SYRACUSE — The Syracuse University men’s basketball team was not selected by the NCAA tournament committee on Selection Sunday for an at-large bid to compete in March Madness.
Following the live broadcast on CBS on Sunday evening, it was announced that Syracuse will be a No. 1 seed in the NIT tournament, also held throughout March.
Syracuse will play host to UNC-Greensboro (25-9) of the Southern Conference at 7 p.m. in a first-round matchup Tuesday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
“Everybody was disappointed,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said at a press conference. “It’s what you would expect.”
In what prognosticators determined to be one of the weaker NCAA tournament bubbles in recent memory, it was reasonable to believe that Syracuse (18-14, 10-8) would make the field of 68. On Wednesday, Syracuse was defeated by Miami on the second day of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at the Barclays Center after earning a bye on Tuesday.
The premature exit from the conference tournament slimmed Syracuse’s already slighted chances of making the Big Dance. Winning 10 games in the nation’s most revered conference — including a five-game winning streak featuring wins over Top 10 opponents Florida State and Virginia — momentarily lifted the spirits of fans who feared Syracuse could miss the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.
Syracuse withdrew itself from postseason competition in 2014-15 in response to an NCAA investigation that found the school guilty of academic violations.
One season ago, Syracuse overcame an objectively weaker resume than it has now to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Orange, led by departed seniors Michael Gbinije and Trevor Cooney, as well as one-and-done freshman Malachi Richardson, won four straight games and made an improbable Final Four run.
“I don’t know what they do exactly,” Boeheim said, referring to the NCAA tournament committee. “It’s not the games we played, it’s the games we didn’t win.”
Syracuse was 2-11 playing away from the Carrier Dome, and did not gain any favor with the tournament committee for its lackluster performance in the nonconference.
Syracuse lost five nonconference games for the first time in the Boeheim-era, with the season’s nadir coming at the hands of former Big East rival St. John’s. The Red Storm gave the Orange its worst home loss in the history of the Carrier Dome — a 93-60 shellacking that saw St. John’s, an eight-win program in 2015-16, score 54 points in the second half.
Weeks later, Syracuse opened the ACC schedule with a stunning defeat, 96-81, on the road to Boston College. The Eagles ended a 20-game conference losing streak — 664 days between ACC wins — and beat Syracuse for the first time since 2005 as members of the old Big East.
In retrospect, John Gillon’s buzzer-beater to defeat Duke in the Carrier Dome on Feb. 22 was not the reaffirming victory that guaranteed Syracuse a spot in the NCAA tournament it was originally perceived to be. Perhaps beating Miami for the second time on Wednesday would not have relieved fans of the Orange, after all.
Wake Forest was selected for the NCAA tournament over Syracuse, one of nine teams from the ACC to make the field. Syracuse defeated Wake Forest in the regular season, and defeated more nationally ranked opponents, but the Demon Deacons benefited from higher RPI and strength of schedule rankings.
The University of Southern California beat out Syracuse for an at-large bid despite not beating a team with a winning record since Jan. 25. Rhode Island finished third in the Atlantic-10, but won its conference championship game to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament Sunday. Other schools claiming critical at-large bids were Xavier, Providence and Vanderbilt.
Boeheim referenced specifically feeling disappointed for graduate transfers Andrew White III and Gillon, who each joined Syracuse for their final years of college eligibility. White made Third Team All-ACC after leading the Orange with 18 points and making 3.2 3-pointers per game on 38.9 percent shooting. Gillon averaged 10.9 points and 5.3 assists as the team’s starting point guard.
“It’s disappointing for our two fifth-year seniors who came here and wanted to compete in the tournament,” Boeheim said. “We had a terrible start to our season. We put ourselves in a tremendous hole.”