Syracuse’s (19-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) season was put on hiatus by Pittsburgh. Now, the Orange will have to wait until Sunday to find out whether it will get a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In the meantime, beat writers Sam Blum, Jesse Dougherty and Matt Schneidman discuss three questions surrounding SU.

What is responsible for Syracuse’s late-season slide?

Sam Blum: It’s not like Syracuse has been playing cupcake games. Five-of-six losses include two to Pittsburgh, on the road at Louisville and North Carolina and Florida State. So while there were maybe one or two wins to be had, it’s not like the team had any awful losses there. That said, this isn’t the same team when it’s playing its best. I’ll give you two reasons why the team has been struggling. Tyler Roberson and Trevor Cooney. There have been games when they both don’t show up, and that can’t happen, especially when you have a guy like Malachi Richardson that is so hot and cold.

Jesse Dougherty: More than anything, I just think it’s the law of averages. Syracuse, for this whole season, has been reliant on the 3 with only fairly consistent shooters and crossing its fingers for “good enough” frontcourt play on a game-by-game basis. Sure, the Orange’s talent helped it to some pretty impressive wins this season, but the overlying sentiment is that this team finished .500 in ACC play and looks very much like a .500 ACC team. It may seem like it’s easy to say that now, but you could look all day and then realize that SU really doesn’t have that defining factor that makes OK teams pretty good, or pretty good teams good. That’s probably at the center of its reeling NCAA Tournament hopes.

Matt Schneidman: The old demons came back to haunt Syracuse and it was the rebounding ghosts of Syracuse past that were to credit for losing five out of the last six games. In the Orange’s five losses at the end of the season, it was outrebounded by a combined 53 boards. Tyler Roberson dissipated down the stretch and who would’ve guessed that Syracuse’s by far and away best rebounder in its ACC tournament game would’ve been Dajuan Coleman? There was a time where the Orange had put its deficiencies on the glass in the past, and yes, SU did win the rebounding battle against Pitt on Wednesday, but it’s certainly the reason for its treacherous late-season slide.

Has Syracuse underperformed this season?

S.B.: Yes, definitely. This team is one win away from being an NCAA Tournament lock. Pick any game SU lost. If that loss was a win, then the Orange would be in. The reason the answer is a yes is because we’ve seen that Syracuse is a capable NCAA Tournament team. It can hang with basically anyone. And if that’s the case and the Orange isn’t in, then that’s a pretty disappointing failure.

J.D.: No. If anything I think Syracuse has outperformed itself in a lot of ways. In conference play, the only game Syracuse lost that it really should have won was at home against Clemson on Jan. 5 (and yes, Jim Boeheim wasn’t coaching), and I’d say that’s really impressive given the team’s evident deficiencies. For most of its critical games, the Orange played a 6-foot-8 freshman at center and ran the same high ball screen for the same player at the same spot on the floor. SU was good at times despite being predictable all the time, and for flashes this year it looked like it would run away with a Tournament bid that it probably doesn’t deserve on a sheer talent and depth level.

M.S.: I wouldn’t say Syracuse has underperformed this season since we knew it’d be a rough year down low with the loss of Rakeem Christmas. Cooney himself has underperformed, I’d say, but Gbinije and Richardson made up for that by exceeding expectations in their respective positions. The season was “meh” for Syracuse in general, which is what the feeling was heading in with a Boeheim suspension looming and no formidable big bodies to challenge the ACC’s best of Brice Johnson, Anthony Gill and others.

If Syracuse makes the NCAA Tournament, what is this team’s ceiling as far as a run in the tournament goes?

S.B.: All you need to do is get in. If Syracuse can hang with North Carolina on the road not playing its best game, it can do anything. It could get blown out by Wichita State or Dayton. It could make a Final Four run, and anything in between. Something tells me getting in will give this team second life. But then again, a must-win game on Wednesday wasn’t enough to inspire that win.

J.D.: Very low. If Syracuse ends up in a play-in game, it would be hard to pick it to win with the way the end of the season has gone. Same goes for a Round of 64 game, and then the limit would be the Round of 32 for me. No magical Sweet 16 run this year — not enough horses, not enough size, not enough of a lot of things.

M.S.: The ceiling would probably be winning two games before bowing out. That would even be a stretch for a team that hasn’t shown consistent outside shooting of late that’s needed to string together wins in March. Gbinije carrying the offense won’t be enough, and he, Cooney and Richardson have rarely all been turned on in the same game this season. The Orange will be lucky to get in the field in the first place, but don’t expect them to make a magical run if Boeheim and Co. happen to sneak in.

Published on March 11, 2016 at 9:00 pm