It took me a minute to think of what you meant by big 4 - hadn't heard that term in years. But if I remember correctly, there was only 1 ACC team in the tourney in some of those years, and 1976 was the year UVA won from last place. Then a few years later, they started increasing the field.
I think the deal with Syracuse is we're used to playing them in the ACC and solve their zone a little easier than teams who don't play against them but once every decade or so. UVA doesn't have much of a problem with their zone - they just had a problem with their press in the elite-8. And maybe that's why they've had such good tourney success. And for the record, I have nothing against Boeheim, maybe because I'm a curmudgeon too. He reminds me of Quintin Tarantino in interviews when he hears a question where he disagrees with the premise and can get bent out of shape. I was excited when they and VT joined the league, VT because I like VT and Syracuse because I could get to go watch Boeheim's teams play here every other year.
