25 random predictions for the 2016-2017 Syracuse Orange basketball season

The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball season begins for real tonight at 7:00 p.m. when they host the Colgate Raiders in the Carrier Dome. It’s just one game in a season that, we hope, we have close to or more than forty by the time it’s over.

A lot will happen between tonight and April 2017. Here is our staff’s humble predictions for what those things might be...

1. Andrew White will lead the Orange in scoring (Kevin)
2. Syracuse will beat Duke in the Carrier Dome (James)
3. Evan Dourdas will lead the Orange in Club Trillion games (Sean)
4. Tyus Battle will finish second in scoring (Kevin)
5. Tyler Roberson will lead the Orange in rebounds (James)
6. Paschal Chukwu will average over three blocks per game (Sean)
7. Syracuse has four guys who get 10+ rebounds in a game (not the same one): Coleman, Lydon, Roberson and Thompson (Kevin)
8. Despite the team’s depth, Jim Boeheim will eventually get down to an eight-man rotation in ACC play because he’s Jim Boeheim (James)
9. DaJuan Coleman will foul out of at least eight games (Sean)
10. During one of the Orange's games on ESPN, Jay Bilas says length and wingspan so often that Bill Raftery is drunk by halftime (Kevin)
11. Frank Howard will lead Syracuse in assists (James)
12. Rico will return by January but leave again in February (Sean)
13. After hitting a three against Virginia, Lydon's going to do the London Perrantes' "smell my finger" celebration as he heads back on defense (Kevin)
14. Andrew White III will struggle at some point and Jim Boeheim will drop the hammer on him during a press conference (Sean)
15. Someone will ask Jim Boeheim about his 1,000th win* and he’ll get salty about it (Sean)
16. Tyler Roberson finishes his career with over 1,000 points and 800 rebounds (James)
17. Syracuse and UConn will go to overtime, as the Gods have foreseen. But only one overtime (Sean)
18. Syracuse will lose that season-ending game against Georgia Tech for some reason (Sean)
19. Syracuse will lose in the ACC Tournament Championship Game (James)
20. It will be announced at some point that Jim Boeheim’s tenure at SU will be extended by one additional season (Sean)
21. Jim Boeheim will be caught picking his nose nine times by television cameras (Sean)
22. Syracuse will end up as a three-seed in the NCAA Tournament (James)
23. Since we expect this team to go to the Final Four, they will lose in the Sweet Sixteen to Xavier or some shit like that (Sean)
24. Tyler Lydon and Taurean Thompson will both go pro but Tyus Battle will return for another season (Sean)
25. Georgetown will suck (Sean)