{"id":579196,"date":"2026-04-01T19:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579196\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:49:10","slug":"indiana-mens-basketball-set-to-play-syracuse-in-indianapolis-during-2026-27-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579196\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana men\u2019s basketball set to play Syracuse in Indianapolis during 2026-27 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana men\u2019s\u00a0basketball\u2019s\u00a0nonconference slate\u00a0for the 2026-27 season is starting to take shape after\u00a0the Hoosiers added a neutral-site contest with Syracuse University,\u00a0first reported<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0College Hoops Today\u2019s\u00a0Jon\u00a0Rothstein\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday.\u00a0Indiana is set to play the Orange on Nov. 9 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana has officially added\u00a0three\u00a0games\u00a0to\u00a0its\u00a0nonconference schedule for next season. The Hoosiers will face the University of Kentucky\u00a0on Dec. 27\u00a0at Lucas Oil Stadium and Bellarmine University\u00a0on\u00a0Nov. 5\u00a0at\u00a0Simon\u00a0Skjodt\u00a0Assembly Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana and Syracuse have played one another seven times\u00a0\u2014 of which Indiana has won one.\u00a0In their last contest, the\u00a0Orange downed the Hoosiers\u00a0112-110 in double overtime<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 30,\u00a02021,\u00a0in\u00a0Syracuse, New\u00a0York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0pair first met\u00a0in the 1987 NCAA men\u2019s basketball championship game. Then-junior guard Keith Smart\u00a0nailed a jump shot<\/a>\u00a0with five seconds left to propel the Hoosiers to a 74-73 victory and their\u00a0fifth and\u00a0most recent\u00a0championship banner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Syracuse concluded its\u00a02025-26\u00a0season\u00a0with a\u00a015-17 overall\u00a0record\u00a0and\u00a0a\u00a06-12\u00a0mark\u00a0in Atlantic Coast Conference play.\u00a0The Orange upset the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,\u00a062-60 on Dec. 2, but Syracuse finished the season 1-11 in Quadrant 1\u00a0games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a storied college basketball program that has made six Final Fours and won the 2003 national championship, the Orange have not made the NCAA Tournament since the 2020-21 season.\u00a0Head coach Adrian Autry\u00a0was\u00a0fired\u00a0on March 11\u00a0after compiling a 49-48 record during his three seasons at the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Syracuse\u00a0then\u00a0hired former Siena University head coach Gerry McNamara\u00a0on\u00a0March\u00a024.\u00a0McNamara was a\u00a0key player\u00a0on\u00a0the 2003 national championship squad and spent 14\u00a0seasons as an assistant coach at Syracuse under\u00a0Jim Boeheim\u00a0from\u00a02009-23\u00a0and was associate head coach under Autry during the 2023-24 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McNamara\u00a0led Siena to a 37-30 record in his two seasons as head coach. The Saints finished the 2025-26\u00a0season 23-12 and\u00a0won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament to clinch their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana\u00a0finished the 2025-26 season with an 18-14 overall record and a 9-11 mark in Big Ten play,\u00a0missing the NCAA Tournament<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0third\u00a0consecutive season. The\u00a0Hoosiers\u2019\u00a0season concluded with a\u00a074-61 defeat<\/a>\u00a0to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament\u00a0on\u00a0March\u00a011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the\u00a0matchup\u00a0categorized as a neutral-site contest, Syracuse must be\u00a0in the\u00a0top 50 in the NET Rankings\u00a0for it to count as a Quadrant 1 game for Indiana \u2014 compared to top 30 if the contest were held inside Simon\u00a0Skjodt\u00a0Assembly Hall in Bloomington. In Darian DeVries\u2019 first season as Indiana head coach, the Hoosiers finished 3-10 in Quadrant 1\u00a0contests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sean McAvoy covers Indiana women\u2019s basketball\u00a0for the Indiana Daily Student. You can follow him\u00a0at\u00a0@sean_mc07<\/a>\u00a0and contact him via email at\u00a0semcavoy@iu.edu<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana men\u2019s\u00a0basketball\u2019s\u00a0nonconference slate\u00a0for the 2026-27 season is starting to take shape after\u00a0the Hoosiers added a neutral-site contest with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-579196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}