Syracuse men’s basketball left out of Lunardi’s 2023 NCAA Tournament projections

In the aftermath of a disappointing 16-17 season and losing three starters key to the professional ranks; the Syracuse Orange aren’t projected to make next year’s NCAA Tournament based on Joe Lunardi’s early bracketology projections.

Syracuse’s favorite bracketologist doesn’t have the Orange listed among his 68 team field nor the eight teams on the wrong side of the bubble. He does have six ACC teams projected to receive bids which puts the conference one behind the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 while one ahead of the Big East and Pac 12.

Lunardi thinks that UNC (2 seed), Duke (3 seed), Virginia (8 seed), Virginia Tech (11 seed), Florida State (11 seed), Notre Dame (11 seed and in a play-in game) will make the field and that Clemson will be on the Next Four Out list. He has Kentucky, Houston, Baylor and UCLA as his early selections to be the top four seeds.

We don’t know much about Syracuse 2022-23 non-conference schedule but Lunardi has Colgate (15 seed) as the Patriot League auto-qualifier and of the teams in the 2022 Empire Classic, St. John’s appears on his Next Four Out list. With seven Big 10 teams in the projected field and Wisconsin on the First Four Out, it’s possible the Orange could see a tournament team in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. In case you were wondering, Iona (14 seed) is also projected as an auto-qualifier while Georgetown still sucks.

Obviously there’s still a lot of roster uncertainty with transfer athletes and players potentially staying in the NBA Draft, but it gives a very early thought about the perception of next year’s squad. With six incoming freshman on next year’s roster, the Orange will be a relatively young team. Can the returning rotation members and newcomers replace the production of Buddy Boeheim, Jimmy Boeheim, and Cole Swider?

This projection could give you an idea of the types of games Jim Boeheim will look to add for his team. I think you’ll see Syracuse play 1-2 games against other projected conference winners, but it does seem like this group will see more in-state teams like Niagara or Albany to make sure they pick up a solid amount of wins before ACC play.