After going 2-1 in the exhibition season, the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team is ready for the regular season, which begins on Monday night at home against New Haven.

Syracuse lost against the UConn Huskies in the exhibition opener before narrowly beating Siena in Game 2. The Orange then beat Niagara by 13 on Saturday afternoon.

The Orange enter this season with a new head coach in Gerry McNamara, who is replacing the fired Adrian Autry. McNamara, the former standout for the Orange, is just the third coach for the school since 1976. And while expectations are high for him, there are still some questions about the team's ability to fully re-put itself into the national conversation this season.

Syracuse hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2021, and early indications are that they won't get there again this year. ESPN has not projected the Orange to make the tournament in its early bracketologies, and the Orange were picked to finish 11th in the ACC's preseason media poll.

And that doubt continued this week, as Sports Illustrated ranked all 365 teams heading into the new year.

Writer Kevin Sweeney had the Orange at No. 65 nationally, which does seem to put them on the NCAA Tournament bubble, or likely outside of it, when factoring in the small conference schools that will earn at-large bids. Sweeney cited McNamara's ability to bring in former Siena star Gavin Doty in the portal, as well as top Siena commit Ryan Moesch, who has had a strong preseason, as a positive. 

Doty looks like the on-court leader of this team while Moesch should continue to earn valuable minutes at the point guard spot in relief of Garwey Dual.

It still seems unlikely. Since Syracuse joined the league in 2014, the most teams the ACC has had selected for the tournament has been nine. If Syracuse finishes 11th, they'll be on the outside looking in, even of an expanded field. The tournament has grown from 68 to 76 teams for this season.

The Orange now have less than a week before the 2026-27 regular season starts. Syracuse hosts New Haven at the JMA Wireless Dome on Nov. 2. SyracuseRoundtable will on site giving post game reactions and more. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. ET.