The Final Four is all set after Syracuse shocked Virginia and North Carolina pounded Notre Dame on Sunday night. Three of the four teams in the Final Four have been tremendous all season long, but Syracuse has been up and down and even had people questioning whether or not it belonged in the tournament.
This run for Syracuse has been surprising and magical, butt its next opponent will be the toughest yet in North Carolina. The Tar Heels were many people's favorites coming into the tournament and they have played great through their first four games. The Orange were swept by UNC during the regular season, but as we know all of that can be thrown out in the postseason. Syracuse has a very realistic shot of beating North Carolina on Saturday.
Let me be clear from the get-go here, I think North Carolina is, and has been, the best team in the nation and I would still pick them to win the whole thing. UNC is deep, has star power and has a great coach, so it will come in as the favorite, and it should. As we have seen in this tournament though, the best team doesn't always win and if you're hot, you're hot.
North Carolina has won nine straight games, so it is clearly a hot team, but there is just something magical about this Syracuse team right now. Yes it beat a 7, a 15 and an 11 to get to the Elite Eight, but it didn't choose the opponents, it only played who was in front of it. Add on the fact that the Orange defeated top-seeded Virginia and they have been extremely impressive.
There is always something about a team that wasn't supposed to be in the tournament. Remember VCU back in 2011. Many people thought the Rams shouldn't have been in that year, but they made the Final Four and shocked everyone. Of course, that VCU team lost in the Final Four, but this Syracuse team has some top-level talent and a Hall of Fame coach, and that's where their potential for a huge upset starts.
Tactically, Syracuse can match up with UNC's biggest strength - size. The Orange start four guys that are 6-foot-7 or bigger including point guard Michael Gbinije. While none of those guys are bigger than 6-foot-9, they can still matchup with Carolina on the inside and on the glass. Another strength of North Carolina's is the offensive glass. Syracuse does have a tendency to let up offensive rebounds because it plays a zone, but it will give the Tar Heels a taste of their own medicine as Tyler Roberson is an offensive rebounding machine (four per game).
One of the reasons the Tar Heels have looked so dominant this tournament has been because they have found the touch from long range. In the game against Indiana it seemed like North Carolina couldn't miss from deep, but they will have trouble doing that against Syracuse, one of the best teams in the nation at guarding the three-point line.
As mentioned before I would pick North Carolina to win this game, but Syracuse has the talent and the coach to pull off an upset here. The Orange have had a tumultuous season to say the least, but they are playing their best basketball right now and they have guys capable of taking over a game, so don't write them off just yet.