Syracuse Bracketology Edition VI

Syracuse is barely hanging on in the Bracket Matrix. Although they are in 28 of the 37 brackets that make up the matrix, the Orange is just the third to last team to get an at large bid. They are beating out other contenders like Oregon, Arizona State, George Mason, and North Carolina State who in my mind are ways behind Syracuse in overall resume.

• NCST stands 36th in the RPI right behind Syracuse. They are 15-8 and 4-5 in the ACC, but have a strength of schedule over 20 spots behind Syracuse. Their best win is home against free falling Miami. They have one very questionable loss at RPI 237 East Carolina.
• George Mason is 17-7 and 9-4 in the CAA. They are 59th in RPI which is a good 15 spots too low to get a bid this year. They have three solid wins, home against Dayton who's also free falling, Kansas State, and CAA conference leader VCU. They also have several questionable losses worse than NCST's. They lost at HOME to East Carolina and on the road to RPI 288 Georgia State. Any team that loses to a team 275 or worse in the RPI and is on the bubble should be passed up every single time.
• Arizona State is 72nd in the RPI, 15-7 and 5-5 in the PAC-10. They have four quality wins, two over Arizona, one at California, and against Xavier. They have two terrible losses to a bad team in Illinois and to Washington, a team Syracuse beat. ASU was also beat handily by Nebraska, Washington State, USC and UCLA blew ASU out.
• Oregon is RPI number 47, 14-9, and 5-6 in the conference. The Ducks have solid wins over Arizona, Cal, Stanford, and K-State, but lost on the road to St. Mary's, Oakland, Nebraska, and got the living daylights blown out of them at Stanford.

Syracuse has shown an ability to win on the road recently, something most of the bubbles teams above and below them have not. This suggest Syracuse should be able to win at least two of their four remaining road games (Notre Dame, Louisville, South Florida, and Seton Hall). Since the Orange have Georgetown, Pitt, and Marquette at home, they should be able to win one if not two of those games.

• The Hoops Report puts Syracuse in as an 11 seed facing off with Washington State in the first round. That would be a tough game to win since WSU is a real tough it out, grind it out kind of team, something Syracuse might have problems with because of their depth problems. The second round opponent in would likely be Michigan State. MSU is a team I personally would like to play because when Drew Neitzel struggles, the rest of the team tends to not show up. Case and point tonight. Purdue has kept Neitzel out of the game and MSU has put up 52 points heading into the final minute.
• Bracketology3 has Syracuse in as a part of their last four in along with St. Joe's, Oklahoma (another under .500 in conference), and Arizona State.
• Bracketology 101 has Syracuse in their last four out and writes this about Syracuse:

  Syracuse failed in its attempt to pick up a big win against UConn this week. They have another shot at one this weekend with Georgetown coming in. After that their remaining schedule is brutal (@Louisville, @ND, Pitt, @Seton Hall, Marquette) so we don't like their chances getting to at least 10-8 in conference play, which is what it is going to take to get an at-large out of the Big East.

• Breaking Down the Bracket gets featured for the old school logo of Syracuse they have in must see TV. They write about the Orange's upcoming game against Georgetown:

  While I have Syracuse in the tourney (barely) this would be a huge opportunity to solidfy a postseason berth with a win against a Georgetown squad that is just getting by in recent wins.

Overall, as long Syracuse finishes 9-9 in the Big East, with a top 40 RPI, win one game in the Big East tournament, and don't get blown out in any other their remaining games, they should get in. The other teams they are competing with for the last few at large spots are almost all under .500 in their conference with just as tough remaining schedules as Syracuse.