Syracuse has been selected for the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed and will play No. 7 Dayton (25-7, 14-4 Atlantic 10) in its first game on Friday, March 18 in St. Louis, Missouri. In the 2014 NCAA Tournament, third-seeded Syracuse was knocked out by 11th-seeded Dayton in the Round of 32, 55-53.

The winner of Syracuse and Dayton will likely play second-seeded Michigan State in the Round of 32 in St. Louis on Sunday, March 20.

Jim Boeheim’s Selection Sunday press conference

Before the right half of the bracket was even announced, the side Syracuse is on, the bracket was leaked online and it quickly spread through Twitter. Shortly before 7 p.m., it became official that Syracuse was in the field.

Most projections had the Orange either in a play-in game as one of the last four teams in or not making the 68-team field altogether, but Syracuse won’t have to play an extra game to make the 64-team field.

Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije’s joint Selection Sunday press conference

The Orange’s resume included five wins against RPI top 50 teams including Duke, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Connecticut and St. Bonaventure and a terrible loss against St. John’s (who finished 8-24) in December that didn’t come back to haunt the Orange.

This is Jim Boeheim’s 32nd appearance in an NCAA Tournament in 40 years, and the Orange (19-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) breathes a sigh of relief as it’s headed to the Big Dance.

Published on March 13, 2016 at 6:44 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman