With seventh straight win over Pitt, Syracuse ties second-longest streak vs. Panthers

As you know, the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team beat the Pittsburgh Panthers, 72-49 on Wednesday night.

The most important part is that it was another win, pushing SU to 16-12 on the year (9-8 in ACC play). But it’s worth pointing out that it was also the seventh straight Orange victory over Pitt.

While many of us felt tortured by Pittsburgh for years under Jamie Dixon, the tide’s turned in our favor since his departure. Syracuse was an appalling 6-15 against Dixon’s Pitt squads, including two different five-game losing streaks (one of those lasting the entire time I was on campus). But Dixon left for TCU after the 2015-16 season and the Orange are 8-1 in the series since then.

The recent seven-game win streak is the second-longest SU has ever had against Pitt, tying another seven-game run from 1998-01. That streak came shortly after the longest in this series: a 10-gamer from 1992-96.

Interestingly, there were just two conference tournament wins for Syracuse among those streaks — one in the Big East (1993) and another in the ACC (last year’s 73-59 victory). in general, the teams actually haven’t met in the postseason as frequently as you’d expect. Between the ACC and Big East Tournaments, they’ve played just eight times.

Does any of this truly matter? No. Is it still a positive thing? Yes.