At the beginning of the season, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman told his team it would have a chance to host NCAA tournament games. He regularly tells his players where the Orange projects during practice. Some check bracketology to see where SU might end up playing.

Syracuse (25-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) will find out its draw in the NCAA tournament for certain on Monday night during the selection show between 7 and 8 p.m. According to ESPN.com, RealTimeRPI.com and CollegeSportsMadness.com, the Orange projects as a No. 4 seed, meaning SU would host the first two rounds of the tournament for the first time in school history.

“We don’t have any hesitancy (to look at the projections),” guard Brittney Sykes said. “We just know that there’s a possibility that we could be hosting the tournament. And whether or not the NCAA will let us, that’s for them to decide. All we know is wherever we go, we’re playing to win.”

After an 11-game conference win streak set program records, SU reached No. 14 in the AP Poll, its highest ranking in team history. A spot in the NCAA tournament for a fourth consecutive season would also be a first. Before 2014, Syracuse had never won a game in the Big Dance.

The Orange advanced to the ACC championship game last Sunday, where it lost by 11 to Notre Dame, the No. 2 team in the country. Following the loss, Hillsman said, “We should get two games at home.”

But even still, Hillsman won’t know if what he told his team at the beginning of the season will come true until Monday night.

“Everything is subject to change,” Peterson said, “and you really never know until you’re sitting in that room Monday night at 7:00 and you find out where you’re going to go and who you’re going to play.”