Syracuse Bracketology

The Bracket Project puts up a Bracket Matrix that currently combines 23 different brackets from across the internet. The Matrix provides a spreadsheet of all of the 23 brackets. Syracuse is currently has the 38th best average seed of all the teams that appear in the matrix. That is good for a 10 seed. They only make the tournament though in 17 of the 23 brackets on the matrix and have been left out by majority of the most recent brackets produced.

The highest seed S.U. has received from any of the 23 brackets is a six seed by Jerry Palm of CSTV. While I was visiting CSTV I discovered the writers of there picked the Carrier Dome as the tenth best arena in college basketball with the description of

"The football sized Carrier Dome can be an intimidating presence for the Orangemen's guests."

The fans also picked the Carrier Dome number ten.

Syracuse received a seven seed and would play Oklahoma from James Worthy of CBS2. Oklahoma features a great freshman in Blake Griffin and a forward with the name of Longar Longar.

Basketball Predictions also has the Orange as a seven seed. They do their bracketology by projecting how the team will finish down the road. This way creates a lot of conversation because it's really hard to tell where a team is going to finish. Before the Devendorf injury and road woes in the conference, the seven seed seems like a very good prediction for this team. S.U. will really have to pick up their play on the road in the Big East to make it up to that seven seed. A 21-10 record and 11-7 in the conference would probably get S.U. a seven seed. I personally disagree with a lot of the projections on his site; he doesn't have St. Mary's College or Rhode Island in his bracket and USC in the tournament despite their terrible start in the PAC-10. He also has Florida and Villanova in as six seeds, but those two teams could legitimately miss the tournament because of their youth.

ESPN's bracketology by Joe Lunardi leaves Syracuse out as one of the last four to miss the tournament with fellow Big East school Providence. I'm not a fan of Lunardi's bracket. He has Pitt down as a five seed, but they've got a solid out of conference schedule and some marquee wins, they would go in as probably a three or four. I'm on the Baylor bandwagon, I've watched them at least three times this year and they've looked great in all of them. They took Washington St. down to the last minute, but Lunardi has this 13-2 team as a ten seed.

Bracketology3 also tries to project the tournament by how they think the season will end for all the teams considered. This method leaves Syracuse out of the tournament. Bracketology3 says,

"After seeing Pitt beat Georgetown without Fields and Cook, I would not be surprised if the Cuse can go out and play great basketball. Like you said they have a lot of talent. The question will be, can they put that talent together to win enough Big East games (right now, I say no)..."

I see their logic behind almost every seed and thought they put a really quality bracket that accurately projects where a lot of these team's will finish.

Bryce's Basketball Predictions is another very strong site which is currently projecting Syracuse as on the outside looking in. Bryce looks like he follows the Big East as his best and most in depth analysis comes on Big East teams. He says,

"Syracuse showed that they cannot hang with West Virginia. I maintain that Syracuse, like Villanova, is vastly overrated."

The Colton Index uses a unique formula that is somewhat similar to the RPI, but after looking at pretty closely looks like it is more accurate than the RPI. Syracuse comes in 58th in his ratings which puts them out of his bracket. The worst at large team in his rankings to get in is Florida State at 49th. The lowest overall team is Hartford at 211 who he's projecting to win the America East.

Those are all the brackets I'll take a look at for now as they are what I think are the very best except for Basketball Predictions which goes down as the worst. I'll periodically take a look at how Syracuse is faring in the world of bracketology as the season progresses. For now, here's my look at the Orange's current resume.

S.U. has a pretty solid resume still despite the five losses. They are all relatively good losses as four of the five will probably be in the NCAA tournament teams. The loss to Cincinnati is understandable, but will most likely go down as a bad loss unless Cincinnati wins nine games in the conference which they won't. The only thing that keeps it from being a devastating loss is the fact the Bearcats beat Villanova. 'Nova has a less impressive resume than the Orange even though they only have three losses. 'Nova doesn't really have any impressive out of conference wins, but do have a win against Pitt. The Syracuse-Villanova game Saturday will determine which team after this weekend would be in the tournament as of now.

The 'Cuse still has a very strong RPI; it's currently hoovering around 30-35 which would be hard for the selection committee to deny. Even a .500 finish in the league should keep the RPI around 40, but the 19-12 record wouldn't be good enough without a few wins in the Big East tournament. I say that, but who knows considering teams got in last year with a worse record.