I’m hearing lots of talk about the Syracuse basketball team having “turned the corner” after winning its last three games. Are the Orange playing better basketball lately than they were earlier in the season? Yes, I’d agree with that. 

But how can you turn the corner when you haven’t even reached the turn yet?

SU (11-7, 4-3 ACC) is roughly one-third of the way through the grueling 20-game conference schedule. It will reach the halfway point after playing the next three games - at Notre Dame, home with Pitt, and at Clemson. So by this time next week, we’ll be 10 games in with 10 more to go, and the Duke Blue Devils up next.

Can we hold off on the “turning the corner” talk until then?

Syracuse has won three ACC road games already this season and that is commendable. But a closer look reveals the three teams they’ve beaten are a collective 3-8 in conference home games this season with Georgia Tech the worst offender at 0-4. So maybe we shouldn’t crown the Orange yet.

Up next is Notre Dame which is 0-2 in South Bend this ACC season, albeit one of those losses is by three to No. 6 Louisville and the other is by one to Boston College. After that SU is home with Pittsburgh who’s beaten both Florida State and North Carolina but also lost to Nicholls State. 

If Syracuse can get through this week unscathed I’ll be closer to believing.

The best news to come out of SU’s two wins last week is not only that Buddy Boeheim is more than just a coach’s kid, but also that the Orange are becoming more than just a three-point shooting team. Syracuse scored 147 points in the wins over BC and Va Tech, and 70 of those points were “in the paint.” Marek Dolezaj and freshman Quincy Guerrier are beginning to give the Orange an inside presence, or at least present the threat of one, and that should give shooters like Boeheim, Elijah Hughes, and Joe Girard more room to operate, which should mean good things for the offense moving forward.

Even the Hall of Famer had to admit after the Virginia Tech game that his team is getting better. But as he often does, he also added that there’s a long way to go, and that’s the camp I’m in right now. Let’s not talk about turning corners until the corner arrives. Because there are still 13 ACC games to play and plenty of opportunities to turn one way or the other.