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Syracuse Alumni Celebrating Team's Cinderella Final Four Run

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Local Syracuse alumni are all fired up with the team's improbable run to the Final Four.

The Orangemen, who many experts said had no business of playing in the tournament with a 19-13 record, came back from a 16-point deficit Sunday to upset number one seed Virginia 68-62.

Syracuse is two wins away from capping off their Cinderalla run with a national championship. This comes despite head coach Jim Boeheim getting suspended by the NCAA for nine games earlier this season, and losing five of six heading into the tournament.

There are over 50,000 Syracuse alumni in the tri-state area.

"I grew up in New Jersey. I worked in the city and they used to call it the 'Syracuse Mafia,' or 'The New House Mafia,' because every single job I've had is somehow connected to Syracuse," 1996 graduate Andrea Hughes-Baker of Hasbrouk Heights, who still has her Final Four ticket stub from 20 years ago, told CBS2's Otis Livingston.

Jarrell Hawkins, who graduated from the university in 2010, said his school is taking over the Big Apple.

"Wherever you go you see orange and blue, people up and down Sixth Avenue with their Syracuse jackets, their Syracuse hats," Hawkins said. "Wherever you go in the city, you see people reppin' the orange and hopefully that continues this weekend.

Jeremy Phillipson said alumni are on "cloud nine."

"It's not like we're a one seed or two seed, and expected to be here," the 2014 graduate said. "We're a 10 seed, we barely even got in and then we're kind of on this magical run."

Syracuse has gone from 300-1 odds to win it all before the tournament started to 10-1, still the longest of the four teams remaining.

North Carolina, their Final Four opponent, is the overwhelming favorite to become national champions.

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