Syracuse vs. North Carolina: Orange look to avoid longest-ever losing streak against single opponent

I hear the jokes about being a secret UNC fan already, but here goes...

When the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team hosts the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday, they’ll be aiming to avoid an unfortunate streak: the most consecutive losses against any one opponent in program history.

No, I don’t want this to happen.

Before Syracuse joined the ACC, the Orange were a respectable enough 3-4 against the Heels all-time, and actually evened the series up with a 57-45 win during the 2013-14 campaign. And since then, it’s been eight straight losses.

You don’t need me to recap these defeats one by one, as you’re certainly aware of them just as well as I am. Plenty of these have been blowouts. A few have been close. One of them added the insult of being in the Final Four (though oddly, I didn’t feel as angry about that one as you’d assume). All in all, it’s been tough to witness year after year.

Part of that comes from the fact that SU has only lost eight straight on any opponent twice in program history — this current streak against UNC and an eight-game slide against Cornell from 1921-24. That second one seems entertaining in hindsight given the Orange’s 93-31 record against Big Red.

If Syracuse falls to the Tar Heels yet again, it’ll be a record we certainly don’t want to set — and one made worse by the fact that this year’s North Carolina team isn’t even good. After starting 5-0 on the year, bad injury luck has completely derailed the campaign to knock UNC down to 11-17 overall (4-13 in ACC play). They’ve looked a bit better of late with Cole Anthony back in the fold. But the Heels have still won just a single game (this week vs. NC State) this entire month.

So just in case you needed another reason to really want a win this weekend, there it is. Sorry for ruining your day.