Neither of the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team’s recent results should impact the team’s seeding much. Still, after a blowout loss to Virginia last night (and a big victory over Wake Forest on Saturday), it’s not a bad time to check in on where SU’s bracket hopes lie.
When we last looked, things seemed pretty split between 8 and 9 seeds. Rational thinking would indicate things look largely the same. Of course, the NCAA Tournament and projections around it are rarely rational.
A win at Clemson on Saturday won’t necessarily boost this much. But a loss could certainly put Syracuse firmly in 9-seed territory for good barring a run in the ACC Tournament. Would also note that a lot of the predictions below came in before last night’s result so it’s reasonable to think that most are now trending less positive on SU.
7-seed
NCAA.com: East Region, vs. TCU Horned Frogs
Andy Katz actually updated his bracket today and sees SU as a 7-seed. It’s an outlier right now, but we’ll take it (and the rematch with TCU, which the committee may try to avoid).
8-seed
Bleacher Report: West Region, vs. Ohio State Buckeyes
CBS Sports: Midwest Region, vs. St. John’s Red Storm
Fox Sports: South Region, vs. VCU Rams
SB Nation: West Region, vs. Washington Huskies
Bracket Matrix*: Midwest Region, vs. UCF Knights (Bracket Matrix is an average of all bracket predictions)
A mixed bag of foes here. The committee would be unlikely to pit us against Ohio State since we already faced them and they usually avoid first round rematches. As previously noted, St. John’s is concerning and I want no part of Washington. VCU and UCF are probably fine.
9-seed
The Athletic: West Region, vs. Auburn Tigers
ESPN: West Region, vs. Washington Huskies
Sports Illustrated: Midwest Region, vs. Baylor Bears
Stadium: Midwest Region, vs. Baylor
TeamRankings: West Region, vs. Arizona State Sun Devils
USA Today: Midwest Region, vs. Baylor
Lunardi’s going to pick us to face off with Washington until he retires (or Hopkins leaves UW). Everyone else REALLY wants us to face Baylor.
10-seed
Washington Post: West Region, vs. Baylor
See above. Also, this was before Saturday’s game. Patrick Stevens also said that Syracuse is in “no real danger” of falling out of the field before this despite the low pick among experts.
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This is fine, right? Still, share your own amateur bracketology takes below.