sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to Ash Wednesday!
Ash Wednesday , a day of fasting, is the first day of Lent in Western Christianity. It occurs 46 days (40 fasting days, if the 6 Sundays, which are not days of fast, are excluded) before Easter and can fall as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday is observed by many Western Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists,Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics.[note 1][1]
According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan.[2] Lent originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter. Every Sunday was seen as a commemoration of the Sunday of Christ's resurrection and so as a feast day on which fasting was inappropriate. Accordingly, Christians fasted from Monday to Saturday (6 days) during 6 weeks and from Wednesday to Saturday (4 days) in the preceding week, thus making up the number of 40 days.[3]
SU News
On the Beat: SU Rides Hot Streak in Conference Play, FSU Preview (podcast; DO; Staff)
Since losing to No. 6 North Carolina on Jan. 9, Syracuse has won six of seven games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents. The Orange has supplanted itself right in the thick of the standings, and faces another conference foe in Florida State on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Daily Orange men’s basketball beat writers Jesse Dougherty and Matt Schneidman recap what’s unfolded thus far this season, and preview the home matchup for SU against the Seminoles. Follow along @DOSports for coverage of Thursday’s game and throughout the rest of this season.
What to Know About Florida State (DO; Schneidman)
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The Florida State report: On Monday’s ACC coaches’ teleconference, FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton stressed how challenging, yet rewarding, it’s been to mesh five first-year players into his rotation. Two of those, Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon, lead the Seminoles in scoring with 17.3 and 16.2 points per game, respectively. FSU is tied for fourth in the conference with 79 points scored per game and all nine of its rotation players see over 10 minutes per game with no player seeing over 30. Per Kenpom.com, the Seminoles’ average height is 78.9 inches, which is the third-highest in Division I. FSU center Bojanovsky is 7-foot-3 and will easily be taller than any player Syracuse has faced this season.
FSU favors the 2-pointer, with 54.8 percent of its points coming from inside the arc. That ranks 49th in the country according to Kenpom, while the percentage of its points coming from 3-pointers ranks 292nd in the nation. Six players on the team shoot over .500 from inside the arc, so the top of Syracuse’s zone will have to be as stout as it has as of late. The Seminoles are also the league’s fourth best defensive rebounding team and the recently flourishing offensive rebounding tandem of Tyler Roberson and Tyler Lydon will be put to the test against a team with seven players who snag more than three rebounds per game on average.
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Recruiting Roundup: Elite 2017 Prospect Hamidou Diallo to Visit Syracuse (the juice; Cheng)
Congratulations to former Syracuse star Chris McCullough, who made his NBA debut with the Brooklyn Nets last night after being away from action for 13 months. On to today’s recruiting links…
Hamidou Diallo’s high school coach tells Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters that the elite 2017 prospect will take an unofficial visit to Syracuse. He is the No. 15 prospect in At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.’s class, and holds offers from UConn, St. John’s and Maryland, among others.
Another elite guard in the 2017 class, Trevon Duval, sits down with Nate Bucsko from PrepCircuit.com for an interview. They talk about hoops, hobbies and standing out. Duval holds an offer from Syracuse, among many, many others.
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Bracketology Update: Syracuse is Coming Closer to Cementing Itself as an NCAA Tourney Team (orangefizz.net; Grossman)
Syracuse is sitting firmly on the bubble of the NCAA tournament and it is somewhat unfamiliar territory. Last season, Syracuse fans knew the Orange were not going dancing because the school self-imposed a post-season ban and the few years prior the Orange were comfortably in the tourney.
This year, every game is crucial and Orange fans are sure to be scoreboard and standings watching as the season comes down the home stretch. So, let’s take a look at where the “experts” see Syracuse in terms of the NCAA tournament ahead of a couple of big games this week.
Joe Lunardi, ESPN
The so-called bracketology guru releases his projected bracket with increasing frequency as the tournament approaches. His most recent bracket, published on February 8th, has Syracuse playing in a dreaded “First Four” game against Seton Hall in Dayton, Ohio to get into the field of 64. The winner of that game, according to Lunardi, would drop into the Midwest region and play Baylor as an 11 seed. The one seed in that region is Iowa.
Jerry Palm, CBS Sports
This projection is certainly more favorable to Syracuse as is slated as a 10 seed, avoiding the play-in game. The Orange would play South Carolina in the round of 64 and play the winner of Villanova and UNC Ashville and the next round. Palm has the Orange in the East region and like Lunardi, has Iowa as the one seed in their region.
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Kudos to Syracuse Alums for Helping Fix the Flint Water Crisis (atlanticcoastconfdential.com)
Eric Devendorf had some great on-the-court moments as a Syracuse Orange, as well as some questionable off-the-court moments. Most Syracuse fans “liked” Eric, but most opponents certainly did not. There was nothing about Devendorf’s on-the-court persona that endeared himself to others. But, Syracuse fan or otherwise, one has to be proud of what he (and other Syracuse alums) are doing to help Flint, Michigan, with its water crisis.
Look, there is nothing particularly notable about playing in a basketball game. That is what basketball players do. But Devendorf is also promoting the game–making stops on sports radio andpromoting the gofundme page. For a guy with a questionable reputation, good for him.
Kudos to Mookie Jones for also agreeing to participate. Frankly, kudos to ALL the former players who are donating their time and name (with ranges of value) to the cause. Mateen Cleaves and the other Michigan “Flint-stones” will certainly be a big draw too. Even Derrick Coleman and Mark Ingram (NFLer) will be participating. Let’s hope that the event is a success.
Naturally, if you want to help or donate, the above gofundme page is a good start.
ACC News
UL Basketball Scandal: The Only Question is Why (cardchronicle.com; Phelps)
I am Cardinal, like my father and mother before me. My father has it, my mother has it, my brother has it, I have it, and that same blind loyalty to everything red and black is in you too.
For 28 years I have been a card carrying fanatic for the University of Louisville, and since 2013 I have taken great pride in being an alumnus of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Until last Friday I had only ever felt shame, embarrassment, anger, and disgust with "my Cardinals" once. There was a bleak period from 2007-2009 where everyone, including the fans, were thrown under the bus to save a certain football coach known only as he who must not be named. The emotions and disbelief that overtook me Friday afternoon have continued as I bang away on this keyboard and are almost indescribable. The wrong decision was made, the wrong people are being punished, the wrong are being rewarded, and in the end, the only question is why.
As we have seen since news of the scandal broke in early October, voicing strong or offensive opinions behind a keyboard is an easy task. With that being said, let us discuss what we know thus far.
The investigation is nowhere near being completed and Rick Pitino has not conducted his formal interview with investigators. President Ramsey, along with his "committee" that is unrivaled by even the most skilled CIA or FBI agents, made an embarrassingly misguided decision by excluding Tom Jurich from the process. The men's basketball program is guilty of NCAA violations, but no one outside of a select few know the severity of these violations. Chuck Smrt, whose last name is dmb, has two degrees from Indiana University, worked for the NCAA for 17 years, and has had a very influential role throughout this process. Coach Pitino and Mangok Mathiang are the only two individuals currently associated with the program that are may be directly or indirectly involved with the allegations. Lastly, the wrong decision was made.
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UL Basketball Scandal Latest Broadside to ACC's Image (dailypress.com; Teel)
Commissioner John Swofford often touts the ACC’s history of NCAA compliance, trumpeting that has largely been appropriate. Not any longer.
What Swofford needs to do instead, if he hasn’t already, is gather league athletic directors and presidents in a room for an intense — occasionally profane, if that’s his style — lecture that could be summarized thusly:
Enough!
Now we all know athletic directors can’t monitor every head coach and booster 24/7, just as head coaches can’t similarly shadow every player, assistant coach and academic adviser. But what everyone in the conference with a shred of influence and/or integrity can do is double-down on sparing the ACC further embarrassment.
Because that’s what the last five years have been: an embarrassment.
The most recent offender is Louisville, which last week banished its men’s basketball team from the 2016 postseason. Self-imposing sanctions has become all the rage, the better to mollify the NCAA Committee on Infractions, but not when you’re a game out of first place in the ACC, coached by a Basketball Hall of Famer and capable of hanging the program’s fourth national-title banner.
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Other
Sacre Bleu! Frenchman Surfs on Lake Ontario in February (video; PS; Figura)
The wind was gusting at about 30 knots and the temperature hovered at just above 20 degrees. Waves 3 to 5 feet high were crashing along the ice-covered shoreline.
For Aurelien Bouche-Pillon, it was a good day to go surfing on Lake Ontario.
"I will tell you, when I surf there's usually nobody else out there and that's a very spiritual experience," said the 34-year-old Rochester resident.
Bouche-Pillon, a French national, is among a small, but growing group of hearty, hardcore surfers on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border that enjoy the waves on Lake Ontario and other Great Lakes year-round.
This year's mild winter has allowed Bouche-Pillon to get out on the water more than last year. "We have to do the best with what we have. The Upstate New York winter is beautiful," he said.`
The following are excerpts from an interview with Bouche-Pillon before and after he recently he surfed off the shore of Pultneyville, a small hamlet, just west of Sodus Bay:
I'm sure you hear this all the time from folks, but aren't you a little nuts surfing in the dead of winter?
"I understand their perspective and I say that anyone who is watching TV three hours a day is nuts."
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