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The Orange travels down to Madison Square Garden to play St. John’s Sunday afternoon, continuing a series from the old Big East. The Fizz takes a look at five keys to this series and why it might have continued.
1.  New York City and Madison Square Garden are big for recruiting
As the Fizz has said in the past, playing basketball games in New York and football games at MetLife Stadium help recruiting in the area. The Garden is still a destination for basketball players and fans. Playing in New York City against St. John’s is a way for the Orange to go to New York-area recruits and say, “We will bring you home and let you play in front of your friends and family.” Recruiting the New York City area is important for Syracuse, especially with the whole “New York’s College Team” motto. In the past, it may not have been extremely important for the Orange to play St. John’s on the road in conference play every year because SU had the Big East Tournament in MSG every March. But now in the ACC, there is no guarantee that Syracuse can get New York games until the ACC Tournament, which is in Brooklyn, though only for one year.
2.  Continuing the Rivalry
St. John‚Äôs and Syracuse was a¬†big-time rivalry¬†back in the ’80s. With Lou Carnesecca, Mark Jackson and Chris Mullin, St. John‚Äôs would travel upstate with New York City swagger and challenge the Orange. Along with Coach Boeheim, Carnesecca was one of the founding coaches of the Big East and somebody who was there as the conference grew developed through the ’90s. Although St. John‚Äôs has been down for a little while now,¬†Steve Lavin¬†has improved the program over his first three years with the Red Storm and maybe if this series continues, the rivalry can echo what it was in the ’80s.
3. Helps Syracuse non-conference schedule
It has been well documented that this is likely the best non-conference schedule Syracuse has ever played. St. John’s is part of that non-conference strength. Even with the Red Storm being a lower-half team in the old Big East, they are still a lot better than the teams Syracuse played in non-conference matchups last year. St. John’s is still a major conference team, and a team that has a chance to be on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament at the end of the year. Although the crowd at MSG is typically a pro-Syracuse crowd, this is technically the first true road game for the Orange, something that critics may point to at the end of the year.
4.  St. John’s likes the big stage
As said above, St. John’s hasn’t been nationally relevant for a while now—you could even argue since Carnesecca retired. Scheduling a game against Syracuse every year brings Lavin and the Red Storm onto a national stage. First, Syracuse is one of the few St. John’s home games every year that is played at MSG. Second, the Orange will enter the Garden Sunday afternoon as the second team in the country, with the possibility of moving up to number one if Arizona slips up. Third, the game is nationally televised on a Sunday afternoon. The game is not only big for the Orange because they play in NYC, but also for the Red Storm, as they take look to knock off the number two team in the country in a nationally televised game.
5. This is different than the Georgetown series
Yes, Syracuse fans would probably rather see the Orange play the Hoyas once (or twice) every year. Whatever the reason, it hasn’t gotten done yet. For one, Georgetown is a big enough national team that it doesn’t need to play a game against a highly-ranked Syracuse team to get national broadcast and exposure the way St. John’s does. Basically, the only thing the game with Syracuse does for Georgetown is continue the rivalry. Georgetown doesn’t gain much in recruiting by coming to the Dome the way Syracuse gets a recruiting bump in D.C. The game would improve Georgetown’s non-conference schedule and keep one of the best rivalries in college basketball going; but other than that, there isn’t much benefit for the Hoyas. Georgetown doesn’t need Syracuse to pull that out in recruiting. Just because one or two former Big East rivalries will continues doesn’t mean that you can assume they all will, including the Georgetown game.
Posted by: Seth Goldberg 
212 responses to “Fizz Five: Why the New Installment of Syracuse/St. John‚Äôs Series is Important”
This will be a war and SU has to win the war of the Bigs. Coleman Keita and XMAS have to show up. Ball movement and scoring by the frontcourt will win it.
A game between these two schools is what eastern basketball is all about. They are the best that NYS has to offer. History between these two schools representing NEW YORK STATE is second to none. Now all that has to happen is for St Bonaventure to get better and throw in a Canisius or a Bucknell and have an all NYS Tournament during the holiday period held in the dome or maybe Madison Square Garden. That sure would be something to watch
I’m very happy that these two could work something out that allows them to continue playing every year.
Ron – Bucknell in PA. Did u mean Buffalo?
@aspen425;
I always thought Bucknell was in NY. sorry, I apologize for making that mistake and thanks for correcting me.
Over the last couple of years Buffalo has improved the play of it’s basketball team and would make a good addition replacing Bucknell.
Thanks again for setting things straight.
@aspen425;
While Syracuse is branding/PROCLAIMING itself to be New York’s #1 college team and Buffalo in the middle of rebranding itself to be the true #1 college team in NY. It would be better if Buffalo was added to a tournament with the other three teams listed. If both Buffalo and Syracuse were to win the opening games and play each other for the championship that dispute between the two schools on who is the true #1 college would be settled. Wouldn’t it?
Ron, Why would Syracuse want to come down to buffalo’s level? Really?
Actually SU would never play that. They have (in their mind) EVERYTHING to lose – NOTHING to gain. As a fan it would’ve been fun like the old days when they played St Bona, Niagara, etc. Buffalo IS getting better for sure but NOT at SU’s expense.
@Dr. bill;
I don’t see it as Syracuse dropping to Buffalo’s level,I see just the opposite.
Buffalo has improved it’s basketball program and have become competitive a lot over the last few years. They’re struggling a little this year and currently set with a 4-3 record,but remember the season has just started,it’s early and they could change things around by years end.
Can you remember when Syracuse use to hold the Classic played at Manley Field House. The 1977 Classic when a Marty Brynes led Syracuse Team beat the Michigan State Team led by Magic Johnson.
I’ve always said that Syracuse should host a NYS tournament over the Christmas break. There are a lot of good basketball teams that could be invited,if you think otherwise,just look back a couple years to the LeMoyne Game when the cross town team beat Syracuse in the dome.
Coach Boeheim by winning 26+ games a year during his career has spoiled us all and we the fans have come to think that teams like St Bonaventure,Albany,Canisius,Seina,Buffalo, St Johns,LeMoyne are not important anymore.
Me personally,I see thing a little differently.
I think we as fans would benifit tremendously if something along these lines were ever set up again. We the fans and all of NYS would benifit a great deal.
So you see Dr. bill,Syracuse wouldn’t drop to Buffalo’s level at all. No not at all.
@Dr. bill;
I think we would benifit because of all these so-called second rate teams are getting better every year. Look at what happened last night. Notre Dame playing the first two rounds at home in South Bend lost to North Dakota State in the(1st round of the Gotham Classic)
Ron,
Manhattan, Iona, Stony Brook, and some of the teams like Siena, Canisius, Fordham, Columbia? NYS tourney could be fun. Jim B is VERY good about playing NY teams. Don’t forget Cornell and Colgate. St. Johns is a matchup of two marquee conferences, two teams with a history, and last, but not least as the article says… MSG. That is the reason for the continued scheduling. Don’t be fooled.
@Malone;
I know that I didn’t mention all of the teams located within NYS. But I just think putting all of those teams together would be a good idea.
syracuse has a lot of history with some of those schools that shouldn’t be ignored and on Sunday afternoon we will be playing St Johns. Just love it.
Madison Square Garden,playing in any tournament there would be great for any school.
@Malone;
You and I have named 15 different schools and we’re probably forgetting one or two. but just think of the possibilities. You could set up the first two rounds at on campus facilities around the state with the winners of those 4 sub regionals advancing either to MSG or the dome for the right to play for the NYS College Tournament Championship and winning bragging rights for the year.
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