Syracuse Basketball: Top 5 reasons Cuse can win National Championship

1. Defense

Defense wins championships folks. It’s a used and abused cliche, but it’s so damn true. Have you seen this Syracuse team offensively? It’s downright disturbing at times. This team struggles to score for long stretches.

You would’ve thought that could’ve eliminated SU in Dayton (it almost did), but what has kept this team in every game this season is their stifling defense. Sure it hasn’t been perfect, there’s been lapses and cracks in the armor. But for the majority of this season the 2-3 zone has confounded opponents every step of the way.

Especially in the March Madness tournament. In a span of five days, the Orange played three games against some of the best offenses in the country. They should’ve been fatigued with their limited depth and multiple games in such a short amount of time, but they weren’t. Or at least they were pretty good at hiding it.

Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History

With the patented 2-3 zone, Syracuse can quite literally beat any team in the country. Although with their offensive struggles they also have the potential to lose to any team in the tournament. The bittersweet thing about this tournament and the limited amount of time between games is that teams don’t have time to prepare for 2-3 zone. Even if they had the time, they couldn’t crack the code. SU can win the whole thing this year, you better realize that sooner rather than later.