Dion Waiters might not be a member of the Syracuse Orange when they take the floor in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, but he's got plenty of fond memories of his two seasons in the Big Dance. He shared them with Cleveland.com...
"It's crazy. The people around you. The atmosphere. You've got 20,000 other fans watching you before their team comes on. It's crazy, man."
"My freshman year, throughout the whole year, I kind of struggled," he said. "The last game in the NCAA Tournament, the second round against Marquette, I had, like, two points in the first half. The second half I had, like, 16. Back to back to back to back buckets," he said, with more emphasis on each "back." "We lost, but the way I came out . . . it was crazy.
"My best year was last year. We were 33-3. The team, the chemistry . . . we should have won the championship. But we didn't have our big fellow, [suspended] Fab Melo. The NCAA wanted to mess with us."
While that has to be considered a little bit of burying the lede, I can see why Waiters and the rest of the Orange saw it that way. The NCAA could have brought the hammer down on Melo at any time, the days leading up to the NCAA Tournament was one heck of a convenient time.
Still, you know, it's Fab we're talking about.