There is always that team in the NCAA Tournament that proves all the critics, including myself, wrong. Everyone said that Syracuse didn’t deserve to be in the tournament. There were 187 people who projected the bracket before Selection Sunday for the Bracket Matrix project – only 23 (12.2%) had the Orange in the tournament.

So, the Orange head to Dayton – and they take out Arizona State. Then, they shock TCU to make it to the round of 32. But surely a team that is averaging 58.5 points in those two games isn’t going to beat #3 seed, Michigan State. After all, the Spartans were 29-4 and one of the top 5 teams in the polls.

But this is March – and when the Spartans went up 48-43 on a Cassius Winston jumper with 5:43 in the game, it looked like the Spartans would stay ahead – after all points were hard to find in this ugly game.

Then, Michigan State missed their last 13 shots from the field, Syracuse’s Tyus Battle hit a jumper on a nice drive with 49 seconds to give the Orange a 3 point lead, and then we watched as the Spartans got tons of tries to tie the game to no prevail.

The last team invited to dance is still dancing. And should any of us be surprised – these are the kinds of things that happen in March.