Syracuse is the No. 10 seed that’s a rematch with No. 1 seed Virginia away from making the Final Four. The Orange’s 63-60 victory Friday against the Zags in the Midwest Region semifinal ensured that.

MORE: Top photos of Sweet 16  |  Blown call, pointless replay rules almost cost SU “I think everything you do all year long helps,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “I think everything that happens, happens for — to help make you a better team. We fought back many times this year."

In that pause, Boeheim could have said, “happens for a reason.” In Syracuse’s case, that reason is hard to define. Is this Elite Eight run awful? Or is it awesome? Awful is too easy. Unleash the snark attack. Point out Syracuse shouldn’t be here. Run down the obvious talking points.

Boeheim was suspended for nine ACC games and vacated 108 coaching victories. The Orange also lost 12 scholarships over four seasons as part of your everyday NCAA scandal. They got away with a self-imposed ban and basically put themselves on house arrest for last season.  

Take it to the next level. Syracuse entered the tournament with a 19-13 record that included a 9-9 record in ACC play. That’s one game better than Georgia Tech, which just fired head coach Brian Gregory.

But awesome is so much better. Embrace this as peak March Madness. Syracuse is Cinderella, even if it feels like one of those stepsisters finally put their oversized feet in the slipper instead. It’s so NCAA. Louisville and SMU are probably sitting around thinking, “Why didn’t we do this?”

Syracuse is that team you can root for or against, but you can’t go all-in either way. The Orange shouldn’t have made the tournament, but now they are “that” team that reeled off three tournament wins. Boeheim didn’t have a problem poking a little fun at the notion they are only here because No. 2 seed Michigan State is not.  

“I thought Dayton was pretty darned good until we beat them, and then all of a sudden they weren’t any good,” Boeheim said. “And then I thought Middle Tennessee was pretty good until we beat them, and then they weren’t any good. So I guess now Gonzaga probably won’t be any good tomorrow morning, but we really played well in this tournament.”

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Give credit to Syracuse’s players. They didn’t lose this one. Gonzaga covered that for them.

The Orange rallied from a 53-46 deficit in the last three minutes with the help of a full-blown Gonzaga meltdown. A blown inbounds play, a 10-second violation, missed free throws and cheap fouls all led to the Bulldogs’ undoing. Yet the Orange needed to escape after a blown out-of-bounds call gave Gonzaga the ball back before the final sequence with one last chance to win.

Lydon clinched the win, the last play in a series of big plays by the players in the final minutes. Trevor Cooney stole an inbounds pass and made a layup. Lydon hit a tip-in. By the time Michael Gbinije grabbed a rebound off his own miss for a layup and a 61-60 lead with 19.8 seconds left, the reality started to set in.

Boeheim made the right calls, too, including sliding the zone out a little farther to offset a long-range shooting display by Gonzaga’s Kyle Wiltjer. Boeheim can still coach. That timeless zone still has an impact. And Syracuse’s players continue to stick together through two years of turmoil filled with you-can’t-do-that’s.

Syracuse is simultaneously obnoxious and adorable. It is one step away from the Final Four, which would give the NCAA another week to question itself about whether it actually punished them at all.

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It sure didn’t feel like it in the aftermath. Malachi Richardson popped his jersey to the crowd. Otto the Orange airplaned down the United Center tunnel with screaming cheerleaders. And Boeheim fired away the one-liners in the postgame press conference, referring to Lydon’s block as the second-biggest block in Syracuse history. He didn’t want to offend Hakim Warrick.

Who cares about everybody else? Syracuse is playing another game.

You know what? It’s kind of awesome.

“It’s been a fun ride,” Cooney said. “Certain things have happened, but this group has stayed strong and we’re fortunate to have great coaches to lead us in the right way, and everyone has just come together.”