The Syracuse Orangemen, who were a half of solid basketball away from becoming the Big East Conference Tournament champs, will make their 36th NCAA Tournament appearance this week.
Here are five fast facts about the Orange to help you as you fill out your bracket.
1. If they’re going to make a deep run in the tournament, then they’re going to be hitting their 3-pointers with consistency:
2. They have four players who are, according to coach Boeheim, are “Capable of scoring 15-20 points on any given night.” Those four players are lefty small forward CJ Fair, who is reliant on his mid-range game, inside-out, bowling ball, 6-2 guard Brandon Triche, 6-7 3-point sniper James Southerland and point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who scores mostly off of floaters and forays to the rim, but is capable of hitting a jumper every once in a while.
3. They shoot 67.5% from the free throw line. Do you want to invest your bracket in a team that makes only two-thirds of it’s freebees?
4. Their big men – Baye Keita, Rakeem Christmas and DaJuan Coleman – average a combined 11.4 points and 12.4 rebounds per game. They sorely lack a post presence, especially at the offensive end.
5. Despite their constant influx of talent and highly seeded teams over the past decade, the last time they made the Final Four was 2003, which was when Carmelo Anthony led the Orange to a National Championship over Kansas.
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Jeremy Bauman is an aspiring shooting coach and scout who writes columns and blogs for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.