Pitarresi: Troubled SU has company

Syracuse University’s basketball team is in trouble.

 

That’s obvious. Four losses in the last five games have left the Orange with a 5-4 record in the Big East, making Wednesday’s home game with West Virginia extremely important. A win would keep SU solidly in the top eight of the Big East. A loss would not be fatal, but it would drop the Orange into the second division with eight games to play, five against very tough teams.

 

But if things are going badly for SU, how do you Georgetown feels, or Notre Dame? The Hoyas have lost four in a row. The Irish have lost five in a row. Right now the only teams in the league that feel secure are Marquette, Louisville, Connecticut and Pittsburgh, the likely top four seeds for the league tournament March10-14 at Madison Square Garden.

 

There are enough games left that almost anything can happen, but I wouldn’t expect a complete collapse by the top four teams. That means SU, and Georgetown and Notre Dame, too, have to get in gear, or they are going to arrive in New York needing to two, three or four games to make the NCAA tournament.