Syracuse Orange Basketball: Contenders or Pretenders?

An inconsistent start, including two losses at home to Atlantic 10 teams, has made Syracuse Orange fans wonder:

Is this team destined for another disappointing season?  

A win on the road at Virginia boosted the confidence of this young, but talented squad. Then, the team got even younger.  

Junior captain Eric Devendorf was diagnosed with a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season.  This has proved thus far to be a devastating loss.  Without Devendorf, the Orange wrapped up their non-conference schedule with a few easy wins.  

The Big East schedule opened up with a cake walk against South Florida, followed by a loss in Cincinnati to a mediocre Bearcats team.  

An easy win against Rutgers gave the Orange a solid start to conference play.  They then got dominated at West Virginia.  On Saturday, foul trouble caused them to lose a lead at home against Villanova (they went on to lose by 10).

Then on Monday evening, Jermeiah Rivers, Georgetown's backup point guard, held Johnny Flynn to zero points in the last eight or so minutes of regulation.  The Hoyas forced overtime after trailing the whole game, and dominated the Orange defensively in the extra session.

A game like that describes Syracuse's season to date quite well, as it has been back and forth and very inconsistent.  They were thought of as a very strong, young team at the start of the season, however, right now they are on the outside looking in.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?