Schedule Analysis — 2016 Syracuse Basketball preview

If you enjoyed not hearing the word “cupcake” in regards to Syracuse’s non-conference schedule last season, well, consider that fun while it lasted. Only two early season opponents appear in the pre-season Top 25, #9 Wisconsin and #18 Connecticut. The only other team to merit votes in the preseason polls who appears on the Orange’s schedule early in the season is Monmouth. Monmouth was the MAAC regular season champion last year, but lost in their conference tourney and was bounced from the NIT in the second round, finishing with a 28-8 mark.

SU, however, will more than make up for that relatively light early season slate when they get into ACC play. Four of Syracuse’s conference mates are ranked in the top 13 teams in the nation, including the nearly unanimous #1 Duke Blue Devils. At least the Orange will see them at the Carrier Dome. Then again, that Duke game will come in the middle of a four-game stretch bookended by a home-and-home set with #13 Louisville. The other two ranked teams, #6 North Carolina and #8 Virginia, are split between home and the road, the latter coming to the Dome.

In addition to the four top-25 teams, five other ACC teams earned votes in the preseason poll. Among them, the Orange will host Florida State and Miami, while traveling to NC State, Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame. All told, ten of SU’s 18 conference matchups will be against a team who got at least one vote in the preseason poll.

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