Syracuse Basketball: The Next Five Games Will be Crucial

The Syracuse Orange are the definition of a "bubble" team. However, their next five games can set up a nice route for them to make the NCAA tournament.

The Orange have a four-game home stand coming up starting with Notre Dame tonight, and it will be rounded out by games against Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Florida State. Syracuse will then travel to Boston College to take on the Golden Eagles.

Syracuse's resume is not great at the moment, but this stretch can provide major help. With their good wins coming against Texas A&M, UConn, and at Duke, the Orange will probably still need one more signature win to finalize their tournament resume. The Orange can't pick up that signature win against any of these team, however all conference games are big wins. Unfortunately, the "road" loss to St. John's will hurt the Orange, along with the home loss to Wisconsin.

The last aspect that will help the Orange is this:

Some. https://t.co/ptNUs8kymD

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 27, 2016

Starting tonight, Syracuse will begin this crucial stretch. If they run the table and win all five games against these teams they will put themselves in good position to make the NCAA Tournament. All of the teams the Orange will play are beatable, and Syracuse will likely be favored to win every one of those games.

Syracuse has already received some good news regarding the game tonight, as Notre Dame's starting point guard, Demetrius Jackson will be out. The junior point guard is the Fighting Irish catalyst, averaging 16.6 points per game and 5 assists per game. Syracuse will need to take advantage of his absence.