Syracuse basketball, hopefully, will make it to Indiana for 2021 Big Dance

The NCAA details the 2021 tourney for Syracuse basketball and other possible participants.

Syracuse basketball fans have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Indiana – the team, that is.

The Hoosiers broke our collective hearts in 1987, as a late score by Keith Smart won the NCAA championship for Indiana over the Orange.

Then again, ever since, the ‘Cuse has gotten back at the Hoosiers on multiple occasions, including a Sweet 16 upset of No. 1 seed Indiana in 2013, during a run that took the fourth-seeded Orange all the way to the Final Four.

Now, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic in what has proven a topsy-turvy 2020-21 campaign to date, Syracuse basketball, if it wants to make some noise in this spring’s March Madness, will have to do so in the state of Indiana.

We reported in mid-November that NCAA officials planned to hold the 2021 Big Dance in a single geographic area given the pandemic. The NCAA has revealed further details of what the next March Madness will look like.

The entire 2021 men’s basketball tourney will occur in the state of Indiana, with most of the tournament’s 67 games taking place in Indianapolis, per a release from the NCAA.

Selection Sunday, which hopefully will prove a happy occasion for Syracuse basketball fanatics, remains as scheduled for March 14, with the Final Four slated for April 3 and 5. Specific preliminary-round dates are TBD, the NCAA says.

Those hosting the 2021 Big Dance are Ball State, Butler (yuck), the Horizon League, Indiana (yuck again), Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Purdue. Additionally, the Indiana Convention Center will serve as a practice facility.

The NCAA announcement notes that “CBS Sports and Turner Sports will continue to distribute all 67 games of the tournament across TBS, CBS, TNT, truTV and their digital platforms.”

NCAA officials say they are monitoring the pandemic and will work with local leaders to determine whether it’s feasible to have fans in the stands, although the media statement does say that “a limited number of family members of each participating team’s student-athletes and coaches will be permitted to attend their team’s games.”

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, acknowledges that holding this year’s tournament will prove “complicated and difficult; there’s no question about that.”

He adds, though, that everyone involved in the 2021 March Madness “will all pull together and stage a terrific national championship.”

The health and safety of the players, coaches, staff members and others who will be at this event are all that really matters, but naturally, we’re hoping that Syracuse basketball gets to suit up in the 2021 Big Dance.