NCAA Tournament: Sweet 16 Syracuse memories and open thread

The Syracuse Orange have made it to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen 24 times in program history. While the Orange won’t be adding to that list this season, we want to keep looking back on happier times.

Before we get to that, we want to update you on the TNIAAM bracket challenges. HighSocks 21 currently leads the men’s while TreyCuse leads the women’s bracket. A lot will change over the next four days so don’t give up yet.....unless you had the Purdue men and Stanford women.

Now let’s look at some of the better Syracuse Sweet Sixteen memories.

1987: Syracuse got 33 points from Rony Seikaly as they pushed past Florida 87-81. All of the Orange starters scored in double-figures as they got 87 without a single point off the bench.

1989: The underdog Orange rallied to beat Missouri 83-80 behind a combined 52 points from Sherman Douglas and Billy Owens. This squad might have been the most talented Syracuse team ever.

1996: This game had it all. First you had the incredible shot by Jason Cipolla to send the game to overtime. Then you had the final 20 seconds of overtime with three lead changes (and no timeouts) as John Wallace got five of his 30 points in this sequence. Pretty good time to hit his only 3 of the night and make up for not closing out in the corner on defense.

2003: If you weren’t watching Syracuse at this point in your life you are probably confused when you see the final score and wonder why it’s not talked about more often. It’s a game the Orange controlled from the start but Marquis Daniels kept scoring in the lane on his way to a game-high 27 points. Syracuse held on for a 79-78 win. Josh Pace scored 14 points off the bench which was another example of the contributions that team received from the bench during this run.

2012: Oddly the next time the Orange got a win in the Sweet 16 it was also a nail-biter. Syracuse held on to defeat Wisconsin 64-63 despite the Badgers shooting 14-27 from 3 in the game.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

2013: The following season brought about a much different defensive game. Syracuse had 11 steals and 11 blocks as they completely shut down the Indiana offense to win 61-50. Tom Crean wasn’t the same again.

2016: Interior defense and free-throw shooting saved Syracuse against Gonzaga. Tyler Lydon came off the bench to record 6 of the team’s 10 blocks and the Orange made 14-16 from the line in the 63-60 win. Mike Gbinije led the way with 20 points.

##################################################################################

Who do you like in this year’s Sweet 16?