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Breaking: Fab Melo to miss tourney

Syracuse has announced 7-foot center Fab Melo, the anchor of the Orangeman's 2-3 zone defense, is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. Holy cow! Talk about a blow to your chances! Maybe that whole "16 seed never beat a one seed" could come to an end this year! Just kidding about that ... but the second round does start to look like a bad gig for the 'Cuse.

Related: Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, SB Nation's Syracuse Orange blog

Reportedly, Melo's ineligibility stems from academic issues related to the three-game suspension he received earlier in the year (Syracuse lost its only regular season game while Melo sat).

After a report, based on four sources, that Syracuse has been hiding positive drug tests going back 10 years, Melo's ineligibility is just more terrible news for Jim Boeheim and his ball club. Now, Vanderbilt over Syracuse, a trendy bracket pick before this announcement, suddenly becomes a scenario much more likely to come to fruition.