Students sat in a makeshift student section, composed of dining room chairs, couches and patio furniture, in the attic of 823 Ackerman Ave. to cheer on the Orange during its NCAA game against Ohio State University.

The game was projected onto a large screen in the attic, which the residents previously put outside in their yard during the Syracuse game against Wisconsin.

‘Our philosophy is, ‘You can never go over the top,” said Kyle Rapone, a senior television, radio and film major, and resident of the Ackerman house that hosted the approximately 20-person viewing party.

He and his roommates rented the screen and projector to put outside Thursday, during a streak of nice weather. ‘We figured, why not?’ Rapone said. More than 40 students gathered in the yard to watch the game that day.

Students clung to the hope that the Orange would eventually pull out a win as the Syracuse University men’s basketball team struggled to keep up with the Buckeyes Saturday night.

The energy in the room was as electric as the Christmas lights strung across the ceiling. Students sat closely together, clapping, shouting and chanting ‘Whose house?!’ and ‘Let’s go Orange!’

But that energy soon changed.

Following the Orange’s Elite Eight loss, the cheers faded to sighs. The once clapping hands held hung heads as students sat in complete silence.

‘It sucks,’ said senior advertising major Jed Greenwald. ‘I think that the odds have been stacked against us the whole tournament, everyone’s been out to get us.’

Slowly, the students made their way downstairs and outside. At another house, a group of students stood around a small campfire, burning Wicker furniture.

‘It’s the first time I’ve ever cried about sports in my life,’ said Jacqui Kenyon, a senior magazine and geography major.

Kenyon said although the loss hurt, she thinks the team played well, and fought hard through all the adversity it’s faced this year, including the Bernie Fine scandal and the disqualification of sophomore center Fab Melo.

‘I still love them just as much as I did before this game,’ Kenyon said.

The same could be said for Drew Shields, a senior advertising and international relations major. Shields said one key trait about the Orange is that there is no one star player, but rather, multiple players who are all very good.

‘I think we demonstrated that tonight,’ he said. ‘The fact that we’ve at least gotten this far … we can grow then, into something bigger.’

Shields said he thinks the team was consistently strong this season, despite the difficult situations it faced. He said the stress of the Fine scandal, mixed with the pressure and expectation to win, probably weighed down on the players.

But ultimately, Shields said, it isn’t about the number of trophies a team wins. He said he is happy just knowing that when people think of Syracuse, they think of basketball.

Said Shields: ‘I’m still proud to go to a school where we go far in the tournament.’

snbouvia@syr.edu

Published on March 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia