Selection Sunday: Syracuse Orange Looking For 3-Seed

The Syracuse Orange entered the Big East Tournament looking like a 3-seed for the NCAA Tournament. They leave it looking more and more like a lock for the spot.

That is, unless you're Joe Lunardi.

Lunardi dropped the Orange to a 4-seed after losing to UConn (against scary Princeton). The same UConn that just won the Big East Tournament. And in spite of SU's wins over St. John's, Georgetown and Villanova in recent weeks. It's not unthinkable that the Orange could end up at a 4-seed, but, I would be shocked. To his credit, Joe does send SU to DC/Newark.

Chris Dobbertean over at SBNation still has the Orange pegged as a 3-seed. The bad news is he has Syracuse starting in Cleveland and ending up in Anaheim. Maybe a 4-seed won't be so bad after all.

Of course then there's Jerry Palm over at CBS Sports who launched the Orange all the way up to a 2-seed. He sends the Orange to DC in the first round (good) but out to the West Regional in Anaheim (meh). He also pits us against Akron (AKRON!!!), which sounds like a lot of fun.

According to the Bracket Matrix, Syracuse is a 3-seed, but just barely. I do find it strange so many folks dropped us to a 4-seed thanks to the loss to UConn. I suppose the idea is that we get pushed back because UConn moves up, but, it just doesn't make sense.

Regardless of what they end up seeded, the Orange are in good health and have all the potential for a deep run.

Here's Syracuse's stats as of 4:00pm EST.The RPI might say 4-seed but the No. of quality wins say 3-seed.

Overall Record: 26-7

Conference Record: 12-6

RPI: 18

SOS: 28

KenPom: 11

RPI Top 20 wins: 3 (Notre Dame, Georgetown, UConn)

RPI Top 50 wins:10 (Notre Dame, Georgetown, UConn, WVU, St. John's (2), Cincy, Villanova, Mich. St., Michigan)