For everyone that already jumped on the national championship bandwagon, stop and think a minute.

First check out the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Those two Top 25 teams the Syracuse men’s basketball team defeated last month? In the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, Mississippi State has dropped all the way to 21st. Memphis is gone altogether.

Maybe those two teams entered the season a little overrated.

Second, look at the Orange’s last three games. Siena, St. Bonaventure and – on Saturday night – Colgate all caused Syracuse fits. SU struggled to put all three teams away until the end.

Most figured we’d see just how good the Orange could be against those two ranked teams. But maybe we learned even more Saturday night in SU’s 68-55 victory at the Carrier Dome.

So what exactly did we discover?

For one, Syracuse can’t play man-to-man defense. Head coach Jim Boeheim said every great team he’s ever had can play solid man-to-man. This team couldn’t even hold its own against 2-4 Colgate.

The Raiders picked Syracuse apart for easy shots, hitting at 44 percent for the first half. Constantly, Colgate players found themselves open for short jumpers.

Gerry McNamara reminisced back to SU’s national championship year. That season, whenever the Orange encountered trouble, it used its man defense to get it back into games.

Most notably, it used man-to-man defense to overcome a 12-point halftime deficit and defeat Pittsburgh, 67-65. That game served as arguably the turning point in the season. Syracuse lost only twice more as it marched to the title.

Syracuse’s zone is its trademark, and it can keep it in most games. But come Big East play, the zone will only carry SU so far. There will come a point when the Orange needs to play man. If it plays man-to-man defense like it did against the Raiders, SU isn’t going to have much luck.

‘To be a good team, we have to play some man-to-man,’ Boeheim said. ‘If we played man-to-man the whole game, we probably would’ve lost.’

Also, Syracuse has few scoring options. OK, so maybe this isn’t a breaking newsflash. It’s a problem that’s emerged over the last few games. But it’s a problem that must be fixed.

Seniors Hakim Warrick and Josh Pace combined for 20 of SU’s 31 first-half points. Syracuse had a little more balance in the second half, as McNamara and sophomore Terrence Roberts got involved.

Still, the combined production of one point from starters Demetris Nichols and Craig Forth won’t beat many teams. Nichols has struggled recently. He hasn’t hit double figures since Nov. 12 against Princeton. He’s scored nine points total in his last three games.

On Saturday, he played just 10 minutes. As junior Billy Edelin progresses, Nichols’ minutes could become even more limited.

For Syracuse to live up to its potential, the scoring must become more balanced. Warrick can’t be counted on every night.

‘All good teams have subpar games,’ Pace said.

But SU has now had three subpar games in a row. Saturday’s effort against Colgate was certainly the worst, but Syracuse hasn’t played well in a few weeks.

So maybe we gave this team too much credit. Let’s not forget the 2001-02 team that won the Preseason National Invitational Tournament and started 9-0 before missing the NCAA Tournament. Certainly, this team is much more talented and likely will fix its problems sooner rather than later.

But right now, SU’s in trouble. And, it’s hit a road bump at a poor time with No. 6 Oklahoma State looming Tuesday.

‘I really think we have a long way to go,’ Boeheim said. ‘I’ve said that a few times. I think we played a couple of fool’s gold games against teams that are supposed to be good but aren’t.’

We thought we learned how good the Orange could be in those ‘fool’s gold games.’ On Saturday, we saw just how bad SU could be.