Eamonn Brennan

[OrangeTown]

Of course it was only a matter of time before these started rolling in:

Brennan on places to be this week:

Raleigh, N.C. (Syracuse at NC State): Hallelujah, hallelujah -- Jim Boeheim's team is finally going on the road. The Orange have yet to leave the state of New York this season, so it will be interesting to see how they handle a game they should win, but one whose location presents distinct challenges this particular team has yet to face.

 

[dasher]

Well, it is true.

 

[Noexcuse]

Well, it is true.

Haven't really heard much about this so far this year. Must have been other things for the national press to talk about. Looks like we can start getting back to business as usual.

 

[BleedsOrange44]

The thing that is frustrating, is we played in an early season tournament. It's not our fault it was held in MSG. ESPN scheduled it in MSG. Also, the problem is so many view MSG as next door to the Carrier Dome. It's over 4 hours away. Yes we have a lot of fans there, but let's not pretend it's 95% Syracuse fans. The building had A LOT of empty seats in it. Both opposing teams had the chance to have a significant crowd there, and failed to do so. Also not our issue.

ESPN also scheduled our game in the Big East/SEC challenge. It happened to be at home. Last year, it was on the road.

So ESPN pundits criticizing us for this can blame themselves. Look at our non-conference schedule. We are playing a couple good mid-majors (Marshall, Tulane), played a top 10 team (Florida), played in an early season tournament, and are playing a road game against an ACC opponent. What more do you want?

 

[OrangeTown]

Well, it is true.

Well thought out reply. I didn't say it wasn't, but after a while it gets old. Everyone who is a college hoops fan knows that this is how almost all upper tier schools schedule the starts to their season.

UNC: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Kentucky, don't leave home again until January 14th at Florida State (17 games)

Duke: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Ohio State, then home again until January 4th.

Kentucky: First 8 games at home, 1 game at Indiana, then home again until January 11th (15 games)

Louisville: They don't leave Kentucky until 2012, other than one game at Butler.

So while it is technically true, I fail to see the point of the media announcing this every year. Maybe they do it for all teams, but I just don't see it since I'm a Cuse fan - I'm not sure.

 

[Noexcuse]

Well thought out reply. I didn't say it wasn't, but after a while it gets old. Everyone who is a college hoops fan knows that this is how almost all upper tier schools schedule the starts to their season.

UNC: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Kentucky, don't leave home again until January 14th at Florida State (17 games)

Duke: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Ohio State, then home again until January 4th.

Kentucky: First 8 games at home, 1 game at Indiana, then home again until January 11th (15 games)

Louisville: They don't leave Kentucky until 2012, other than one game at Butler.

So while it is technically true, I fail to see the point of the media announcing this every year. Maybe they do it for all teams, but I just don't see it since I'm a Cuse fan - I'm not sure.

Mid majors go on the road to be noticed. Top 10 teams tend to stay home as much as possible early and use their conference schedule to gain experience playing good teams in front of hostile crowds to get ready for the NCAA's. For some reason they love to point to Syracuse but like you say most major teams do this.

 

[cusetown1]

Start scheduling pro teams?

 

[shermstheman]

The thing that is frustrating, is we played in an early season tournament. It's not our fault it was held in MSG. ESPN scheduled it in MSG. Also, the problem is so many view MSG as next door to the Carrier Dome. It's over 4 hours away. Yes we have a lot of fans there, but let's not pretend it's 95% Syracuse fans. The building had A LOT of empty seats in it. Both opposing teams had the chance to have a significant crowd there, and failed to do so. Also not our issue.

ESPN also scheduled our game in the Big East/SEC challenge. It happened to be at home. Last year, it was on the road.

So ESPN pundits criticizing us for this can blame themselves. Look at our non-conference schedule. We are playing a couple good mid-majors (Marshall, Tulane), played a top 10 team (Florida), played in an early season tournament, and are playing a road game against an ACC opponent. What more do you want?

I'm sure we chose the MSG tourney because it was close to home. Though we may not have 95% of the fans in MSG it really is a home game. SU does get criticized unfairly for playing cupcakes- we play a similar schedule to most big time teams (not all though- Duke, Michigan State for two) both in the quality of opponents and the location. The schedule is good because the BE is going to beat you up, why play more killer games that could hurt your tourney chances?

 

[Knicks411]

Well thought out reply. I didn't say it wasn't, but after a while it gets old. Everyone who is a college hoops fan knows that this is how almost all upper tier schools schedule the starts to their season.

UNC: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Kentucky, don't leave home again until January 14th at Florida State (17 games)

Duke: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Ohio State, then home again until January 4th.

Kentucky: First 8 games at home, 1 game at Indiana, then home again until January 11th (15 games)

Louisville: They don't leave Kentucky until 2012, other than one game at Butler.

So while it is technically true, I fail to see the point of the media announcing this every year. Maybe they do it for all teams, but I just don't see it since I'm a Cuse fan - I'm not sure.

Some of these are way off.

Duke played Michigan State at MSG, Tennessee, Michigan, and Kansas in Maui, then at Ohio State. They also just played Washington at MSG.

UNC played Michigan State in San Diego, Unc Asheville at Ashveille (not much of a road game, I'm sure), South Carolina in Vegas, UNLV in Vegas, plus at Kentucky.

Ohio State and Louisville are much more fair; Ohio State hadn't even played a neutral site game until this weekend. Lville did play @Butler, as you point out.

But I don't know how you can say Duke played their first 7 games at home. Duke and UNC have played 9 home games between them. We've played 8 home games by ourselves.

So ESPN pundits criticizing us for this can blame themselves. Look at our non-conference schedule. We are playing a couple good mid-majors (Marshall, Tulane), played a top 10 team (Florida), played in an early season tournament, and are playing a road game against an ACC opponent. What more do you want?

I don't think Eamon Brennan is scheduling the BE/SEC challenge.

Tulane is 114th in the Pom Rankings. They don't look any good to me. They've won 1 game against someone in the top 250 of the Ken Pom rankings. They lost to Wofford! What more do I want? Would 2 road games against reasonable competition hurt?

Though hey, also part of it is the timing. If we had played @ NC State already, then we wouldn't be hearing this haven't played a road game stuff. And also yes, we kind of got hurt because the NIT teams weren't all that great. Schedule will look better if Stanford stays in the Ken pom top 20-25 all year. But right now, our schedule is ranked like 245 by Ken pom. It's bad.

 

[OrangeTown]

Gah - my bad, Knicks. In my haste of posting, I merely saw that they were listed as the home teams in those matches and failed to use my head to remember where they were played or note the asterisk stating "game played at a neutral location".

Thanks for pointing out my errors.

 

[Noexcuse]

Start scheduling pro teams?

As long as they are not at home ie. Carrier Dome, MSG, Jersey, Philly or DC. Throw in LA too because George Hicker lives there.

 

[pfister1]

Well thought out reply. I didn't say it wasn't, but after a while it gets old. Everyone who is a college hoops fan knows that this is how almost all upper tier schools schedule the starts to their season.

UNC: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Kentucky, don't leave home again until January 14th at Florida State (17 games)

Duke: First 7 games at home, 1 game at Ohio State, then home again until January 4th.

Kentucky: First 8 games at home, 1 game at Indiana, then home again until January 11th (15 games)

Louisville: They don't leave Kentucky until 2012, other than one game at Butler.

So while it is technically true, I fail to see the point of the media announcing this every year. Maybe they do it for all teams, but I just don't see it since I'm a Cuse fan - I'm not sure.

I am just happy they've returned to commenting on our lack of "true road" games and given up on the other issue that we will not speak of again.

 

[Knicks411]

I am just happy they've returned to commenting on our lack of away games and given up on the other issue that we will not speak of again.

Just wait until some more news on Sandusky comes out, and Dana O'Neil wants to deflect attention from that.

 

[armory]

Well, it is true.

It's true about a lot of teams, yet SU is always the only school to have it pointed out.

 

[OrangeFoo]

This could easily be resolved by scheduling one tough road game a year with one of the elite programs in the country like the other elites do. But we don't do that at Syracuse because JB doesn't really see the value in it which is his prerogative as head coach. Again this is one of those things that I hope changes when Hop takes over, I remember we used to play at least 2 tough non conference games a year, one at home one on the road. I'm not sure why we've gone away from it.

In the meanwhile it would nice if every Syracuse fan would just admit that we don't play a sexy, top heavy schedule so we're going to face comments like this every year. Why get worked up about them?

 

[DomeStranger]

That's why I don't care if the ACC isn't as strong as the BEC we can schedule better OOC games and make a better national brand and not worry as much about getting beat up in conference.

 

[Noexcuse]

This could easily be resolved by scheduling one tough road game a year with one of the elite programs in the country like the other elites do. But we don't do that at Syracuse because JB doesn't really see the value in it which is his prerogative as head coach. Again this is one of those things that I hope changes when Hop takes over, I remember we used to play at least 2 tough non conference games a year, one at home one on the road. I'm not sure why we've gone away from it.

In the meanwhile it would nice if every Syracuse fan would just admit that we don't play a sexy, top heavy schedule so we're going to face comments like this every year. Why get worked up about them?

OK, I admit it. And i'm not worked up about it. If I were SU, I would do something like this but only if its broadcast on CBS.

 

[CorduroyG]

The best was last year when our first 2 big east road games happened to be at seton hall and at st johns at msg. Even though we had zero control over that, the media still ran with the "syracuse wont leave new york/new jersey until mid january" or whatever it was. Plus you had the tourny in atlantic city, and michigan st at msg. Last year was a perfect storm for this stuff. Somehow boardwalk hall in atlantic city, msg, and the prudential center in newark were all home courts for us lol

 

[Knicks411]

The best was last year when our first 2 big east road games happened to be at seton hall and at st johns at msg. Even though we had zero control over that, the media still ran with the "syracuse wont leave new york/new jersey until mid january" or whatever it was. Plus you had the tourny in atlantic city, and michigan st at msg. Last year was a perfect storm for this stuff. Somehow boardwalk hall in atlantic city, msg, and the prudential center in newark were all home courts for us lol

Last year was a perfect storm, and it is the kind of lazy reporting which is annoying, and like you said, we did have no control over the BE schedule, but it's also true that if we had scheduled a road game in November or December, they couldn't have said anything.

But the AC thing is hilarious to me. AC is about 315 miles away from Syracuse. (Surprised, would've thought it was more). Cleveland is about 335 miles away, so basically the same amount. If we had played a game in Cleveland, I don't think anyone would be saying how we had the home court advantage or whatever. At least with MSG, you can get on the not leaving the state thing (which can still be stupid; 250 miles is pretty far; it just so happens NY is a pretty big state) but even so, you'd think SU is some huge state school or something from the way some people talk. We do have a lot of fans in NYC, but it's not like we sell out every time we go to the garden or something. Duke probably has as much of a presence at the garden as we do, or close enough.

 

[pfister1]

Well we are New York's College Team....so maybe we've brought a little bit of it upon ourselves.

 

[CorduroyG]

Last year was a perfect storm, and it is the kind of lazy reporting which is annoying, and like you said, we did have no control over the BE schedule, but it's also true that if we had scheduled a road game in November or December, they couldn't have said anything.

THen they would have spun it this way: "syracuse only leaves new york/new jersey 1 time until mid january." Thats my issue, the media always takes unfair shots at our schedule every chance they get, they dont do this for other teams. We play a road game and we get a sarcastic "hallelujah hallelujah" from eamonn brennon. But its against north carolina state instead of north carolina so espn throws in a "no high profile games coming up." The perception is all we play is cupcakes at the dome in nov/dec, and thats not true. And then when we play a good team or a good schedule we get sarcastic comments like its about time, or it doesnt count cuz its at msg, or the bcs team we're playing isnt good enough or "high profile" enough lol

 

[dollarbill44]

We get killed in the media every year. If we go to Atlantic City and Philly, they modify the statement to say that we don't leave the NY metropolitan area, even though AC is not in the NY metro area.

The fact is that we have the largest on-campus arena and teams want to play there. The BE/SEC game will most likely always be played in the Dome because they are assured the biggest crowd. The cupcake teams all want to play in the Dome for the exposure and the $. Compare 15k in a huge arena vs 1,000 in what basically amounts to a HS gym. Not many schools can match that.

I would like to see SU go with a different early season tourney than playing in MSG every year.

 

[dollarbill44]

THen they would have spun it this way: "syracuse only leaves new york/new jersey 1 time until mid january." Thats my issue, the media always takes unfair shots at our schedule every chance they get, they dont do this for other teams. We play a road game and we get a sarcastic "hallelujah hallelujah" from eamonn brennon. But its against north carolina state instead of north carolina so espn throws in a "no high profile games coming up." The perception is all we play is cupcakes at the dome in nov/dec, and thats not true. And then when we play a good team or a good schedule we get sarcastic comments like its about time, or it doesnt count cuz its at msg, or the bcs team we're playing isnt good enough or "high profile" enough lol

This is true. When SU plays in MSG, we get lampooned, yet when Duke plays in Richmond, it's a road game, even though there are at least 50% Duke fans attending and it's only 2 hours from Durham.

 

[bnoro]

Can't wait for a break from this in 2 years when we start in Maui.

 

[CorduroyG]

Can't wait for a break from this **** in 2 years when we start in Maui.

All the teams will probably suck and we'll get no credit for it. Plus theyre not "true road games" lol