The Syracuse Orange will enter the 2012 NCAA Tournament as a one-seed in the East Region. This will be the third time Syracuse is a one-seed in the NCAAs and they're hoping the third time will be the charm for delivering on those expectations.
Syracuse received its first No. 1 seed back way back in 1980. The Orange finished the season 26-4 as the Louie & Bouie Show came to an end. Oddly enough, because of the way the tournament was set up, SU received a first-round bye and awaited the winner of Villanova and Marquette. The Wildcats won and advanced to take on the Orangemen. SU won 97-83 thanks to 29 points from Erich Santifer and moved on.
In the next round they met Iowa, whom I forgot even had a basketball team. That year, however, they had a pretty good one, and the 5-seed Hawkeyes upset the Orangemen 88-77 despite being down six with seven minutes to go. Iowa did go on to defeat Georgetown in the next round and advance to the Final Four, so not everything they did was bad.
SU would have its share of two-seeds (5) an three-seeds (5) over the next couple decades but they wouldn't be No. 1 again until 2010. We all remember what happened then. SU entered the tournament without star center Arinze Onuaku and only an untested DaShonte Riley to replace him. The Orange were able to make it into the second weekend with wins over 16-seed Vermont and 8-seed Gonzaga. Then, the Orange ran into the 5-seed Butler Bulldogs in the midst of their magical run to the Final Four, losing 63-59.
And now, here we are again. If we've learned anything, it's that the Orange should be fine in the first weekend. However, if it's the 5-seed Vanderbilt Commodores staring back at us in the Sweet Sixteen, we might want to panic.