By Jay Smith |@_SmithJ_
Sports Capital Journalism Program
HOUSTON — It was a cold January night in Syracuse, New York. Jim Boeheim was returning to the bench as coach of the Syracuse Orange after serving a nine-game suspension for NCAA violations. The crowd of 26,811 at the Carrier Dome welcomed the coach home with a standing ovation to show its continued support of the man that has roamed Syracuse sidelines for 40 seasons. But that night’s task at hand was anything other than a warm welcome for Boeheim. No. 6 North Carolina was in town, and the Orange were in desperate need of a win.
“When I saw his first game back was against the University of North Carolina I wasn’t the happiest guy in the world,” said Tar Heel coach Roy Williams. “He’s a great coach, a great person. He’s been good not only for Syracuse University but also for the entire world of college basketball.”
It was a turbulent time for the Orange in Boeheim’s absence, going 4-5 with a loss to lowly St. John’s. The team was also 0-3 in the ACC. No team in the history of college basketball had ever made a Final Four after starting the conference season with a record of 0-4. The team looked to be in danger of missing the tournament.
Syracuse fought hard to pull off the upset, leading with 6:54 to play. But North Carolina proved to be the better team that night, making 12 of 13 shots in the closing minutes of an 84-73 victory that spoiled Boeheim’s return.
Heading for the exits that night, even the most staunch, orange-bleeding Syracuse supporters probably couldn’t have dreamt what would happen to the team over the course of the next three months.
Boeheim did his best to rally the team the rest of the way, finishing 9-5 in the remaining regular season games. But the team’s NCAA Tournament prospects still seemed dicey all the way up to Selection Sunday.
“In my mind, we were a tournament team,” Boeheim said. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t worried. I was worried about getting in. You always worry about that.”
Syracuse’s name was indeed called on Selection Sunday with a No. 10 seed that suggested that the Orange weren’t as close to the bubble as many experts had projected. It was a relief for Boeheim and the team, but the remarkable run was just getting started.
The team cruised to the Sweet 16 with blowout victories over Dayton and Middle Tennessee, and benefited from a bit of good fortune. They avoided one of the three prohibitive favorites, Michigan State. “Middle Tennessee, as everybody knows, that was a break for us, not getting Michigan State,” Boeheim said.
Armed with a bit of renewed momentum, the Orange grinded out another hard-fought win over Gonzaga, setting up a rematch with No. 1 seed Virginia.
Virginia looked the part of a dominant No. 1 seed in the first half as the Cavaliers built a 14-point halftime lead. The Syracuse locker room was quiet, and the team’s senior leader, Michael Gbinije, even began to doubt they could turn it around in the second half. “That was a scary feeling,” Gbinije said. “I thought my career was over. Trev (Syracuse senior guard Trevor Cooney) was sitting next to me, and I felt bad for him that his career was over.”
What happened next will go down as one of the most historic halves of basketball in NCAA tournament history. The Orange roared back with a 25-4 run to take down the Cavaliers, earning the school’s sixth spot in the Final Four and setting up yet another ACC rematch with yet another familiar foe, No. 1-seeded North Carolina. The 16-point deficit overcome by the Orange was the second largest in the school’s NCAA history, within one point of the 17-point comeback against Oklahoma State in 2003.
The Tar Heels continue to occupy the role of the dominant favorite, but Syracuse (23-13) looks like a completely different team than the one that fell that January night. “We knew we could be here,” said Syracuse freshman guard Malachi Richardson, who was voted Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest regional tournament. “We knew once we got into the tournament, it was like our second chance, so we wanted to make the best of it. We have so far, but we’re not done yet.”
