Every winter, the topic of the Syracuse men’s basketball team’s schedule comes up. And every time, people discredit it, pointing to the litany of in-state opponents, surplus of home games and lack of ranked opponents.

In its past eight seasons – including this year – Syracuse has played 73 out of 87 games (84 percent) prior to Jan. 1 in New York. Sixty-three of those games (72 percent) have been in the Carrier Dome, with just 14 games played outside New York, eight of which were held in tournaments in Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

While the No. 5 Orange doesn’t venture outside of New York until a Jan. 10 game against Notre Dame, Syracuse isn’t playing a cupcake schedule filled entirely with the likes of Colgate, Binghamton and Cornell.

Starting with tonight’s semifinal of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic against No. 12 Mississippi State at Madison Square Garden at 9 on ESPN2, the Orange will face at least two ranked opponents in its first eight games.

There’s a possibility for a third, as well, if Syracuse wins tonight and No. 24 Memphis defeats St. Mary’s of California in tonight’s first semifinal. The winners meet Friday night at 9 with a consolation game slated for 7.

‘It’s good,’ SU forward Hakim Warrick said. ‘There are not a lot of early season games in November or December when you see two Top 25 teams playing a non-conference game. … It’s good for the long run – just having that experience and knowing what it takes. It’s really going to help us, especially just going into the Big East season.’

Syracuse isn’t hitting the airport terminal quite yet, but it doesn’t diminish a tougher-than-usual early season stretch of games, especially compared to seasons past. The Orange didn’t face its first ranked opponent last season until Jan. 24, when it lost to No. 8 Pittsburgh, 66-45.

‘It just makes us better more quickly,’ sophomore Demetris Nichols said. ‘We have to play all these great teams in the beginning. It’s only going to make us better in the long run when we make the tournament.’

Guard Louie McCroskey echoed Nichols’ thoughts.‘It’s going to be an early test for us,’ he said. ‘We have to be mentally prepared and physically prepared to play. It’s going to be a real battle. It’s a tournament-type game and a tournament-type team.’

McCroskey felt that an earlier loss to a top team hurts less than one later in the season because nobody will remember it then. He said it’s also a chance to improve so the team is playing its best going into the NCAA Tournament.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim, though, didn’t want to overstate the importance of the early games against a ranked team.

‘We’ll use it to help see where we are, but if you didn’t play these games, it wouldn’t make any difference,’ Boeheim said. ‘We need to play well during November and December to get ready for our conference season, which is going to be very tough.’

The status of preseason All-American Lawrence Roberts for tonight’s game is a game-time decision, Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury told reporters Tuesday.

Roberts has yet to play this season, first serving a one-game suspension from the NCAA because the Portland Trailblazers paid for his trip to an NBA workout, and then sitting out a second game as he attempts to recover from a broken nose.

Roberts originally broke his nose Nov. 4, and then aggravated it in practice Monday when a ball struck him in the face, limiting his recovery.

Even without Roberts – who, even if he does play, won’t be at full strength – Mississippi State can’t be taken lightly. The Bulldogs are a far cry from typical November games against Albany or Cornell.

‘We’ve got a tremendous challenge,’ Boeheim said. ‘Mississippi State is a very, very good basketball team. St. Mary’s and Memphis are very good. This is an early season matchup that’ll show us how we have to get better.’

Published on November 17, 2004 at 12:00 pm