sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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There are so many things to do in the cold, snowy weather… skiing, sledding,skating, building snowmen… but one of the best things is coming in from the cold to a nice warm fire and maybe a cup of hot cocoa.
No matter how warm you dress yourself, no matter how many layers of clothing you put on the cold always seems to find a way in. You can even get worse sun burns from the snow than you can in the middle of summer on the beach.
SU News
How Syracuse basketball is turning Marek Dolezaj into a shooter (PS; Ditota)
Marek Dolezaj took nine 3-point shots all of last season. The native of Slovakia, who is 6-foot-10, is the rare European big man who came to America without a reputation as a perimeter shooter.
Syracuse coaches wanted to change that. And not only because it would benefit the way teams defended the Orange. It would also benefit Dolezaj throughout his Syracuse career and beyond.
Dolezaj and SU assistant coach Adrian Autry have worked diligently since last summer to improve Dolezaj's range, his shooting mechanics and his confidence.
Here's how they've approached it:
Dolezaj grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. He and his dad, Milos, said throughout his early basketball career, Marek played mostly point guard, though he would occasionally drift to shooting guard or small forward.
He was so gifted athletically, he played with boys three years older. ("I'm 1998, I started playing with 1995.") Back then, he was the smallest player on his team, and because he was undersized and was skilled with the ball, he played point guard.
"I really played it all my life, point guard. When Coach (Adrian Autry) watched me play in European Championship, our first point guard could not play and I played point guard. I still know how to do it."
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Film review: The passes that led Oshae Brissett to compare Marek Dolezaj to Magic Johnson (DO; Heyen)
Marek Dolezaj’s Syracuse teammates have said throughout the season that when Dolezaj has the ball, they know to be ready. No matter how difficult the passing angle, the Slovakian sophomore might find them.
That was the case Saturday in Syracuse’s (13-5, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) win over Pittsburgh. Dolezaj racked up a season-high of five assists, all in the second half. He was most dangerous when positioned at the left elbow, and after the game, Dolezaj’s distribution led one teammate to compare him to an all-time great.
“He’s like Magic Johnson, honestly,” SU sophomore Oshae Brissett said. “He sees the floor. I don’t know how he does it. He knows where everybody is.”
Dolezaj doesn’t think much of his passing. To him, when a teammate is open, it’s his job to deliver the basketball on time and on target. Dolezaj practically shrugged when asked about his inch-perfect bounce pass to Brissett for a slam on the fast break — the play of the game against Clemson on Jan. 9.
He finished with four assists against the Tigers’ man-to-man defense, and when Pittsburgh played a similar brand of over-pursuing man-to-man, Dolezaj took advantage again. Three times, he picked out cutters from the left elbow, each of whom began their move when Dolezaj caught the ball.
“Marek made a couple good pressure passes, backdoor, to give us the lead,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.
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D.O. Sportscast: Experiencing Cameron Indoor during Syracuse’s upset win (DO; podcast; Staff)
Syracuse (13-5, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) secured a resume-boosting road win at No. 1 Duke last week, topping the Blue Devils, 95-91, in overtime. Paschal Chukwu totaled a career-high 18 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass, and blocked three shots in the victory. A few critical plays keyed the monumental upset.
Our beat writers, with host Josh Schafer, discuss details from the trip, including the outlook of the men’s basketball season after a set of wins.
Syracuse 74, Pittsburgh 63 — Three Things We Learned - The Juice Online (the juice; Blehar)
On Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome, Syracuse came away with a win against Pittsburgh, 74-63. Here are three takeaways from the game:
FREE THROWS MATTER
It was a game of runs as both teams got hot throughout the contest, the most noteworthy being Syracuse’s 22-4 run that gave it a 50-31 lead with 9:4 to go.
While the lead was never really in doubt in the final ten minutes, the Orange did struggle from the free throw line, going 12 for 23, an abysmal 52 percent.
Paschal Chukwu was one of the chief offenders, missing five free throws in the second half, including the front end of a one-and-one with just under eight minutes. Tyus Battle had a game-high 22, but uncharacteristically missed a pair of free throws late in the second half, as well.
“We cant miss 11 free throws and we’ve done that a couple of times this year,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “When you have a 12 or 14 point game, you have to make those down the stretch.”
This was a much needed win for Syracuse, as every game matters in ACC play. This easily could have been a trap game for the Orange coming off the drama filled win over No. 1 Duke on Monday.
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Syracuse Orange Nitty Gritty Report & Team Sheet 2019 College Basketball - WarrenNolan.com (warrennolan.com)
No. 11 North Carolina crushes No. 10 Virginia Tech in battle for top spot in ACC (wtkr.com; Brown)
Despite scoring 80-plus points in consecutive league games, the No. 10/8 Virginia Tech men’s basketball team fell on the road to No. 11/12 North Carolina 103-82 on Monday night at the Dean Smith Center.
North Carolina smothers Virginia Tech. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
The Hokies (15-3, 4-2 ACC) were led by four players in double figures, but the Tar Heels (15-4, 5-1) had five of their own with 10-plus points, including Coby White’s game-high 27 points.
Kerry Blackshear Jr. led the way on the offensive end for Tech, pulling down a career-high 17 rebounds, including 10 offensive, and pouring in 19 points. Ahmed Hill recorded a team-high 20 points, Nickeil Alexander-Walker owned 19 points and Justin Robinson posted 17 points.
Tech got off to a fast start, scoring 19 points in the first seven minutes of play, with 15 of those 19 points coming from downtown to gain an eight-point lead at 19-11. After the flurries from beyond the arc, Alexander-Walker earned his second foul with 10 minutes left and Robinson picked up his third foul with nine minutes remaining in the first half.
The guards would head to the bench in foul trouble, and the Tar Heels would proceed to go on a 27-9 run to take a 45-31 lead into halftime.
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Louisville Basketball: Cards continue taking care of business in ACC (bigredlouie.com; Thomas)
How have you guys been? I know I missed the Boston College game so we will do a two for one and cover that along with Georgia Tech massacre. Let us take a stroll down memory as we find the good, the bad, and ugly of Louisville Basketball week in ACC play.
While the ACC is currently the upside down with upsets galore every game, it’s been a big week for our Louisville basketball program. The talk has been since the preseason that Louisville would need to stockpile ACC wins by “taking care” of the Boston College’s, Wake Forest’s, and Miami’s and maybe “steal” one or two from Duke, Virginia, or UNC and they have already taken care of one of those “steals” in the beatdown of UNC.
I for one was not nervous about the Boston College game at all. All day I was chalking it up to an easy win, which is why I was immediately worried when Louisville came out sluggish and Boston College came to play.
Coming into the game, BC had no wins that made you think they were going to be the scrappy team they were, in fact the loss BC suffered to IUPUI had me thinking this was going to be a blowout. Luckily Jordan Nwora is a Cardinal and when he got it going to lead the comeback,it was contagious and the team starting playing together as a whole.
The Dwayne Sutton/Jordan Nwora combo cooled a bit in the second half and the large Louisville lead dwindled to single digits in the second half before the Cards pulled away and walked away with a double digit win. The win over Boston College has to show this Cards team that most nights in the ACC will be dogfights and they can never take their foot off gas when up big on a team.
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Another ACC Road Test Ahead In Atlanta - UND Athletics (und.com)
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IRISH BACK ON THE ROAD TO FACE GEORGIA TECH
The University of Notre Dame men's basketball team (11-7, 1-4 ACC) heads to Georgia Tech (10-8, 2-3) on Tueday evening looking for its first victory in McCamish Pavilion since the 2014-15 season.
The Irish are in the midst of a stretch of eight Atlantic Coast Conference games that feature five ranked teams - including three contests against top-10 ranked opponents.
MR. MOONEY ONE OF SIX MAJOR CONFERENCE PLAYERS AVERAGING A DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Junior forward John Mooney (dubbed Mr. Mooney by Notre Dame Basketball Radio Network Analyst Zach Hillesland) has posted back-to-back a monster efforts (16 pts, 19 reb at No. 13/15 North Carolina; 19 pts, 16 reb vs. No. 16/17 NC State) that have vaulted him into avearaging a double-double this season (14.0 ppg, 10.7 rpg).
Mooney joins Minnesota's Jordan Murphy (14.6 pts, 12.1 reb), Kansas' Dedric Lawson (18.9 pts, 10.7 reb), Wisconsin's Ethan Happ (19.8 pts, 10.3 reb), Maryland's Bruno Fernando (14.5 pts, 10.2 reb) and North Carolina's Luke Maye (14.4 pts, 10.0 reb) as the only major conference players averaging a double-double in 2018-19.
Add in Mooney's .538 field-goal percentage and the list of players averaging double-doubles and shooting over .535 from the field is trimmed to just Mooney, Happ and Fernando.
Add in Mooney's .425 three-point field goal percenage - and he becomes the only major conference player to average over 10 points, 10 rebounds, .535 FG% and .400 3FG% (minimum of 30 attempts).
MOONEY LEADS ACC IN DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Junior forward John Mooney has raised his level of play to an all-conference level in 2018-19 and currently leads the ACC in rebounding (10.4 per game) and in double-doubles (nine in 17 games played).
One of six major conference players averaging a double-double this season (14.0 ppg, 10.7 rpg), Mooney entered the season with 4.5 ppg and 3.3 rpg averages.
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ACC Basketball Power Rankings, Week 12: Duke switches up on UVA, Zion Williamson does it all, UNC finds offensive balance at Miami - ACCSports.com (accsports.com; Geisinger)
Basketball season is in full flight. Within the ACC, tiers start to emerge as every team has played at least four league games. The Duke-Virginia game on Saturday night was a gem, too. So without further adieu, let’s jump in on this week’s ACC Basketball Power Rankings.
No. 1 Duke
Even without point guard Tre Jones, Duke rebounded in Saturday’s marquee matchup with No. 4 Virginia — a thrilling 72-70 home victory. Duke squeezed its rotation, using just seven players. Jack White and R.J. Barrett played 40 minutes each; Zion Williamson nearly went the distance, too.
This game was all about Barrett and Williamson, who combined for 57 points (21-of-35 FGA), 25 free throw attempts, four assists and only four turnovers.
Brian Geisinger
@bgeis_bird
This exchange from Zion Williamson: my word. Grab-and-go rebound, ditches Jerome with an in-and-out crossover at top speed, to the finish over a 7-footer with his off hand. Wow.
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A winter storm that hammered through the nation delivered frigid temperatures and up to two feet of snow in Central New York over the weekend. Travel advisories were issued to limit driving on hazardous streets struggling to get clear. Video by N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com
Other
1927: Syracuse actress briefly fools all of Hollywood (PS; Croyle)
For a moment in 1927, a young woman from Syracuse had all of Hollywood, including one of its most famous filmmakers, Cecil B. DeMille, completely fooled.
But only for a moment.
Alma Jeanne Williams was born in Syracuse on July 12, 1908. She took dance lessons as a child and dreamed of a career on the stage.
In 1923, while attending Central High School, her friends mailed her photo to the editors of the Syracuse Herald for the newspaper’s annual Miss Syracuse contest. Being only 15 years old, she was too young to enter.
A year later, they tried again. This time she won.
“It was Alma Jeanne, the high school girl, who stood on the Wieting Opera stage that summer night, dressed in a ruffled organdie gown, her light brown hair curled in tight ringlets all over her head, her arms full of roses, to be presented for the first time as Miss Syracuse,” the Syracuse Herald remembered.
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