Syracuse Heads to the NCAA's.
By: Mike Lindsley
Syracuse is a 3-seed and will head to the South Region and open things up down I-90 in Buffalo. The Orange takes on Western Michigan, the 14-seed. Here are some highlights of the bracket and a look into the SU crystal ball:
Brutal bracket: Kansas, UCLA, VCU, Florida, ACC rival Pittsburgh and a possible 2nd round match-up with Dayton for the Orange, a team that can shoot it and had a great strength of schedule as an Atlantic 10 representative.
What SU team will show-up? This is the question of the year for this team. Will it be the free-flowing team from Maui that smoked Villanova and beat Duke at home and beat Pitt twice and manhandled North Carolina and started 25-0 with incredible last-second wins, or the team that dropped four of five and five of seven to close the year and looked horrendous in the first round of the ACC Tournament against N.C. State?
Can Syracuse score? Nothing more needs to be said here. You know.
Team to beat: Florida. The overall #1 seed. Veteran Seniors. Young guys. Depth. SEC regular season and tournament champions. Billy Donovan has his team poised for a Final Four run.
Sleeper: Dayton Flyers. They head up I-90 East and shoot it well. They were battle-tested all year. They don't have a superstar. They just play well together led by the double figure scoring trio of Devin Oliver, Dyshawn Pierre and Jordan Sibert.
Star power: Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis, C.J. Fair, Kyle Anderson, Lamar Patterson, Traveon Graham and Scottie Wilbekin. What a crew.
Key Orange player: Trevor Cooney. It is easy to say that Jerami Grant is the key guy because Syracuse's offense looked great at Florida State. But the reality is that Cooney must hit 3-pointers in this tournament if Syracuse is to go anywhere. This is also a big time shooting bracket as well, with VCU, Dayton, UCLA, Kansas and Florida all capable of reigning 3 balls. The bigger challenge for Syracuse is that all of these teams in the South bracket can play multiple styles and counter styles. Syracuse, right now, plays zone and has no offensive flow. The zone of course can change and adjust to a team, but we all know it is a zone and will be played all game long.
Outlook: Look for Syracuse to reach the Sweet 16 Regional in Memphis, TN as they play two hours from home in the second and third rounds. But if Dayton wins in round one against in-state traditional power Ohio State, it will bring a strong contingent of Flyer faithful and they have a real shot at knocking off the Orange.
