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Message: [QUOTE="CuseLegacy, post: 1720586, member: 469"] [URL]http://www.thearabtribune.com/articles/2016/03/30/sports/sports5.txt[/URL] When Steven Clark decided early last year to accept a scholarship to play football at Syracuse, he knew a little about the school’s reputation in basketball. It was one factor - albeit a very small one - that helped him decide to leave the South for the Northeast. On Sunday, he got a crash course in Orange basketball, and he loved every second of it - even if he did give up on the men’s team. Several of Clark’s teammates and new friends gathered at his apartment Sunday evening to watch Syracuse’s 10th-seeded men’s team play No. 1 seed Virginia in an Elite Eight game. Virginia controlled the game for nearly 30 minutes, so much so that Clark turned the channel. The Orange, which trailed by 16 at the half, was trailing by 15 at the time, 54-39. A few minutes later, Clark noticed on twitter that Syracuse had made a dent in Virginia’s lead. He quickly turned the channel - and just in time. Syracuse scored 25 of 29 points, including 15 in a row, delighting a campus and a Southern boy who’s starting to warm to life in the North. “It was wild,” Clark said Monday. “They were getting beat the entire game then they literally just took off. “That guy (Malachi Richardson) just went crazy.” Richardson went crazy and then some. The freshman scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half, and Syracuse extended its improbable run from the bubble to the Final Four in Houston with a 68-62 victory. Syracuse is the first No. 10 seed to reach the Final Four and the fourth double-digit seed to make it. It’s the lowest-seeded team to reach the Final Four since No. 11 VCU in 2011. To make the day even sweeter, the Syracuse women defeated Tennessee to also reach the Final Four. They’ll play Washington in one semifinal on Sunday. The Syracuse men will play the only No. 1 seed remaining in the tournament, North Carolina, in Saturday’s nightcap. The first game will pit Villanova against Oklahoma. Clark said as crazy as Sunday was, this coming weekend will be even more exciting to Syracuse fans. “It’s going to be really crazy here this weekend,” he said. “We play our spring game Saturday morning, then the basketball team plays the No. 1 team Saturday night. “Now, we have to do the same thing football.” As for football, Clark said this spring under new head coach Dino Babers has been eye-opening, to say the least. “It’s definitely different,” he said. “It’s a faster pace. We do a lot more running in practice. “That’s where the conditioning is done - in practice.” Special anniversary In celebration of the 50th anniversary, ESPN will present Texas Western’s historic victory in the 1966 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Championship Game at 6:30 p.m. today. The Miners’ 72-65 win against the Kentucky Wildcats became a watershed moment in sports history because it was the first time a college basketball team started five African-American players in the sport’s title game. “Making History: The 1966 NCAA Championship - Texas Western vs. Kentucky” is a 90-minute presentation featuring the audio call of Walt Sullivan and will contain every basket that took place inside Cole Field House in College Park, Md., on March 19, 1966. [/QUOTE]

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