Syracuse men’s basketball: Orange vs Texas in 2nd round of 21st Century March Madness 3v3

With the college basketball season less than three months away, the March Madness social media accounts decided to give people something to talk about. Enter the 21st Century 3v3 bracket, where Syracuse along with 63 other schools have been put in a bracket to decide which has the best three-man team.

Here is how the bracket works. These 64 colleges had their 3v3 teams selected by NCAA Analyst (and #DisloyalIdiot) Andy Katz, who then seeded the teams accordingly. Every round is voted on by the general public across various social media platforms, those being X,Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

The Orange are comprised of the three leading scorers from the 2002-03 championship roster, and they slot in as a two seed amongst the field. Gerry McNamara, the newest head coach of the men’s basketball squad is the first member of this trio, and he was all-tournament team during that title run. The next member is Hakim Warrick, the lone big man representing the ‘Cuse. Warrick went on to be the 19th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, and he is not the only first round pick involved in this. The final member is Carmelo Anthony, who needs no introduction. Anthony is the star of this team, and he stacked up accolades in his lone year of college basketball. He was the third overall pick in the generational 2003 NBA Draft, and rounds out the representatives for Syracuse.

To get to where they are now, Syracuse took down former Big East rivals St. John’s in the first round in dominant fashion, the X poll wound up being 83.3% to 16.7% in favor of the Orangemen. That Red Storm team was made up of three talented players: Marcus Hatten, who led the Johnnies to a 2003 NIT Championship, D’Angelo Harrison, and the reigning Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor. All three are strong contenders, but they were no match for the Orange.

Seven-seeded Texas is the next opponent up in the second round, and they took down Xavier in the first round in a little closer of a matchup, winning their X poll 73.7% to 26.3%. The Longhorns boast a team of three top 10 draft picks: Kevin Durant, Lamarcus Aldridge, and TJ Ford. Now, to get involved in this and help move the ‘Cuse on to the next round, be on the lookout for the next polls involving Syracuse on the March Madness social media platforms (X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook).

(Ed. note: Thankfully for Royal Ivey he won’t have to worry about a repeat of this

This is certainly a good matchup, and one that would be amazing to see in person.