Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - The Syracuse Orange Mens Basketball team were awarded the final No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and will play against 16th seed Vermont the West region in the NCAA tournament.
Syracuse (28-4) will open the tournament Friday at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, NY, a 2½-hour drive away. The game is slated to start at 9:40pm. Vermont (25-9) was the team to upset the Syracuse Orange in the 2004 NCAA Tournament in the first round.
Vermont, champions of the America East Conference, beat Syracuse 60-57 in overtime in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament, a stinging loss the Orange have not forgotten. Syracuse had finished the 2004-05 regular season at 24-6 and captured the Big East tournament title before losing to the Catamounts.
"When I saw that name pop up, it fired me up a little bit," said fifth-year senior Andy Rautins, who grew up in Syracuse. "I think everybody around Syracuse took that loss to heart. It's definitely going to be a payback game."
Cornell heads to Jacksonville; faces Temple
Cornell is heading to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in as many years.
The three-time defending Atlantic 10 tournament champion Temple Owls will play No. 12 seed Cornell (27-4) in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament. The first-round game will be played Friday afternoon at 12:30pm in Jacksonville, FL.
The Owls (29-5) have won 10 straight games, shared the A-10 regular season championship with Xavier and beat Richmond 56-52 earlier Sunday to clinch another conference tourney title.
Cornell won the Ivy League championship.
Cornell coach Steve Donahue was an assistant and recruiting coordinator for 10 years under Temple coach Fran Dunphy at Penn. "I think this was a planned endeavor by the committee," Dunphy said. "They do some things to have this be a matchup. That's my sense."
The Temple-Cornell winner will play the winner of No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Wofford.
