After the loss to South Carolina, then Wisconsin, and even the loss to UCONN, it felt like Syracuse still had some time to right the ship and get the season back on track. The losses to South Carolina and Wisconsin seemed alright because both those teams are top 25 caliber teams, and the Wisconsin game came on the road. But now, after a loss to Georgetown, it feels different. As Yogi Berra said, it’s getting late early.

The Orange doesn’t have a non-conference win that would even qualify as “decent” and now have two bad losses in the non-conference schedule. To pile on top of that, SU still does not have a chance for a “decent” non-conference win let alone a good one.

That puts added pressure on the ACC schedule. Syracuse needs to turn things around and put up a big record in the ACC, and may even need more than that. Going .500 this year will not get this team into the NCAA Tournament, unlike last year. The Orange definitely needs a better than .500 year in conference, likely needs a top 5 finish in the toughest conference in the country, and if that doesn’t happen, Jim Boeheim’s squad will need a run in Brooklyn at the ACC Tournament.

This team simply doesn’t have the same resume as last year’s team did at this point, and that can hurt come March.

Sure, the Orange could make a run in the ACC if they put everything together. But all year, we had been looking for Tyler Lydon to take control of a game, only to have him do it against Georgetown and get no help from anyone else when SU needed it most.

And in these last few non-conference games, which SU now has to win to keep any tournament hopes alive, the Orange has to figure out how to get Lydon going while also having others contribute someone.

This should be possible, Lydon scored 29 points on an incredibly efficient 13 shots. That leaves plenty of opportunity for everyone else. Somebody needs to step up and take advantage. Against Georgetown on Saturday afternoon, Tyler Lydon shot a ridiculous 92.3% from the field. The rest of the team shot 29.5%. The Lydon number probably won’t be repeated too often, but the rest of the team number absolutely cannot be repeated again.

Unless, and until, Syracuse can get that dynamic figured out, the Orange is in some trouble.