not this year. The ACC is far stronger this year than last year, and that will allow for more quality wins on your resume via conference games (see the bold below) If you do nothing stupid in ACC (no bad losses), 12-8 in the ACC should be more than enough to get you in the ACC tourney. With the right mix, with no stupid in OOC, 11-9 in ACC might be enough.

Here is the big difference from last year:
- At the end of 2025, 5 ACC teams were top 60 in KP. and 7 were in top 75. (using KP as it closely approximates NET)
- Right now, the ACC has 10 teams in top 60, and 13 in top 75. Given that top 75 road games are Q1 wins, and top 75 games are Q2 wins at home, these will allow ACC teams to accumulate much more quality resumes within conference. (Assuming they win of course)

Of course going 11-9 or 12-8 in the ACC this year is far tougher than going 11-9 or 12-8 last year, The conference is better.

There’s only 18 ACC games this year, the home schedule is charmin soft, and our toughest opponents are mainly on the road.

After Tennessee we play sub 150 teams most of the OOC.

Beating Notre Dame, Cal, SMU, Pitt, Virginia Tech and Miami in the dome isn’t moving the needle.

You’re likely looking at having to win every home game which includes UNC and Clemson while trying to peel off 1 or 2 of UNC/Duke/Louisville on the road.

Again I know the ACC is better, but our ACC schedule is not to our advantage.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Creighton, Rutgers, SDSU, or UNLV.

Don’t think it will be Rutgers based on point differential. Most likely Creighton, UNLV or the 1-1 team with the worst point differential (could be a handful of teams)

 

[JeremyCuse]

"Yes, teams from the same conference can play against each other in the third game (Championship Day or consolation games) of the Players Era Festival.

The NCAA Men's Basketball Oversight Committee granted a specific waiver for the 2024-25 season that permits more than one team from the same conference to participate in the same Multiple-Team Event (MTE) and potentially face each other. "

Can't play an ACC team, your note above was for the 24-25 season.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Dumb question, but is there no way to have a tourney-quality resume without a P5 OOC win?

We watched UNC go 1-12 in Q1 with no quality wins. They beat a 7 seed UCLA team by 2 in December.

They literally had no quality wins but won everything else. Obvi they’re special. We’ll need more. The ACC will have to be good.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

There’s only 18 ACC games this year, the home schedule is charmin soft, and our toughest opponents are mainly on the road.

After Tennessee we play sub 150 teams most of the OOC.

Beating Notre Dame, Cal, SMU, Pitt, Virginia Tech and Miami in the dome isn’t moving the needle.

You’re likely looking at having to win every home game which includes UNC and Clemson while trying to peel off 1 or 2 of UNC/Duke/Louisville on the road.

Again I know the ACC is better, but our ACC schedule is not to our advantage.

17 out of 18 teams in the ACC are currently in the top 100 of KenPom. The league appears to be significantly improved. The SEC/ACC challenge will tell us a lot about the conference. We should have plenty of chances at quality wins this season. Losing to Houston and KU in November won’t hurt us, just lost opportunities.

That being said, we absolutely need to win tomorrow (or Thursday) based on the opponent we’ll be matched up with.

 

[phil77]

Can't play an ACC team, your note above was for the 24-25 season.

Correct thank you I didn't catch that before

"No, teams in the 2025-26 Players Era Festival multi-team event (MTE) cannot play against a team from their own conference in the third game if they have played already or under certain seeding conditions. The tournament organizers explicitly avoid intra-conference matchups, especially in the final rounds."

 

[RedtheGOB]

Not this year - to that extent anyway. The ACC is far stronger this year than last year, and that will allow for more quality wins on your resume via conference games (see the bold below) If you do nothing stupid in ACC (no bad losses), 12-8 in the ACC should be more than enough to get you in the ACC tourney. With the right mix, with no stupid in OOC, 11-9 in ACC might be enough.

Here is the big difference from last year:
- At the end of 2025, 5 ACC teams were top 60 in KP. and 7 were in top 75. (using KP as it closely approximates NET)
- Right now, the ACC has 10 teams in top 60, and 13 in top 75. Given that top 75 road games are Q1 wins, and top 75 games are Q2 wins at home, these will allow ACC teams to accumulate much more quality resumes within conference. (Assuming they win of course)

Of course going 11-9 or 12-8 in the ACC this year is far tougher than going 11-9 or 12-8 last year, The conference is better.

Well said. Before Pitt dropped an egg I counted only BC and GTech that were pretty terrible in ACC. We will get 18 Q1-Q2 chances this year in the ACC. 2 years ago Autrys freshman year we played 5 Q3 and 1 Q4 ACC game (Louisville at home by 2 which dropped us big in the net ha)

 

[jncuse]

There’s only 18 ACC games this year, the home schedule is charming soft, and our toughest opponents are mainly on the road.

After Tennessee we play sub 150 teams most of the OOC

Beating Notre Dame, Cal, SMU, Pitt, Virginia Tech and Miami in the dome ain’t moving the needle.

Tomorrow's game is important. I didn't want to dismiss that. Because it makes me doubt our ability to go 10-8 or 11-7 in the ACC. But losing these first two games isn't crushing -- would have been really rewarding though.

We want to get that one tomorrow and not rely on Tennessee. That being said, 11-7 in the ACC will almost certainly get you a good enough resume to get in the tournament. You can't get to 11 wins in the ACC without building quality. It's way different than last year. Of course the real question is could we get to 11-7?

Looking at the schedule as of now we have
8 Q1 games
7 Q2 games
3 Q3 games

You can't get to 11 wins without getting at least a few Q1 wins.

 

[Cusefan0307]

17 out of 18 teams in the ACC are currently in the top 100 of KenPom. The league appears to be significantly improved. The SEC/ACC challenge will tell us a lot about the conference. We should have plenty of chances at quality wins this season. Losing to Houston and KU in November won’t hurt us, just lost opportunities.

You need to win against top 30 NET teams at home to get a Quad 1. UNC is likely the only game guaranteed in the dome to be that. Clemson is likely to be right on that bubble. Any team 30-76 is a quad 2 and after that quad 3.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Tomorrow's game is important. I didn't want to dismiss that. Because it makes me doubt our ability to go 10-8 or 11-7 in the ACC. But losing these first two games isn't crushing -- would have been really rewarding though.

We want to get that one tomorrow and not rely on Tennessee. That being said, 11-7 in the ACC will almost certainly get you a good enough resume to get in the tournament. You can't get to 11 wins in the ACC without building quality. It's way different than last year. Of course the real question is could we get to 11-7?

Looking at the schedule as of now we have
8 Q1 games
7 Q2 games
3 Q3 games

You can't get to 11 wins without getting at least a few Q1 wins.

It’ll be interesting to see if that holds up. I’m a bit skeptical after some of the losses the past few days.

 

[jncuse]

Well said. Before Pitt dropped an egg I counted only BC and GTech that were pretty terrible in ACC. We will get 18 Q1-Q2 chances this year in the ACC. 2 years ago Autrys freshman year we played 5 Q3 and 1 Q4 ACC game (Louisville at home by 2 which dropped us big in the net ha)

Won't quite end up at 18 Q1+Q2. I got 16 as of now, but in reality I am expecting Boston College on the road to fall to a Q3... Pitt and Cal at home are Q3 games.

That being said I stand by my comment that 11-7 in the ACC, with a win tomorrow, will be more than fine. Even 10-8 with a win tomorrow could be enough.

The question is can we get to those records.

 

[sufan59]

They just can’t let two very frustrating losses derail the season.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I think Creighton beats us. SDSU is always annoying. I don’t know anything about UNLV and assume Rutgers is the worst team.

Creighton is awful this year and would be a terrible loss.

 

[djorange1989]

lol, None of those games are going to help us

We aren’t playing on Thursday those are Thursday teams(SDSU will be if they lose tonight, other three for sure). We will get one of the weaker 1-1 teams which will still be a solid team. Oregon maybe, assuming they beat SDSU tonight, hard to say but not the bottom 4 teams

 

[jncuse]

It’ll be interesting to see if that holds up. I’m a bit skeptical after some of the losses the past few days.

You have a right to be skeptical. Relatively the ACC suffered in week 3, compared to week 1 and week 2 I haven't tracked the last few days. Will do so later today.

That being said the ACC and SEC, did crush it in the Q4 margin game (so far anyway) and under conference NET that allows you to absorb close losses in quality games.

 

[phil77]

Can't play an ACC team, your note above was for the 24-25 season.

I wonder what will happen because it looks like ND will be more than likely be the worst 1-1 but we can't play them. I wonder if they will give us another 1-1 team and let us play tomorrow or will they give ND another 0-2 and make us play on Turkey Day.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I wonder what will happen because it looks like ND will be more than likely be the worst 1-1 but we can't play them. I wonder if they will give us another 1-1 team and let us play tomorrow or will they give ND another 0-2 and make us play on Turkey Day.

Good question, and honestly I have no idea. I assume we will get the next worst 1-1 team but maybe I am way off on that.

 

[blust2i3d4]

I read 1st place to 14th place will play on Wednesday then go home. The 15th to 18th place will play on Thanksgiving. Do you think we will be in the bottom four. I know Rutgers is also 0-2. Any chance we are playing Rutgers?

 

[OrlandoCuse]

I wonder what will happen because it looks like ND will be more than likely be the worst 1-1 but we can't play them. I wonder if they will give us another 1-1 team and let us play tomorrow or will they give ND another 0-2 and make us play on Turkey Day.

I don’t think ND will be the worst 1-1 team with a -5 differential.

 

[phil77]

I don’t think ND will be the worst 1-1 team with a -5 differential.

I thought I saw something on screen that they were not sure it flashed quick when they were showing the standings but I may have missed the entire list. I think they are right now.

 

[dasher]

The state of Syracuse athletics is in trouble regardless of what happens tomorrow.

I hate to be a polyanna but I disagree. I know this is out of bounds for the board but I think football is in and will be in good chape. We have a lot of money, still. The major donors haven't bailed on Fran. Could share a story but I won't because it's not mine to share but we have dough to do well in the portal. I know what we have seen over the last 7 weeks has been ugly. But this upcoming class is they best we have done in maybe 30 years. I believe that changes are on the way for the staff. Just my thought. Hoop, I'm more concerned. Yes, our defense has improved but even with Donnie, he won't be here next year. We will see