Syracuse Basketball: Orange Will Host Monmouth as Part of 2016-17 Schedule

When pundits debated the Syracuse Orange's inclusion in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Monmouth was one of the first teams they felt "deserved" the bid instead. While we'll never know who "deserved" what -- though Syracuse DID make the Final Four anyway -- the teams do get to settle the score a little bit this fall.

The Monmouth Hawks will head to the Carrier Dome at some point this fall, as part of a larger event with South Carolina and likely other teams TBD. The news was first reported by NYC Buckets back in March, and then confirmed by CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein today.

As you might remember, South Carolina, another team some felt was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, will face Syracuse at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Syracuse's 2016-17 schedule is still very much a work in progress overall. So far, Monmouth, South Carolina, Georgetown, St. John's are all on the docket, with all playing the Orange either at the Carrier Dome or in New York State.

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Looking ahead at Monmouth, the Hawks bring back nearly everyone from a 28-8 team that won the MAAC regular season title. Deon Jones is the notable departure. Leading scorers Justin Robinson (19.3 points per game) and Micah Seaborn (13.2) will be back, as will second-leading rebounder Chris Brady.

Plenty more to come on the schedule for 2016-17. SU has four games nailed down already, with a fifth coming when the ACC/Big Ten Challenge gets scheduled. You'd think that one is a road game. The team currently has none confirmed, though the Barclays game is away from home. Jim Boeheim did say he had regrets over the difficulty of this year's schedule, but that was before SU made the Final Four.