Forget about Syracuse as a villain. The Orange are the most improbable story of March Madness.

The cries of injustice were not limited to South Bend or Louisville or Southern California or the middle of Tennessee. When Syracuse’s logo popped up on screen during Selection Sunday, seemingly anyone with a stake in college basketball echoed a similar sentiment.

Syracuse did not deserve to be in the NCAA tournament. But of course they made it.

Syracuse finished 11th in its own conference during the regular season, ending ACC play at just 9-11. It went 4-6 on the road and 7-11 against Quadrant 1 and 2 teams, the metrics that were supposedly going to make or break a team’s NCAA tournament chances. Its best nonconference win was against ... Maryland? Buffalo?

Still, there were the Orange, deemed the last team to make the NCAA tournament field on the official seed list. This all felt so familiar. It happened two years ago as well, when Syracuse grabbed a bid with the lowest RPI ever for an at-large team. You know how that story ended.

Back in 2016, Syracuse beat Dayton, then Middle Tennessee (after it pulled one of the tournament’s biggest upsets ever), then Gonzaga. It trailed Virginia by 16 points at halftime in the Elite Eight. It came back to stun the ‘Hoos and punch the most unlikely Final Four ticket of Jim Boeheim’s career as a No. 10 seed.

Now the Orange are back again, winning three games in five days to burst into the second weekend of the tournament to the shock of everyone, and the horror of most.

Syracuse is easy to dislike. Boeheim is combative and bad tempered, taking aim at his own players and media with equal disdain. The zone defense is as infuriating to watch as it is play against. This team’s offense is terrible. Would Syracuse even have gotten a bid if it weren’t a power conference school with a huge fanbase that never hesitates to travel to games?

Syracuse probably shouldn’t have been in the tournament in the first place and definitely shouldn’t still be playing in the Sweet 16. It’s considered the worst team still alive by KenPom, ranking No. 44 in the country. Vegas odds have ‘Cuse as a bigger national title longshot than Loyola-Chicago. No other team has scored fewer than 60 points and won a game in this NCAA tournament. Syracuse has done it three straight times.

All of it only makes what the Orange have been able to accomplish even more astonishing. Syracuse is reviled and unwatchable and deeply flawed. It’s also kind of amazing what a team with basically seven scholarship players has been able to do so far.

Syracuse knew it was going to be shorthanded this season because of the sanctions from the Fab Melo scandal. It didn’t know it would be forced to play a former walk-on in the last seven minutes of an NCAA tournament game.

Taurean Thompson was supposed to be one of two returning starters for Syracuse this season. Instead, he decided to transfer in late August, when it was too late for the program to find anyone to take his spot. Syracuse lost another player when grad transfer Geno Thorpe left the team on Dec. 1.

Suddenly, Boeheim was down to seven players. As freshman center Bourama Sidibe and sophomore forward Matthew Moyer nursed injuries, ‘Cuse essentially rode its starters the entire season.

How thin is Syracuse this year? It has three players in the top-10 of the country in percentage of the team’s minutes played. One of them, sophomore guard Tyus Battle, was averaging over 40.2 minutes per game in conference play deep into the year. College basketball games are only 40 minutes long.

This is how Braedon Bayer found himself on the court to close a game against Michigan State in the round of 32. Bayer transferred from DIII Grinnell College in Iowa — yes, that Grinnell College — and took a walk-on spot. When Thorpe left the team, ‘Cuse gave him a scholarship. He still played only 17 minutes the whole year before Boeheim called on him for the final seven minutes against MSU after Franklin Howard fouled out.

Syracuse had no business winning that game. This was arguably the most talented Michigan State team of Tom Izzo’s career, complete with two lottery picks and four- and five-star depth throughout the roster. It still had no answer for the 2-3 zone. Izzo was so flustered he took his most talented player off the floor in favor of a sixth-year senior who averaged 0.6 points per game this season. Syracuse’s zone has that affect on people.

Now Syracuse is back in the second weekend with a run even more improbable than the one from 2016. That team had two first round draft picks in Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon. This team barely has enough players to finish an NCAA tournament game.

What Syracuse does have is a group of ironman starters with the length, quickness, and discipline to make this zone a nightmare to deal with. For as poor as the offense has been, the defense is up to No. 5 in the country in efficiency.

At this point, it’s impossible not to respect the work this small rotation of players has done. Howard and Battle are both active, long-armed guards and Oshae Brissett is a quick 6’8 forward with a 6’11 wingspan. Those three players never come off the floor. Slovakian freshman forward Marek Dolezaj and 7’2 center Paschal Chukwu rarely do, either. Scoring is an immense struggle because of a glaring lack of shooting — ‘Cuse hits just 31.8 percent of its threes as a team — but this group is so effective with its zone that it still has a shot to compete against anyone.

Nothing about Syracuse is fun, but it’s all sort of remarkable. This team should have no shot against Duke on Friday. Of course it shouldn’t.