Will Jim Boeheim get to 1,000 career wins this season?

Seven wins never seemed so far away.

Before the season, people would laugh at this headline.

“1,000 wins? All he needs is 15 this season. He’ll get that by mid-January.”

Well, that also depends on who you ask. Anyone other than the NCAA understands Jim Boeheim entered this season with 985 victories, and would likely become the second Division I men’s basketball coach to enter the 1,000-win club (Mike Krzyzewski - 1,055).

Syracuse is 8-6 on the season, and Boeheim is just seven wins away from the historical milestone.

But is the 1,000 club something to realistically think will happen this season?

The Orange (obviously) lost a few games it wasn’t supposed to in the non-conference slate — South Carolina, UConn, Georgetown and St. John’s. And the ACC opener to Boston College didn’t help, either.

But if you look ahead at the final 17 regular season games, it’s difficult to find seven where you find yourself saying, “Oh, yeah, that’s a win.”

Of the final 17 games, eight of those are against Top 25 teams — Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia, Louisville (twice) and Duke.

Miami (11-2, 1-0) comes to the Carrier Dome on Wednesday, while Pitt (11-3, 0-1) visits just three days later. SU then travels to Virginia Tech, hosts Boston College and follows that up with two Top 25 road games against UNC and ND.

I’m also here to tell you that Syracuse isn’t going to go 0-18 in the ACC schedule, although some fans on Twitter might disagree.

SU’s seven best chances to get Jim Boeheim to 1,000 wins this season would be: Boston College (January 14), Wake Forest (January 24) .... but seriously, I don’t know after that.

And to think that one of those games is against a team that just hit 16 three-pointers against SU’s horrific 2-3 zone is frightening; a team that hadn’t won a conference game in over 650 days, went 0-18 last season and handled SU by 15 points just three days ago.

I know it’s bad, but I don’t think it gets any worse than that.

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Will Jim Boeheim get to 1,000 this season? I doubt it. I highly, highly doubt it.

This team does have talent, though. And you have to think that talent will come together to win a few ACC games this season. Against who? I don’t think anybody knows.

But to think Syracuse rattles off seven wins in its next 17 games is pretty far-fetched.

And we can’t even say, “Well, maybe a couple in the NIT.” Because this team doesn’t even have an NIT resume at the moment, without a single major conference victory through 14 games.

1,000 is looking like it’ll have to wait until next season.