Max Power's Sports Stash

With the tip of the Syracuse vs. Clemson NIT quarterfinal game just hours away, Syracuse is deep inside ACC Country, south of Tobacco Road even. The Orange are on the campus of Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina and will be attempting to oust yet another ACC team from post-season play.

It occured to me that Syracuse hasn't faced many ACC opponents recently. I did a bit of homework and discovered that in the last 20 years it's only happened 12 times.

03/20/2004 - W Maryland 72-70 (NCAA 2nd Round)
12/21/2002 - W Georgia Tech 92-65
12/16/2001 - L @ Georgia Tech 96-80
12/08/2001 - L N.C. State 82-68
11/23/2001 - W Wake Forest 74-67 (Neural Site)
02/03/2001 - W @ N.C. State 54-53
03/20/1998 - L Duke 80-67 (NCAA Sweet 16)
12/04/1990 - W N.C. State 86-79
03/18/1990 - W Viginia 63-61 (NCAA 2nd Round)
12/06/1989 - W Duke 78-76 (Neutral Site)
11/21/1987 - L North Carolina 96-93 (Neutral Site)
03/21/1987 - w North Carolina 79-75 (NCAA Elite 8)

Syracuse is 8-4 versus the ACC during this span. 2 of those 4 losses occured in the 2001-2002 season. That year DeShaun Williams and Preston Shumpert had some sort of fued and the team fell apart losing 9 of their final 13 games resulting in a trip to the NIT (the last time SU was in the NIT before this season). It's pretty safe to say that Syracuse has pretty much "owned" the ACC in the past 20 years.

Syracuse is 3-1 against the ACC in the NCAA Tournament. That's 4 games, 3 times the ACC team's season ends. The most memorable was the '87 victory over Dean Smith's Tarheels sending Syracuse to the Final Four.

Of the 12 games Syracuse faced N.C. State the most times (3) going 2-1 against the Wolfpack. The one loss coming in the Dome in 2001-2002 as part of that squad's 4-9 slide to the NIT.

Wednesday night, the Orange will try to make it 9-4 versus the ACC when they face the Tigers. Syracuse has met Clemson just once, in the season opener in 1960-61, losing 78-67 at a neutral site. Clemson is 9-20 against teams currently in the Big East, that includes a 2-3 record in the NIT. Clemson last faced a Big East team in the final game last year when Louisville defeated the Tigers.

Make no bones about it, this is a BIG game. For Clemson, who hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998, this is a huge deal. A major program like Syracuse coming to their house, a trip to Madison Square Garden on the line. Littlejohn Arena should be an exciting place to be Thursday night and a hostile place to visit.

Syracuse will have their work cut out for them. They'll be playing for their conference, as will DePaul, in trying to join West Virginia in New York City for what could be a great showcase for the Big East.

West Virginia just dismissed N.C. State from the ranks of those still playing college basketball, punching their ticket to Madison Square Garden. Mississippi State is also chartering a plane for the Big Apple defeating Florida State. Just to make sure I'm counting right... that's 10 ACC teams entering postseason play (7 NCAA, 3 NIT) and ony 2 remaining. Here's to hoping that number is down to one around 9 pm on Wednesday night.