Syracuse and Western Michigan are playing on the NCAA Tournament schedule on Thursday and the matchup comes at 2:45 pm ET and has the number three against a 14 seed and the Orange will be looking to advance and the matchup is streaming online from the March Madness website at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo.
Syracuse started the season 25-0 and they ended up losing to Boston College and then faltering down the stretch with other losses to Duke and Virginia and now they come into the tournament after a loss to NC State in the ACC conference tournament and they finished the regular season second overall in the conference behind champions Virginia. The Cavaliers and Syracuse played at the end of the season in a de-facto championship game for the regular season title and Virginia won and now they are a number one seed in the tournament this year.
Syracuse got a nice game from Tyler Ennis with 21 points and seven assists in the game against NC State and now they will rely on him and leading scorer CJ Fair to get things back on track. The team comes in scoring 68 points per game and they are shooting just 43 percent from the floor this season and the key for the team in the tournament is their defense, as they were ranked in the top 10 with just 59 points allowed per game and they come in averaging eight steals and five blocks per game as well and that could be huge in the game on Thursday.
The team finished the season losing five of the last seven games they played and one of those was to Duke and they are looking to make a run in the tournament as well and they are in the Midwest bracket and that has Michigan, Louisville and Wichita State. The east bracket has Villanova number two and Syracuse beat them earlier in the year and now the Orange are looking to get things right, as CJ Fair lost his last game at home as a senior and now he can help make up for it with a nice run in the postseason.
Many felt the Orange would be national title contenders after they started undefeated and now they have to show that they belong again and Fair comes in as the leading scorer for the season, while Ennis was second with 12 points behind the leading 16 for the year. Fair was second in rebounding and he was first for most of the year, while Ennis was tops in assists. The team now has the chance to make a nice run and they have Florida in the South and the bracket will have Pitt through with the way they are playing, while Kansas and New Mexico are looking to advance. Ohio State already lost and now the first game had the first upset of the tournament.
Check here for the Syracuse and Western Michigan game streaming online from the NCAA tournament.