As I sit here attempting to type this, I can’t help but keep squirming in my seat. Energy still courses through my veins. A smile persists, seemingly cemented on my face.
My hometown team did it. The Syracuse Orange are going to the Final Four.
Every sports fan knows the feeling of absolute joy you get when your team wins, though I doubt many have felt it how I do now. This Syracuse team wasn’t supposed to make the NCAA Tournament. They weren’t supposed to be here. Fans from all other bubble teams fumed upon their admittance to the NCAA Tournament, and the Gamecock nation as a whole was distraught. The questions were raised: How does a team with under 20 wins on the season make it? How does a team with a losing record within their conference get selected? What in the world was the NCAA Selection Committee thinking?
Now all those questions have been more than answered not with words, but with performance. The Syracuse 2-3 zone, its staple, has been legendary. But it isn’t just the zone that has gotten the Orange where they are, but an un-Boeheim-like full court press. The combination of the two has made a mockery of the four teams that have faced it. Dayton and Middle Tennessee State, both very ample teams on the offensive end, were held, respectively, to just 32 percent and 29 percent from the field. Gonzaga was able to shoot relatively decent from the field against the defense but was forced into an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers. And my oh my, Virginia just collapsed.
No one could have predicted this run from the Orange. Admittedly, I only predicted the Orange going to the Elite Eight, and even that everyone called me crazy for. But the energy, emotion and maturity that this Syracuse team has brought to this tournament is unprecedented, both for the team this season and arguably of any team in tournament history.
Coming into the Virginia game, there were still whispers that this Syracuse team did not deserve to be where they are. There was talk that they had had the easiest path to the Elite Eight ever. And still there was the constant critic piping in after every success that they shouldn’t even be in the tournament at all.
Yet with a 29-8 run to bring home the victory against the No. 1-seeded Virginia Cavaliers, all the critics have been silenced, and all the praise for the Orange has become louder.
Upon the final whistle announcing Syracuse's trip to the Final Four, I called my family back home. Through eyes set damp with tears of joy, we talked over one another — words of happiness dwarfed by even louder words of happiness. Nearing the end of the phone call, with all of us needing to stop talking to hear the postgame interviews, my mom slipped in one last statement.
She said, “Abe, I hope this isn’t the highlight of your life.”
I responded with silence, not wanting to disappoint my mother. Not wanting to admit that every moment in my life so far had been trumped by this. So with a final “Go ‘Cuse!” I hung up the phone, smile still cemented on my face, reveling in the happiest night of my life.