Thanks to an upset performance from the St. John's Red Storm Saturday, the No. 2 Syracuse Orange men's basketball team has clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming Big East Conference men's basketball tournament March 6-10 at Madison Square Garden.
The Johnnies (13-16, 6-10) used 22 points from freshman guard Moe Harkless to hold off the Irish, 61-58. The loss made it mathematically impossible for Notre Dame (20-9, 12-4) to catch Syracuse for the top spot in the Big East standings, which currently feature the Marquette Golden Eagles (24-5, 13-3) in lone possession of second place. However, the Golden Eagles would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Orange, who defeated them 73-66 on Jan. 7, if they were to lose their remaining two regular-season games.
On Wednesday, Syracuse edged the South Florida Bulls, 56-48, to earn at least a share of the Big East regular-season title -- the Orange's 10th in program history, tying them for first in the league with UConn.
The Orange's first game in the Big East Tournament will be Thursday, March 8, at noon. Syracuse is the only Big East team to clinch a double-bye, while Marquette and Note Dame have clinched at least a first-round bye in the five-day, single-elimination event.
For more on the Big East Tournament schedule, bracket and seedings, check out this SB Nation New York StoryStream. For a preview of Saturday night's game between Syracuse and UConn, here's a link to that.
Check out, the SB Nation's blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician to discuss everything on the Orange. Make sure to follow along on Twitter at SBNationNY or JaredSmithCNY, as we live blogged from the Carrier Dome.