Louisville -- Frank Howard is the longest-tenured player on the Syracuse basketball team.

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The junior guard is the only remaining link to the 2016 Final Four team. And he remembers all to well last year's failure to earn an NCAA tournament bid.

As this year's Orange staggered into Monday night's game at Louisville off back-to-back losses and its NCAA tournament hopes dimming, the Syracuse players, especially their most veteran leader, knew the gravity of the situation.

"No question,'' Howard said. "No matter what anyone says, we know the culture around Syracuse. That's championships. That's what the people want. That's what Coach Boeheim wants. He wants wins. That's what we come here for is to win. So we want to get back in that mindset.''

A Syracuse team perched on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble boosted its tournament resume with a 78-73 win over Louisville at the KFC Yum Center on Monday night.

"It's pretty huge,'' SU center Paschal Chukwu said. "Louisville's a good team. It's something that's going to help us get into the tournament. Coming off a loss against Virginia, we needed to win this game.''

In terms of an NCAA resume, this win was like a recent college grad nailing down their first job offer.

The win came against a Louisville team with an RPI of 26 and it came on the road.

"Not too many teams win on the road in the ACC,'' Syracuse guard Tyus Battle said. "Wins matter, but road wins, those are really key.''

The Orange played one of its best games of the year just 48 hours after slogging through one of its worst. On Saturday, Syracuse suffered a 59-44 loss to Virginia, the fewest points for the Orange in the 38-year history of the Carrier Dome.

"We just had a talk amongst one another,'' Howard said. "We just had to relax. We were too uptight. I think we were pressing.''

The win over Louisville raised Syracuse's record to 16-8 overall and 5-6 in the ACC.

"Every game is important for us,'' Battle said. "Louisville's a very good team, especially (playing them) on the road. Any ACC win is good. We've just got to keep stacking up these wins and making an NCAA push.''

In its three-plus years in the ACC, Louisville has the third-most home wins of any team in the conference. Over the last six years, Louisville was 41-9 at home in conference.

"It doesn't matter who you play, any road game is going to be hard,'' Brissett said. "It's a big win, especially coming after the last two losses that we had. I'm just glad that this team was able to pull through.''

Howard said the SU players could have let their hardships drag them down. The Orange has suffered defections -- Taurean Thompson's 11th-hour decision to transfer and Geno Thorpe's abrupt departure six games into the season -- and injuries. Howard Washington is done for the season, Bourama Sidibe hasn't played in two games and Matthew Moyer is just back from a sprained ankle.

Syracuse took the court Monday with just six healthy scholarship players.

"The adversity we've faced, that shows the true character of a team,'' Howard said. "I've been saying it all year. We're fighters. We've got a team full of soldiers. We're going to keep fighting until the end.''

The job is not done for the Orange. Syracuse has seven conference games remaining. The Louisville win was just a much-needed kick-start toward an NCAA bid.

"We need to get wins,'' SU coach Jim Boeheim said. "I told them after the (Virginia) game the other night, we have eight games left. Our season will be determined by what we do in these eight games.

"We've let a couple slip away (and) this makes up for some of those. Every game is going to be like this.

"We're going to have tough games every game now,'' Boeheim added. "This was a good start.''