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Every college basketball season is a pizza pie, and each slice is a game. This year, the pizza’s the same size, there’s just fewer slices. 

That’s the metaphor ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi used in a phone call Friday morning to describe how each 2020-21 regular season game could have higher stakes than years past. 

“Each ‘slice’ carries more weight,” Lunardi said. 

Across the country, games are getting postponed every night to the point that no game is officially on until the opening tip. According to CBS Sports, 176 conference games have been postponed, and 52 programs are on pause as of Friday morning. Slices of pizza are disappearing.

Syracuse has been affected by COVID-19 as much as any power program in the country. Due to positive cases within the team and to contact tracing, SU has missed dozens of practices during two pauses and, most importantly for resume-building purposes, has three outstanding games postponed. 

Syracuse’s current schedule features two games per week and no open weekends for the remainder of the regular season, leaving no clear avenue to reschedule games against Wake Forest, Florida State and Clemson in an already condensed slate. Nobody knows exactly how the selection committee will handle the unprecedented circumstances of this season, putting more pressure on Syracuse to win each game that actually can be played.

SU will try to find makeup dates for its missed games, but scheduling on the fly requires several complicated factors, a team spokesperson said in an email.  

“It’s going to be hard enough to play the remaining games that are scheduled, much less adding additional games,” Lunardi said. 

Making up games is possible, though. Syracuse’s game last week at North Carolina was originally scheduled for Jan. 2, which was during the Orange’s second pause due to COVID-19. But the opportunity opened up when North Carolina’s scheduled opponent Clemson had its own COVID-19 issues. The stars aligned. 

SU was also able to reschedule its Dec. 22 matchup with Notre Dame to Feb. 20, which was previously the only open weekend remaining after a game against Boston College was moved up to Feb. 13. 

Fewer games means fewer chances for resume-boosting wins for the No. 49 NET-ranked Orange. And among the possibly lost games are Clemson (No. 15 NET) and Florida State (No. 42 NET), potential resume-building upsets. 

Every year is different, but since the 2014-15 season, Syracuse has made the Tournament three times, all of which came as an eight-seed or lower. The one Tournament SU missed — COVID-19 canceled last year’s Dance — SU won 19 games but couldn’t crack the bubble. Lunardi had Syracuse as a No. 11 seed in his Jan. 12 Bracketology, then removed SU from the field of 68 following its loss to North Carolina.

As always, big upsets can make a borderline Tournament team into a lock. Though it may have lost a shot at Clemson, SU still has two games against Louisville for that. 

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But this year, the committee might look closer at games against SU’s peers, Lunardi said. Getting swept by North Carolina or Pittsburgh, two teams SU already lost to, could disqualify the Orange if all three of those teams have similar records come Selection Sunday on March 14.

“This is a huge game on Saturday in my view,” Lunardi said. “Because they could be competing with Pitt for a spot.” 

Even in a down year for the Atlantic Coast Conference, with no teams in the AP’s top 10, Lunardi still expects seven or eight teams from the conference to make the Tournament. Syracuse, as it stands now, is likely competing with teams like UNC and North Carolina State for ACC bids. The Orange need to avoid a Selection Sunday scenario in which multiple teams have similar winning percentages but SU misses out because it’s simply played fewer games. 

“I think Syracuse needs to take advantage of (the ACC’s down year) and go like 10-6 or something that makes it clear that they’re not an ACC bubble team,” Lunardi said. “Because right now, that’s what they are.”

At 1-2 in conference play, SU has ground to make up to reach 10 wins, but an unknown amount of time to do it — any game could get postponed at any time. That makes every game, starting with Saturday’s matchup with Pitt, all the more significant.

Published on January 15, 2021 at 10:50 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman