CHICAGO — About an hour before the Syracuse men’s basketball team took the floor for its game against Virginia, the university’s women’s basketball players were climbing a ladder to cut down the net.
It seemed like such good fun that the men followed suit.
On the same day that the Syracuse reached the N.C.A.A. women’s Final Four by beating Tennessee, the men did the same by overcoming a 14-point first-half deficit to take out No. 1 Virginia, 68-62, in the Midwest Regional final.
A spot in the men’s final four was not what many college basketball fans expected for Syracuse, but the Orange defied their skeptics and rode a No.