Before the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team begins it's 2012-13 march to the No. 2 seed in the East Region of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, they will open the year with two exhibition games against what I think are the Mayor of New York and a salsa company.

First up is Pace, makers of fine picante salsa and owners of a 13-14 record last season in Division II play. They're no strangers to playing in Syracuse, NY as they are conference rivals of Le Moyne (Never Forget).They'll play that game on Thursday, November 1st.

Bloomsburg, which I'm now realizing is different than the Mayor who's name is spelled differently, is also a Division II squad. They went 19-9 last year and feature Dontahe Jordan, who scored 15.9 PPG last season. They'll play that one on Sunday, November 4th and large sodas will in fact be available and legal for this game, despite initial thoughts.

So here's the non-conference schedule as we know it...

• November 1st - Pace (exhibition)
• November 4th - Bloomburg (exhibition)
  
• November 9th - San Diego State (@ USS Midway)
• November 30th - @Arkansas
• December 5th - Long Beach State
• TBD - Three unknown Gotham Classic opponents in Carrier Dome (likely 1st and 2nd week in Dec.)
• December 22nd - Temple @MSG
• December 31st - Central Conn. State
• TBD - Drexel