How the prominent metric is feeling early about the ‘Cuse.
In the midst of a busy offseason filled with plenty of roster turnover for the Syracuse Orange, a well-known college basketball rankings system appears to be feeling optimistic about the program.
Syracuse ranks in the top-50 in Bart Torvik’s initial projections for the 2025-26 season, sitting right at the No. 50 spot. Bart Torvik currently has the Orange with the 29th-best adjusted offensive efficiency and the No. 101 adjusted defensive efficiency.
Based on the current rankings, Syracuse projects according to Bart Torvik to be the sixth-best team in the ACC, trailing Duke (No. 4), North Carolina (No. 12), Louisville (No. 20), SMU (No. 39) and Clemson (No. 41).
Here are the full projections for the ACC:
- Duke (No. 4)
- North Carolina (No. 12)
- Louisville (No. 20)
- SMU (No. 39)
- Clemson (No. 41)
- Syracuse (No. 50)
- Notre Dame (No. 58)
- NC State (No. 67)
- Virginia (No. 68)
- Pittsburgh (No. 69)
- Wake Forest (No. 72)
- Miami (No. 76)
- Virginia Tech (No. 78)
- Florida State (No. 80)
- California (No. 83)
- Georgia Tech (No. 94)
- Stanford (No. 97)
- Boston College (No. 104)
For context, Bart Torvik ranked Syracuse No. 72 overall (12th in the ACC) just before the start of the 2024-25 season.
Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
Syracuse is projected to return just over 26% of its minutes from this past season, headlined by J.J. Starling and Donnie Freeman opting to come back to the program.
Surrounding that duo with be the additions of four new recruits, including a pair of promising headliners: Kiyan Anthony, Sadiq White Jr., Luke Fennell and Aaron Womack.
Over the offseason, Syracuse also brought in a handful of new transfers to help fill in for some of the departures. The full list: former Georgia Tech guard Naithan George, former Oregon State guard Nate Kingz, former UCLA forward William Kyle III, former Georgia Tech forward Ibrahim Souare and former Montana State guard Bryce Zephir.
The most important and obvious takeaway — don’t read deep into the numbers now, because a lot can happen between now and the start of the season. And as always, the numbers do need to translate to the court.
That being said, it’s an early promising sign Syracuse can rebound after finishing 14-19 (.424) in 2024-25, the team’s lowest winning percentage since 1969.