Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse has not participated in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament since 2021.

That’s four straight years of frustration for a fan base that once took March Madness for granted.

The road back has been riddled with potholes mostly related to the Orange men’s inability to guard other teams. There have been other problems, sure. But that’s the common denominator that separates tournament SU with non-tournament SU.

Will the Orange make it back in 2025-26?

Here are a few ideas about it can achieve that:

Win at least one game in Las Vegas

The Orange for sure plays Houston (really hard game) and Kansas (not easy, but easier). Then, depending on how those two games go, SU will be assigned another, probably pretty good, opponent.

Going 0-for-3 in the Players Era Festival would be terrible. Probably not fold-up-the-tent terrible, but depending on what else happens in the non-conference, less than ideal.

These are neutral-floor games, so beating Kansas in Las Vegas isn’t as impressive as beating Kansas in Kansas. But beating Kansas generally is a good place to start.

Syracuse could really help its post-season chances with a win in Las Vegas. Two wins would be monumental.

Beat Drexel in Philadelphia

Bart Torvik believes Drexel is the 265th best Division I team in the preseason. Evan Miyakawa ranked Drexel No. 242.

If those preseason calculations hold up, that game for Syracuse will be a Quad 4 game, even though it’s (sort of) played on a neutral court.

The Orange can’t lose that game. And if it wins by a big margin, all the better.

The Drexel game gained a bit of importance after the St. Joseph’s game was moved from neutral site Las Vegas to Syracuse. SU was going to have two neutral-site games outside the PEF on its schedule.

Now it has one.

Beat all the teams in the 300s. By a lot.

SU plays Mercyhurst, Stonehill, Binghamton and Delaware State. All of those teams are considered, at this point, probable 300-level teams in terms of their NET worth.

Syracuse not only needs to win those games at home, it needs to win them by wide margins.

Here’s what didn’t work for Syracuse last season: The Orange faced neighboring, but hardly neighborly, Le Moyne in the dome opener last year. SU won that game by four points, 86-82.

The Dolphins finished 2024-25 ranked 350th in the NET. That four-point squeaker was a devastating start for an Orange season that essentially was doomed by the time the ACC calendar began.

Nobody knows exactly how the NCAA derives its NET rankings. Those are proprietary numbers. But people who study these things know the NCAA’s emphasis on efficiency equates essentially to the margin of victory.

If you crush a team, your efficiency numbers are going to be way better than if you don’t.

Win some conference road games

Nobody knows what the ACC will look like this year. Everybody has theories, but until games are played, nobody knows.

Whatever the league makeup, this is a certainty: Winning road games helps boost an NCAA Tournament resume.

After the Orange plays Clemson at home to start the ACC schedule, it plays Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh on the road.

Winning those two games would look very nice on SU’s team sheet.

There are ACC heavy-hitters on the road for SU, too. Think Duke, Louisville and North Carolina. Probably N.C. State this season, too. Picking off one of those teams on their home court would boost SU’s post-season cause. All of those games are likely Quad 1 opportunities.

Win the games you should win

It’s OK to have a “bad” loss. But more than one, maybe two of those won’t help SU’s chances, particularly if the rest of the resume lacks impactful wins.

Losing to a middling team on the road is probably survivable. Losing to a middling team at home is much worse.

A bad loss, in these circumstances, would qualify as games against Quad 3 or Quad 4 opponents.

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