Syracuse Men's Basketball Opted Out of NIT

The Orange declined to participate in the NIT.

Mike McAllister | Mar 17, 2024

Syracuse Men's Basketball Opted Out of NIT /

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Syracuse men's basketball has released a statement regarding the Orange not being included in the NIT field, stating it opted out prior to the field being selected. This statement was provided to All Syracuse from an SU Athletics spokesperson.

"We respect the NIT but our only postseason goal was to play in the NCAA Tournament. Therefore, we communicated to the ACC we would not participate in the NIT."

It was a very up and down season for Syracuse, the first in the post Jim Boeheim era with head coach Adrian Autry leading the Orange. He navigated the team through a lot of adversity, including an injury to starting center Naheem McLeod, Chance Westry not being available all season, the dismissal of Benny Williams and being forced to play players out of position in order to field a team.

Syracuse started the year 3-0 before heading to the Maui Invitational. The Orange was blown out twice by highly ranked Tennessee and Gonzaga, but finished the rest of the non-conference slate without a loss. That included wins over LSU, at Georgetown and Oregon on a neutral floor.

The schedule then turned to conference play, where Syracuse appeared to be out of NCAA Tournament contention after losing four of six with the setbacks coming to Florida State, Boston College, Wake Forest and Clemson. Then the Orange picked up its biggest win of the season by knocking off then seventh ranked North Carolina in the JMA Wireless Dome.

That was followed by a disappointing loss at Georgia Tech before four straight wins would set up critical games at Clemson and in the ACC Tournament. Unfortunately, Syracuse would lose to the Tigers and against the Wolfpack in the ACC Tournament to spoil those hopes.

Still, it was the best regular season in a decade and there is a lot of positive to gleam from the first year of the Adrian Autry era. A critical offseason now awaits.

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Published Mar 17, 2024

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.