Orange Crushed: Syracuse Deserved to Play in NCAA Tournament

The 2007 edition of Selection Sunday held more than one surprise. I, for one, was shocked that Duke received a six seed in the tournament. Stanford making the tournament was a surprise to me. Nothing, however, was more shocking to me than Syracuse not receiving a bid into the tournament.

I wasn't the only one. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said "I have no way of understanding why we're not in the tournament. You look at the numbers and it's hard to believe. But it's done. There's no use in talking about it. Their opinion is that those teams are better than us. I'm very disappointed. It doesn't do any good to get angry."

Boeheim has plenty of reason to be upset. Syracuse more than earned their way into the NCAA Tournament this season. Practically every expert had placed Syracuse in the tournament before Selection Sunday. After the brackets were released both television and radio was full of discussion about how this team could be left out.

A quick glance at Syracuse's stats and it is obvious they belonged in the NCAA Tournament. The Orange went 10-6 in conference play, an impressive statistic. The Big East finished the season with five teams in the Top 25. If that isn't impressive enough Syracuse finished with an overall record of 22-10. Normally a combination of 10 conference wins and 20 regular season wins means a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse did lose to Top 25 teams in non-conference play. The Orange lost to Wichita State by three and Oklahoma State by four. Even though both games were at home, losing to two ranked teams by a total of seven points is hardly a reason to keep a team out of the tournament.

In conference play Syracuse lost to No. 15 Louisville by five on the road, No. 19 Notre Dame by twelve and six in two road games, and No. 10 Pittsburgh by eight at home. They also defeated No. 21 Marquette by twelve and No. 14 Georgetown. Both of those were home games. The only bad losses Syracuse suffered in the conference were to St. John's (16-15, 7-9) by four and Connecticut (17-14, 6-10) by seven in two road games.