PITTSBURGH — When Syracuse limped off the floor of the Petersen Events Center on Saturday evening, another loss had hardened the following prevailing logic:

It’s a good year to self-impose a postseason ban because the Orange isn’t going to make the NCAA Tournament either way.

And after falling to Pittsburgh (16-8, 5-5 Atlantic Coast), 83-77, with the toughest part of its schedule still ahead, SU (15-8, 6-4) has eight games left to win for itself and prove that theory wrong. With the dust settled on the self-imposed postseason ban — don’t get too comfortable, dust — the Orange now has eight more games to prove itself a victim of the circumstances instead of a handy administrative chess piece.

If SU continues to lose, slapping a postseason ban on this season will be harmless compared to doing so in almost any other year. But if it plays for pride and stockpiles wins, the record will show that the season wasn’t always bound to be a wash.

It’s hard to look past the fact that SU inappropriately announced the ban on football national signing day — a day Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer said is “about the kids” — that this year’s team isn’t to blame for past discretions and that Rakeem Christmas, the team’s leading scorer and only scholarship senior, has played his last postseason game.

It all doesn’t seem right because frankly, it isn’t. But there’s still a season to finish and a reputation that this year’s Orange can salvage.

“As soon as we heard the news, we had a team meeting,” SU forward Michael Gbinije said of how the team dealt with the news of the ban last week. “We just got everything out and talked about things, and basically to wrap things up we just came to the conclusion that we want to win games and show people we’re a good team.”

Media members were given strict instructions to not ask about the postseason ban in the locker room after the loss to Pitt, but the conversation teetered onto the topic when SU players put the loss to Pittsburgh in perspective.

Responses to what the ban means to the last of the month of the Orange’s season included a grab bag of cliches — competitiveness and fight among them. SU head coach Jim Boeheim said he wasn’t worried about his team coming into the game and, when asked about those who may think the program isn’t clean said, “I don’t give a sh*t what those people think.” Trevor Cooney repeatedly said, “It has nothing to do with us,” while adding that Syracuse can only control how hard it plays.

“There’s still a lot to play for. Trophies and rings, they’re awesome, but pride is a lot more and it goes a long way too,” Cooney said. “Just like today, we have some really tough opponents coming up and really tough teams, and we want to go out there and win those games.”

Winning any of the remaining games — the Orange is slated to play Boston College, No. 9 Louisville, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 4 Duke twice, No. 3 Virginia, North Carolina State and Pittsburgh again — won’t be easy. SU is still unproven in crunch time, undermanned in the frontcourt and only four of its 15 wins have come against teams currently with a winning record.

But with the NCAA’s decisions still to come and no postseason on the docket, these last nine games offer the Orange a chance to materialize its pride. Questions about the program’s legacy will swirl in the coming weeks, and this year’s team has a chance to gather some pieces of an otherwise hapless season. A final chance to make the experts poke at what could have been for a team that came together late but never had a chance to fully blossom.

“If anything,” SU forward B.J. Johnson said, “now we’re probably more determined to prove people wrong.”

Or Syracuse can sputter to the finish, the more likely result, and prove that a “postseason ban” was in store all along.

Published on February 8, 2015 at 11:50 pm