NCAA Tournament: What Syracuse can learn from recent first round upsets by 11-seeds

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty ImagesThe Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team is a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last five tournaments. And while it’s nice to squeak into the field with a questionable resume, we obviously want to win a game (or more!) while we’re there.

Doing so will require an upset of the 6-seed San Diego State Aztecs, which is no easy task. On top of SDSU’s relative strength, there’s also history on their side in terms of 11-versus-6 upsets in round one.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams, 11-seeds have won 37.1% of the time — a little less frequently than 10-seeds upset 7s, and a little more frequently than 12s upset…