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Almost every coach, fanbase and program would trade spots with Syracuse for the last five years. Mark Few and Gonzaga wouldn’t — they’ve made more Sweet 16s and a title game. North Carolina, Virginia and Villanova, the last four national champions, wouldn’t either. But everybody else? Syracuse has had it better.

Since 2016, only Gonzaga has made more Sweet 16s than Syracuse. Bluebloods Duke and Kentucky last advanced to the Final Four in 2015 — when Duke won it all.

Then there’s the Orange, who have never finished more than two games over .500 in conference play in the last five years but have now put together three surprise March Madness runs. They’ve been a double-digit seed each time, including the 2016 trip to the Final Four. SU’s 2021 season has lasted longer than aforementioned bluebloods Duke, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, as well as truebloods Illinois, Florida, Michigan State, Texas and Ohio State.

As lucky as each run might seem, three Sweet 16s in four tournament appearances isn’t a fluke. And when that happens, average regular seasons become an afterthought.

“Do you know how many people would dream about going to three Sweet 16s, two Final Fours and an Elite Eight?” Buddy Boeheim said after SU defeated No. 3 West Virginia on Sunday. “In 10 years, I think that’s pretty good.”

Though Director of Athletics John Wildhack called SU a “top-tier program,” it isn’t the team of the early-2000s that regularly won 20 games. It’s not the team of the 1980s and 1990s that tore through the Big East and routinely made deep March runs. Between 2010 and 2016, Syracuse made two Final Fours, an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16. SU was never seeded lower than a four in that stretch, other than the 2016 Final Four team. 

But college basketball’s changed — there are more No. 8 Loyola Chicago teams and No. 15 Oral Roberts teams than ever.

“Look around. Look at some of the teams that are out. It’s really hard to get to the Sweet 16,” Jim Boeheim said. 

Between 1994 and 2004, arguably the height of the Orange program, SU won a national title and made six Sweet 16-or-longer runs. The Sweet 16 was an expectation. At this point, they all blur together for Boeheim.

“I think we went to 14 or 15 Sweet 16s, and some of them, I don’t even think we celebrated, probably 10 of them, I don’t think we even celebrated,” Boeheim said. “We just figured that’s what we’re supposed to do. But it’s very hard. There’s so many good teams.”

The last five years have ushered in a new era for Syracuse. Boeheim was expected to retire in 2018, but head coach-designate Mike Hopkins left for Washington. Uncertainty — particularly uncertainty regarding a Hall of Fame coach — is generally bad for college basketball programs. But the March runs kept coming. 

The Orange, led by Tyus Battle, snuck into the tournament in 2018 as an 11-seed, then upset No. 6 TCU and No. 3 Michigan State after outlasting Arizona State in the First Four. That team ramped up the 2-3 zone and used their length and athleticism to hold the Sun Devils to 56, the Horned Frogs to 52 and the Spartans to 53 points. It came out of nowhere, as SU finished 8-10 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and many disagreed with the selection committee’s decision to give it an at-large bid at all. 

This year, Syracuse has taken its penchant for lifting its play in March to the next level. The Orange are suddenly the third-most efficient offense in the nation and the fifth-hottest team overall since the month began.

This comes even as most of the 2021 season looked bleak, as it has for most recent regular seasons; SU hasn’t been ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll since 2013-14.

The Orange barely scraped by Bryant, Buffalo and Northeastern in nonconference play. Syracuse was 10-6 in early February, with two losses to Pittsburgh and blowout losses to Clemson and Virginia. It was also characteristic of who SU had become: a middling ACC program that’s perpetually on or near the bubble. After losses to Georgia Tech and Duke, the Orange fell out of tournament contention, prompting some fans to call for Boeheim to retire.

“If I’m going to be honest, after a couple games, Georgia Tech or something, (I) saw a lot of stuff on Twitter talking about him,” Buddy said. “Just crazy stuff.” 

But beating North Carolina, Clemson, NC State, San Diego State and West Virginia in March makes it easy to forget how bad SU looked against Pittsburgh in January. After Syracuse beat Clemson, Boeheim said his son showed him tweets about him, perhaps the ones clamoring for his resignation. The Athletic’s Seth Davis labeled SU a declining program on March 5. Eamonn Brennan, also from The Athletic, eviscerated Boeheim’s program in a bubble watch column.

Boeheim said he doesn’t care about what the “inconsequential” people on the internet say. They’re entitled to their opinion, but Boeheim said he doesn’t listen. It’s something his father taught him as a kid.

“Maybe the next coach will be better,” Boeheim said. “That’s great. I’ll be happy to see that. But I do not worry about what anyone says in Syracuse.” 

Boeheim’s tone was in jest, and for good reason. Coaches that bring their team this much tournament success, one way or another, are hard to find. Fans can still complain. As Boeheim said, they have a right to. There are legitimate qualms about a recruiting decline compared to its historical standards. ACC competition has been tough.

But none of that really registers when SU makes three Sweet 16s in five Marches.

“We’d like to be good in the regular season and the tournament,” Boeheim said. “But if you’re not as good as you’d like to be in the regular season, then let’s play well in the tournament. That’s what these guys have done.”

Danny Emerman is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at dremerma@syr.edu or on Twitter @DannyEmerman.

Published on March 22, 2021 at 2:09 pm