Omaha, Neb. -- Despite the end of a remarkable season, the Syracuse locker room was not filled with the sadness that accompanies most after the final loss of the NCAA Tournament.
There were no happy faces after the 69-65 loss to Duke on Friday night. But there were also no red eyes, no tear-streamed cheeks, no players fumbling for words and trying to make sense of the sudden conclusion of their college careers.
The odds had been stacked up against the Orange from the start, first by Taurean Thompson and then Geno Thorpe leaving with little explanation, and by Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon excelling sooner than expected and heading to the NBA, and likely most critically of all, by the NCAA scholarship restrictions that eliminated the margin of error for dealing with those unexpected situations.