The first day of March madness has not been disappointing. We’ve seen upsets, close games, bad calls, and everything else you should expect when this time of year rolls around. Syracuse tips-off against San Diego State tonight at 9:40 inside Hinkle Fieldhouse:
Make sure you listen to the latest FizzCast to get up to speed on everything SU vs. SDSU:
Also, make sure to go check out my updates from days 1 and 2 here in Indianapolis.
For me, like many others, today has been all about the round of 64 games. Obviously, the Oral Roberts upset victory over Ohio State was electric but it wasn’t the only game that caught my eye. The absence of Moses Wright for Georgia Tech was clearly make or break. Loyola-Chicago is a tough team to beat, and even tougher team when you’re missing the ACC player of the year. I didn’t expect the ACC champions to go down that early, they weren’t the only ACC team to fall though. Virginia Tech couldn’t hold together in overtime, the 10th seeded Hokies fell to Florida. I think Virginia Tech was a team many were picking to pull an upset there, alas they fall in the first round. That leaves Syracuse, North Carolina, Florida State, and Clemson as the only ACC teams left in the tournament
Let’s hope that this Syracuse game can be just exciting as some of those we’ve seen around the nation. There’s a lot to look for in this matchup. I’m extremely curious about the degree to which Orange fans travel. Hinkle Fieldhouse will be at 14% capacity. The historic building only fits 9,100 fans to begin with, during the pandemic the capacity limit brings that number down to 1,250 fans. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Orange faithful took up a good amount of those seats. We’ve seen it plenty in the past, imagine how helpful it would be for the team this season.
Also, what kind of impact will the injuries we’ve been hearing about have on the Orange tonight? Coach Boeheim has told us about Kadary Richmond’s problematic knee and Marek Dolezaj’s fractured finger, will those guys be able to play the same minutes at the same level as normal? Warm-ups should be fairly telling. Also, what kind of minutes will we see out of Jesse Edwards? Coach Boeheim mentioned he didn’t think Edwards had the confidence required to compete back in the ACC tournament, let’s hope things are turned around at this point for the Dutch big.
Tonight’s game is slated to tip-off at 9:40 EST, I’ll have you covered on Twitter at Orange Fizz and after the game with an immediate game reaction from myself and Gill Gross. Get excited, Syracuse has a real chance to do something special, it all starts in the round of 64.
