Syracuse Bracketology: Orange Firmly 'On The Bubble'

In a men's college basketball vacuum, the Syracuse Orange's 66-53 loss to the Clemson Tigers on Saturday was bad.

Inside the Littlejohn Coliseum the Orange (13-5, 4-1 ACC) couldn't shoot, rebound on defense or slow down the Tiger's 3-point shooting, which finished 8-for-20 (40.0%)–Clemson entered the game as one of worst 3-point shooting teams in the ACC, as they had made just 29.0% of their attempts.

As much as Syracuse tried, it couldn't bring its 21-point halftime disadvantage to under 10 points in the second half. There was noting the Orange could do.

The result was an double-digit, ACC road loss that had a lot of people saying things like this:

Syracuse is gonna play a road game in the NIT this year.

— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) January 17, 2015

Syracuse trails at Clemson 52-38 with 5 mins to play. Does that sound like an NCAA tournament team to you?

— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) January 17, 2015

On Monday, after the dust settled in the college basketball weekend, those that are being skeptical about SU's NCAA chances are more in the wrong than right, according to the latest bracketology updates.

First, Syracuse.com's Patrick Stevens has Syracuse "just in" the tournament as a 11-seed, which will play in Dayton, OH in the first round against the Washington Huskies.

Meanwhile, Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com has the Orange "just out" in his latest Bracketology post.

If you missed ESPN Joe Lundari's update on Thursday, he had the Orange in the tournament as a 11-seed and one of the "last four in" with the Miami Hurricanes, LSU Tigers and George Washington Colonials. Of course, that was before Syracuse lost at Clemson, so one could figure the 'Cuse probably dropped out of his bracket right?

Well, in the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast my friends!"

See, the teams Syracuse is grouped with–Miami and LSU–both lost over the weekend. The 'Canes fell to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, while the Tigers lost on the road to the Texas A&M Aggies (another bubble team).

It got better for Syracuse too, as the status of Lundari's next four teams out–the St. John's Red Storm, BYU Cougars and Connecticut Huskies–all lost too. The Johnnies fell to the DePaul Blue Demons, the Cougars lost to the Saint Mary's Gaels and UConn lost to the Stanford Cardinal.

Meanwhile, a program "ahead" of Syracuse, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, also lost for the third time in four tries. (Sure, it was all to Top 15 teams, but they didn't earn anything to help its resume.)

What did that mean for Syracuse come Lunardi's update on Monday? "THE 'CUSE IS (still) IN THE HOUSE!" as a 11-seed.

Sure, that's a slight down-tick from where they were before the weekend, but Syracuse is still in.

Moving on, here are the NCAA Bubble Teams Syracuse fans needs to root against. (It is sad it has come to this, but this is where SU is at. Enjoy the journey to the tourney, folks.)