Syracuse with opportunity ahead to build NCAA Tournament résumé

By now, we’ve all heard ad nauseam how the ACC is going through a down year in basketball. We won’t argue otherwise (KenPom has the ACC as the fourth best conference as of now), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that teams in the conference are bereft of opportunity to build an NCAA Tournament résumé.

It is true that there aren’t as many opportunities to build a quality résumé in the ACC this year as there was a season ago. After Syracuse lost a quadrant two game at Clemson on Tuesday, some suggested the Orange were running out of chances. Others opined that there just aren’t many quadrant one opportunities in the ACC this season.

We’re not ones to point fingers here, nor do we want to throw out any names but...

Jon Rothstein. Full of bologna.

As nine teams in the ACC rank in the top 75 in the NET, there are plenty of Q1 opportunities in the league. Let’s take a look at how the quadrants break down in the NET as a refresher (thank you WarrenNolan.com).

Quadrant 1 (Q1): Home (1-30) Neutral (1-50) Away (1-75)

Quadrant 2 (Q2): Home (31-75) Neutral (51-100) Away (76-135)

Quadrant 3 (Q3): Home (76-160) Neutral (101-200) Away (136-240)

Quadrant 4 (Q4): Home (161-353) Neutral (201-353) Away (241-353)

As it relates to Syracuse, the Orange are 3-0 in Q1 games in the conference to this point (at Virginia, at Virginia Tech and at Notre Dame).

Duke, Florida State and Louisville remain on the schedule and all three will stay within Q1 the rest of the way. The Orange have a road game at Pittsburgh that would qualify as another Q1 game as it stands today.

Outside of those games, Syracuse also has opportunities to pick up a pair of Q2 wins against NC State at home and at Miami. The remaining four games (Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, at Boston College) are all Q3 games.

Photo by Richard C. Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

For color, here’s how Syracuse’s current W/L record breaks down in quadrants:

Q1: 3-3

Q2: 2-5

Q3: 2-0

Q4: 6-0

Here’s how the rest of the schedule breaks down into quadrants the rest of the way:

Feb. 1 - Home against Duke (Q1)

Feb. 8 - Home against Wake Forest (Q3)

Feb. 11 - Home against NC State (Q2)

Feb. 15 - Away at Florida State (Q1)

Feb. 19 - Away at Louisville (Q1)

Feb. 22 - Home against Georgia Tech (Q3)

Feb. 26 - Away at Pittsburgh (Q1)

Feb. 29 - Home against North Carolina (Q3)

Mar. 3 - Away at Boston College (Q3)

Mar. 7 - Away at Miami (Q2)

To be sure, Syracuse has work to do. That was true even prior to the Clemson loss on Tuesday. But there’s ample opportunity with the remaining games to build a tournament résumé here as Syracuse still has four Q1 games (and two Q2 games) remaining.

Feedback is always welcome. Tweet us on twitter @JamesSzuba and @NunesMagician