ATLANTA — Jim Boeheim spoke in a softened tone, just feet away from where his players sat stunned — some teary-eyed — as the realization that their season ended sank in. The Syracuse head coach admitted the loss was tough. He said it always hurts to lose.

Even if the odds were always against the Orange.

Here was a team that lost three starters from last season, had a point guard playing meaningful minutes for the first time, a forward who was ineligible for six games, two centers who struggled offensively for much of the year and lost four of the final five games of the regular season.

Despite all of that, the Orange made a run to the Final Four.

“I hope every team we have can go to the Final Four, but we’ve had 20 teams out of 37 that should’ve gotten there instead of this team, at least,” Boeheim said. “They’ve just done an incredible job.”

With a defense that looked unbeatable and an offense that clicked at the right time, Syracuse rolled over its opponents in the NCAA Tournament to earn a trip to the Final Four in Atlanta. Despite all of the challenges the Orange faced during the course of the season, it ended up in the Georgia Dome, one win away from playing in the national championship for the first time in 10 years. Syracuse came up short, but after a season like this, making it this far was an unexpected accomplishment.

After the Orange’s semifinal loss to Michigan, Boeheim said Syracuse had “limitations.” The Orange only had one guard off of the bench. Its centers, Baye Moussa Keita and Rakeem Christmas, struggled offensively. Syracuse’s better offensive center, DaJuan Coleman, is a freshman who needed the season to adjust to the college level, and missed eight games after having knee surgery.

Adding to all of that was James Southerland’s eligibility issue. The six games he missed left the Orange without its best shooter. Boeheim said Saturday that Syracuse has “one guy” who can shoot from the arc.

“We had ups and downs like a lot of teams do, but I think ours were a little crazier than other teams’,” guard Trevor Cooney said.

The Orange also didn’t have much veteran leadership, aside from senior Brandon Triche. Syracuse had a new point guard in Michael Carter-Williams, who had a tumultuous year of his own.

Carter-Williams, who played in 26 games and averaged 10.3 minutes last season, became Syracuse’s starting point guard this season. The 6-foot-6 Carter-Williams struggled to take care of the basketball at times, particularly against smaller guards. He finished the year with an average of 3.4 turnovers per game. He also had some forgettable matches, like when he missed eight free throws against Temple or scored only two points in SU’s loss to Michigan on Saturday.

But at times, Carter-Williams was spectacular. In Syracuse’s 61-50 win over Indiana in the Sweet 16, he scored 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting. For the whole NCAA Tournament, Carter-Williams shot 44.4 percent from the field.

Carter-Williams improved as the season wore on. And the more he improved, the more success Syracuse had.

“It’ll be a month that I’ll never forget,” Carter-Williams said. “I think we accomplished some really great things. A lot of people didn’t think we’d make it this far. We had high expectations for ourselves. We’re just real disappointed.”

Lasting through the entire season, though, was the inconsistency of Syracuse’s offense. While the Orange’s defense was always strong, its offense could never quite catch up.

In Syracuse’s 10 losses, the Orange shot 38.4 percent from the field and 26.4 percent from the arc. In Syracuse’s 30 wins, though, it shot 45.7 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from the perimeter.

“Our offense struggled this year,” Boeheim said. “The only game we lost where we played well on offense was at Marquette. That was the only game we lost where we played pretty well on offense.”

While Syracuse’s offense struggled, its defense was dominant, especially in the NCAA Tournament. Some of the best teams in the country, including Indiana and Marquette, looked completely lost against the Orange’s 2-3 zone defense — which became the hot topic of the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse’s opponents in the tournament shot only 31.1 percent from the field and 19.1 percent from the arc. But the Orange’s defense could only carry it so far before Michigan’s offense scored eight 3-pointers on Saturday — six in the first half — allow the Wolverines to move on to the national championship and send Syracuse home.

Still, the Orange made it to the Final Four after finishing the regular season 1-4 with a lackluster offense.

“Everybody kind of counted us out,” Cooney said. “We came together as a group and really believed in ourselves. No one picked us to be here, but we got here. It shows a lot about our team and the character we have.”

As he spoke quietly in a room off of the locker room Saturday, Boeheim said he didn’t discuss his team’s “limitations” during the season because he didn’t want it to look like he was giving himself credit. He said his players were the ones who made an improbable run to the Final Four possible.

With all of the challenges Syracuse encountered, the Orange’s season ended in a place few expected it to.

Said Boeheim: “What they’ve done, I think, is incredible.”

Published on April 9, 2013 at 12:35 am

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman