Syracuse Upset in Big East Tournament; Will Georgetown ... - Associated Content

Syracuse Lost Their First Game of 2010 Big East Tournament to Rival Georgetown

Syracuse lost to Georgetown in the 2010 Big East Tournament, and with it may have lost a No. 1 seed in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Coming into the 2010 Big East Tournament, Syracuse had a 28-3 overall record and had won the Big East regular season title. They were ranked third in both the AP Top 25 and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Polls and looked almost assured of clinching a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a couple of Big East Tournament wins. Syracuse lost their first game of the tournament though, falling to Georgetown in a 91 to 84 Big East game on Thursday morning. Now many things will be called into question for Syracuse.

Syracuse played Georgetown really tough on Thursday, but they really needed to pull out a win against the No. 8 seeded Hoyas. Georgetown is a pretty good team on the whole, but they proved on Thursday just how tough the Big East Conference is this season. That alone may cost Syracuse the No. 1 seed in the NCAA brackets if several other schools win as expected. Right now the only two teams that seem guaranteed No. 1 seeds no matter how they do in their conference tournament are Kansas and Kentucky. That leaves two spots to go to presumably two different conference champions if the NCAA Selection Committee gets exactly what they want from the bids.

Right now there seems to be two schools that could steal the thunder from Syracuse, and they are Duke and Purdue. Duke is 26-5 during the season and Purdue is 26-4. With the loss to Georgetown, Syracuse falls to 28-4. Now comes the tricky part. If Duke wins the ACC Tournament, and Purdue wins the Big Ten Tournament, then both teams will be flying high, sitting on the cusp of 30 wins on the season, and will grab the attention of the Selection Committee. Getting hot at the end of the season typically gains favor in the selection process, and if the final thing on resumes is conference championship versus first game exits, Syracuse could be looking at a No. 2 seed. Now Syracuse fans definitely know which teams to root for as Championship Week continues.

References:

Syracuse-Georgetown Results

ACC Tournament

Big Ten Tournament

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