NCAA Tournament Preview: Syracuse

The best Syracuse team in 20 years enters the NCAA Tournament with high hopes as well as serious questions.

Here are the problems with SU:

1) Injuries: The quad injury to Arinze Onuaku and the hand injury of Wes Johnson cast serious doubt on the team's ability to play to their potential during this tournament. But Johnson's injury seems to be getting better and Onuaku's doesn't seem as bad as we first thought. And by the time the real competition picks up SU will have played only three games in 3 weeks.

2) The bench: You could either say SU has a great bench or a horrible one. The first two guys off the bench are better than some of the starters on most teams, including SU. But after that SU has nothing, no one who has played any meaningful minutes all season. If one player is hurt, foul trouble is likely, and no one else will be around to provide help.

3) The 2-3 zone: Syracuse's biggest weapon is also often its downfall. It often confuses teams that aren't used to it, especially not played with the aggressiveness of this year's team, but any good coach should be able to prepare his team for something he is guaranteed to see. Teams that get hot from outside or crash the offensive boards routinely tear up the zone.

Syracuse is definitely good enough to make it to the Final Four and challenge Kansas or Kentucky for the national title, or even win it all, but I actually have them going out to Kansas State in the Elite 8.