When Jim Boeheim returned from his suspension he took over his Syracuse team that had gone 4-5 in his hiatus only to take on arguably the nation's best team -- North Carolina -- in his first game back. Syracuse played a great game against UNC, but still fell short which moved the team to 10-7 on the season. At that point the conversation had shifted to Syracuse not even being an NIT team, let alone making the NCAA Tournament.
The college basketball season is long -- plenty of opportunity still exists and teams have certainly pulled of more bizarre things with the odds against them.