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Shortly before Coach Jim Boeheim cut down the net to celebrate a most improbable victory, he grabbed a microphone and noted to the assembled fans that he had just witnessed the best comeback in Syracuse’s long, rich basketball history.
Boeheim could have been talking about his own comeback from a nine-game suspension earlier in the season, during which the Orange stumbled to a 4-5 mark, and went 0-4 to open their Atlantic Coast Conference schedule.
He also could have been discussing Syracuse’s late-season swoon, when it lost five of its last six games before accepting a controversial No. 10 seed and a spot in the N.C.A.A. tournament, even with 13 losses.
But in a season in which Syracuse seemed to be left behind and labeled for elimination more than once, it crafted its best comeback of all, the one Boeheim was really talking about.
Trailing by 15 points with 9 minutes 32 seconds left in the game, Syracuse went on a blistering run to beat No. 1 Virginia, 68-62, in the Midwest Regional final at United Center and reach the Final Four for the fifth time under Boeheim. The Orange will play North Carolina in a national semifinal Saturday night in Houston.
“It’s the best comeback I’ve seen at Syracuse,” Boeheim said after the game. “I haven’t been there forever, but 56 years. It’s the best comeback we’ve ever had.”
Syracuse (23-13), which last made the Final Four in 2013, became the fourth double-digit seed to reach the Final Four and the first since 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in 2011.
But it would not have happened if Malachi Richardson had not shaken off a miserable first half to lead Syracuse with 23 points, 21 of them in the second half on 6-for-11 shooting, including three 3-pointers.
Richardson, the 6-foot-6 freshman from Trenton, N.J., had missed all five of his shots in the first half and appeared passive. In one sequence, he angered Boeheim by passing up a makable shot and then soon after by absent-mindedly stepping on the end line.
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