A mere month ago, Syracuse’s likely NCAA Tournament path looked like it would be a very comfortable, if familiar, one.
The Orange carried a 25-0 record into the middle of February along with the unanimous No. 1 ranking in the nation. A continuation of that would surely land them in the East region of the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
That would mean second and third-round games played in Buffalo, just 150 miles west of the Syracuse campus, and, if it advanced through Buffalo, a Sweet 16 landing at the East Regional at Madison Square Garden, which is as much home to Orange basketball as the Carrier Dome.
A month later, Syracuse (27-5) is mired in uncertainty after five losses in its final seven games, and in the aftermath of Selection Sunday, will not play in the comfort of the East Region as a No. 1 seed, but in the South Region as a No. 3 seed.
Syracuse does get to go to Buffalo for the first round on Thursday, when it will play No. 14 seed Western Michigan (23-9, 14-4 MAC), and if it advances, it will face No. 6 Ohio State or No. 11 Dayton in the round of 32 on Saturday. Should Syracuse get through both games, it advances to the South Regional in Memphis.
Western Michigan, which won the Mid-American Conference tournament title, is led by senior guard David Brown, who averages 19.4 points per game.
The Orange will enter the NCAAs with shaken confidence after a quick ouster from its first ACC Tournament after the conference shift from the Big East, beaten on Friday by North Carolina State.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, insisting he’s not alarmed by his team’s slump, compared this year’s team to last year’s group that advanced to the Final Four despite losing four of its last five regular-season games.
“I’m as confident in this team going into this tournament right now as I was last year,’’ Boeheim said Sunday night.
Still, there are doubts nationally about Syracuse.
“Which Syracuse is going to show up?” CBS Sports analyst Doug Gottlieb said Sunday, echoing the sentiments of most ardent Syracuse followers. “The one over the last month or the one over the previous four months?”
Syracuse, once believed to be a possible No. 1 overall seed, enters the tournament looking like a flawed team, its weaknesses standing out like warts since the 25-game winning streak was halted by Boston College on Feb. 19 at the Carrier Dome.
Now the team’s suspect offense — ranked 10th in the ACC in scoring, field-goal percentage and 3-point shooting percentage and coming off a 32 percent shooting performance against N.C. State — looks like a major liability.
Boeheim insisted he is not concerned with his team’s offensive struggles.
“I’m confident with our team,’’ he said. “We’ve won with our offense a lot of games. Twenty seven [wins] is as many as we usually win around here. We’ve been to the Final Four a few times. We’ve been to the Sweet Sixteen 16 or 17 times and we hadn’t won 27 games in too many of those years.
“Most years you go into [the NCAA Tournament], you’ve lost in your conference tournament. The last two times we won the conference tournament, we lost in the first-round game. I don’t know if playing in your conference tournament is all that indicative. You never know.
“I’ve seen many teams who have played poorly in their conference tournament and have gone on to play well in the NCAA. Villanova did that and won it one year. It’s how you play starting this week. I’m very confident in the way we’ve played overall the last couple games.’’