Syracuse men’s basketball adds home game vs. Brown on Dec. 27

Following COVID-related cancellations of the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball games vs. Lehigh and Cornell, we thought the team would be out of commission until December 29 vs. Georgia Tech. However, the Orange just added one more non-conference tune-up before jumping into the ACC schedule in earnest.

Syracuse will host the Brown Bears at the Dome on December 27 at 6 p.m. ET. And for those watching from home, you can catch the action on ACC Network Extra. As Matt Park notes above, if you have a Lehigh ticket, that gets you into this game.

Brown’s an interesting team this year, starting 8-5 while testing themselves against the likes of North Carolina, Creighton, Colorado and Vermont. They lost all of those games, mind you — along with a game vs. Bryant as well — but they also hung around in most of those matchups. For Syracuse this wouldn’t be the sort of win that puts an NCAA Tournament bubble resume over the top. But it wouldn’t hurt to have either given the questionable nature of SU’s at-large sales pitch so far.

Historically, the Orange are just 4-3 against Brown, though they’ve won the last four matchups and haven’t lost to the Bears since 1909 (a 52-25 barnburner in Providence). In the most recent game between this programs, Syracuse won 101-52 in the first round of the 1986 NCAA Tournament.

As we saw last year, a lengthy pause hasn’t done any favors for teams, including Syracuse. So despite having just a day buffer in between this game and Georgia Tech, it’s probably for the best for the Orange to get back into the swing of things against a non-conference foe. They’ll need all the help they can get in ACC play, obviously, given the questionable start to this season.