Wow. Three-seed, huh? Color me surprised. When the last bracket came up I was sure they were about to stick us with the six seed and I was gonna raise holy hell. Instead, they went over our helmet.
IMO, here's the three big reasons for the 3-seed.
1. 3-1 in the Big East Tournament including wins over tourney team and #1 seed UConn.
2. 8-2 in final ten games, including the aforementioned wins and the Marquette win on the road.
3. #12 overall RPI. The forgotten stat.
I know, I'm biased, but I LOVE our bracket. Stephen A. Smith in the first game, sure. Arizona State (likely) in the second game. Great. I CANNOT wait to walk into a Los Angeles sports bar and see all the Arizona State meatheads gathering. And that's just behind the bar... Bring it, West Virginia West... Not to get too ahead of ourselves but I'm fine seeing Oklahoma or Clemson/Michigan down the road ahead as well. Blake who?
As for the conference as a whole, we might not have gotten the ten seeds predicted when the season started but we sure made the seven we got count. Three #1's (Pitt, L'ville and UConn), two #3's (SU, Nova) and two #6's (Marquette and West Virginia). Sure the Big Ten and ACC had seven teams as well but that includes many double-digit seeds. Be happy with that, ACC and Big Ten...I guess.
We'll get into this Stephen F. Austin business soon enough. In the meantime...A THREE-SEED, you guys! Congrats to the basketball team for such an inspiring finish. Congrats to Jimmy B for showing them you still got it. Congrats to the entire SU fanbase for willing the team to victory in NYC and continuing to do so this week. And finally, congrats to the current seniors at Syracuse...THIS is what you were expecting when you came to SU. Took a while...but now it's here. Let's do things.