by Mike Held
The 2012-13 Syracuse Orange basketball schedule is starting to come together. The school is yet to release its full schedule, but we have been able to piece it together thus far. This past week, we have three new announcements to the schedule.
First off, on November 18, Syracuse will host Wagner. Last season, the Wagner Seahawks of the Northeast Conference finished up with 25 wins, a very solid record. Wagner’s coach is Bashir Mason, a young coach entering his second year at the helm of the Seahawks. Key starters returning for the Seahawks include point guard Kenny Ortiz, who averaged 8 points, 4 boards and 4 assists per game last season. Wagner returns 4 starters and 9 players overall from last season’s team.
A week after the Wagner game, Syracuse will host the annual meeting with the Colgate Raiders. Last season, the Orange dominated Colgate, 92-47. Much of that game was overshadowed by the Bernie Fine situation. It was the first game without Fine on the bench. Quite frankly, Colgate was terrible last year. They went 8-22 overall, and 2-12 in Patriot League play. Colgate’s coach, Matt Langel , returns for his second season on the bench for the Raiders. Colgate will add 4 new players to this year’s team. I really can’t imagine this Colgate team competing at all with the Orange. The 46 game winning streak against the Raiders will continue in this one.
The final new addition to the schedule for Syracuse is Monmouth. Monmouth, also of the NEC, will face the Orange on December 8 in the Dome. Monmouth ended last season with a record of 12-20, 10-8 in conference. Their head coach, King Rice (best name in college basketball?) is entering his second season as well. Monmouth has a very tough non-conference schedule this season, and Syracuse is just another part of it.
Here’s where the Non-conference schedule stands right now.
November 1-Pace (exhibition)
November 4-Bloomburg (exhibition)
November 9-San Diego State (@ USS Midway)
November 19-Wagner
November 25-Colgate
November 30- @Arkansas (Big East-SEC Challenge)
December 5-Long Beach State
December 8-Monmouth
December 22- Temple (@ Carrier Dome South, AKA Madison Square Garden)
December 31-Central Connecticut State
If I hear Doug Gotlieb say anything about our schedule being too easy…
