Bracket Breakdown: Syracuse's Chances

Not Good!
I am usually pessimistic going into the NCAA Tournament, often with good reason, but I was actually kind of hopeful this year, until I saw the region SU got placed in.
Florida is the best team in the country based on performance, and if healthy Kansas is the best team in the country based on talent.
The odds of beating both those teams, or having one or both get knocked off before we get to them are very slim. I would feel a lot better about Syracuse's chances if the teams in their way were the caliber of Wichita State, Virginia, Villanova and Michigan.
The other problem, is that Syracuse just isn't playing very well right now. Starting with the Boston College game their team-wide shooting touch has gone south (Cooney especially) and the lack of scoring has been exacerbated by defensive lapses and the key injury to Grant.
Many SU fans hoping for a deep run point out that SU similarly stumbled at the end of last season, and rebounded to make the Final Four.
There is a key difference, SU won 3 games in last year's Big East Tournament, and zero in this year's ACC. I don't believe in momentum, but confidence does play a role, especially in shooting, and if you want to compare this year to last, you have to consider that.
Second, even if the two situations were identical, does that make this year's team more likely to get hot after a bad stretch just because last year's did? No.
Teams get hot, go cold, get hot again all the time. What they did last year has no impact on when and if this team will rediscover it's game.
That said, this team has two excellent players in Fair and Ennis and two good players in Grant and Cooney (if he's making shots). Combine them with Christmas and Baye Moussa-Keita as purely low-post defenders and this team should definitely beat Western Michigan and Ohio State.
After that who knows, but I don't like their chances.