The Syracuse men's basketball team is into the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament after upsetting No. 1-seeded Virginia in the Elite Eight. Syracuse's run as a No. 10 seed to the semifinal round of the tournament is what March Madness is all about.
Part of the allure of the NCAA Tournament is that "anything can happen" on a given night. A double-digit seed can get hot and make a run to the Final Four, upsetting big names along the way. Syracuse is not a conventional underdog in the sense that they are a very successful and well-known basketball program. The team made it to the Final Four in 2013, but this year many around college basketball argued that Syracuse should not have even been in the tournament at all.
The Orange went 23-13 this season, finishing just 9-9 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, good for ninth in the standings. Syracuse's run is even more improbable when thinking of the way the team finished the season, which is why it fits the bill for a Cinderella. Syracuse lost five of its final six regular season games coming into the tournament, and the team was pegged at 1,000-1 odds to win the national title in mid-January. The Orange were listed at 300-1 odds after the field was set.
Those long odds and the fact that many felt the team should not have made it likely has motivated Syracuse on this run. But either way, head coach Jim Boeheim deserves a lot of credit for getting his team to this point. Syracuse dealt with controversy last year with NCAA issues, which resulted in a postseason ban and a nine-game suspension for Boeheim earlier in the season.
Boeheim has been able to keep his team focused despite all the issues, and now they are just the fourth double-digit seed to make the Final Four since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Everyone loves an underdog, right? To keep things going into the championship game, Syracuse will have to beat North Carolina, a team that beat the Orange twice already this season.
Some have argued that Syracuse had an "easy" road to the Final Four with Michigan State getting upset, but Syracuse did not put the bracket together. It's not the Orange's responsibility to pick the schedule. The team can only play the games that are in front of it, and so far it has won them all. Gonzaga put up a good fight, but Syracuse held on for the 63-60 victory.
Virginia was a tough task and put Syracuse in a 16-point hole, but that didn't stop the Orange either. In an emblematic moment for the Cinderella run, Tyler Lydon made a 3-point shot with one sneaker on in the first half against the Cavaliers. The play was set up after Lydon had the ball in front of a defender at the top of the key, which caused him to lose his balance and his left shoe. Lyndon passed the ball, kicked the sneaker aside, got himself open for a pass, took the ball back, and made a three-pointer. Quite the Cinderella story indeed.
Lydon has played well in the tournament along with freshman Malachi Richardson and seniors Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije. Richardson has been the driving force for Syracuse, winning the Midwest Regional's Most Outstanding Player award, and now he could push his team to the final with another strong performance.
Richardson bested Virginia's Malcolm Brogdon, who was named the ACC defensive player of the year this season. Richardson had 23 points in the game, scoring 21 of them in the second half to help Syracuse make an amazing rally.
Syracuse, a No. 10 seed, now will take on North Carolina, a No. 1 seed, in Houston for a spot in the NCAA Tournament National Championship game. That's what March Madness is all about.
