Welcome to the big boy bracket: No. 1 seed Indiana to face No. 4 Syracuse in NCAA East Region

WASHINGTON – Syracuse never really did show up the last time it played at the site of this week's NCAA tournament East Regional.

The Orange dropped their Big East regular-season finale here against Georgetown three weeks ago, scoring their fewest points in a half-century.

Since then, No. 4 seed Syracuse has won five of its last six games to join No. 1 Indiana — its opponent Thursday — plus No. 2 Miami and No. 3 Marquette to form the only group of 1-4 seeds left in any region this year.

It's only the 15th time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 — and first since 2009 — that the four highest seeded teams reached a region's semifinals, STATS LLC says.

No Florida Gulf Coasts in this crowd.