Everything to know before Syracuse men’s basketball hosts Mercyhurst
Searching to avenge its upset loss to Hofstra, Syracuse hosts Mercyhurst Wednesday night in its third-to-last nonconference game this season. Christian Calabrese | Staff Photographer
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The “Orange Standard” has lowered once again.
In Syracuse’s 10th game of the 2025-26 season, two contests following its upset victory over then-No. 13 Tennessee 62-60, it lost to Hofstra 70-69. After sitting within the top 65 of the NCAA’s NET rankings for a considerable time period, SU now ranks No. 92 in the nation on the database that greatly determines the eventual NCAA Tournament field.
Under third-year head coach Adrian Autry, the Orange have yet to qualify for March Madness and are amid a four-season drought extending back to the end of Jim Boeheim’s tenure. Their path to the Big Dance became clear after stunning the Volunteers. Yet, their loss to Hofstra essentially canceled out the previous triumph. SU’s next nonconference opponent, Mercyhurst, poses little threat as the Lakers rank No. 332 among all Division I programs, per KenPom.
Here’s everything to know before Syracuse (6-4, Atlantic Coast) takes on Mercyhurst (4-7, Northeast) Wednesday in the JMA Wireless Dome:
All-time series
This is the Orange’s first-ever matchup against the Lakers.
KenPom odds
Syracuse has a 97% chance of winning, with a projected final score of 78-57.
The Lakers report
No, not those Lakers. Under longtime head coach Gary Manchel, who’s led the Lakers to seven NCAA Tournaments in his 23-year tenure, Mercyhurst has sputtered to begin the season, recently falling to Davidson 80-47 on the road.
Their two biggest wins, blowouts over Penn State New Kensington and Bethany (West Virginia), are arguably the only reasons why the Lakers’ current numbers aren’t worse than they already are.
Mercyhurst’s adjusted offensive efficiency of 98.0 ranks 339th in the country and its defensive efficiency of 113.8 ranks 308th, per KenPom. On offense, the Lakers’ average possession length of 21.2 seconds is the longest possession time in D-I — but it’s not an effective methodical playstyle. And defensively, they concede some of the quickest possessions in the nation, ranking 24th-fastest with an average of 16.0 seconds.
Against the only two KenPom top-100 teams Mercyhurst has faced, it got held to fewer than 50 points, including a 38-point effort against West Virginia on Nov. 30. Other than point guard Bernie Blunt III’s 16.6 points per game and forward Qadir Martin’s 2.2 blocks per game, few individual statistics stick out as gaudy around Mercyhurst’s roster.
Judging by how the start of the year transpired, this might be one of the Lakers’ worst squads under Manchel.
How Syracuse beats Mercyhurst
The Orange simply need to ensure they don’t embarrass themselves. If they start fast by initiating offense through the transition game, shoot the 3-ball with merely some proficiency and rely on their suffocating defense — which ranks 15th in effective field goal percentage at 44.5% — they’ll take some heat off Autry by delivering a dominant win.
In games against Monmouth and Hofstra, Syracuse could not deliver the “kill shot” necessary to pull ahead with a large lead. “Kill shots” are a term popularized by Evan Miya, founder of analytics database EvanMiya, that tracks how many 10-plus-point runs every team embarks on. Autry has said that’s a category the Orange want to flourish in and will be a necessary goal to make consistent heading into ACC play. Against Mercyhurst, though, opportunities for “kill shots” will be plentiful.
Stat to know: 56.8%
It’s been harped on numerous times, and will continue to be, but if you haven’t heard before, Syracuse is an awful free-throw shooting team. Coming into Wednesday’s game, SU’s 56.8% free-throw make percentage ranks No. 365 in the nation. Well, there are only 365 D-I teams. Until further notice, the Orange are the worst group of free-throw shooters in the nation.
The one stat Mercyhurst holds a clear advantage over Syracuse in is its performance from the charity stripe. The Lakers shoot an abysmal 61.8% from the free-throw line, but that’s still 11 spots better than SU’s mystifyingly inefficient numbers.
Free throws matter. If you don’t believe it, just look at the Orange’s 17 missed free throws against then-No. 3 Houston on Nov. 24 to let a possible program-shifting win slip away.
Player to watch: Bernie Blunt III, point guard, No. 4
Besides having an all-time name, Blunt stands out as the most intriguing player on Mercyhurst’s roster. The Lakers’ leading scorer is converting 47.4% of his shots from the field and boasts 24 3-point makes on 61 attempts, good for a 39.3% clip.
The 5-foot-11 point guard doesn’t bring much to the table as a distributor, averaging just over 2.0 assists per contest, yet the graduate student is a dangerous scorer SU must keep an eye on; he’s dropped at least 15 points in 8-of-11 games.
