Orangeyes Daily Articles for Tuesday for Basketball

[sutomcat]

Welcome to I'm Not Going to Take it Anymore Day!

That's it, you've had enough, and today you are going to do something about it—you aren't going to take it anymore. This holiday is for doing something about the things that are holding you back, for taking control of your life, for standing up for yourself and fighting back, and for telling those who have been holding you back that you aren't going to take it anymore.

SU News

SU basketball vs. Virginia Tech: What to know (PS; Waters)

As it continues to drop key contests, Syracuse is making each game more important.

Syracuse lost an 88-87 home game to Notre Dame on Saturday. The loss hurt as it came when Syracuse had won three straight entering the restart of ACC play and was at a time when the Orange needed to start stockpiling wins.

Now 8-6 on the season and 1-2 in the conference, Syracuse will host Virginia Tech on Tuesday at the Carrier Dome. Even though it’s early January, it’s getting close to a must-win scenario for the Orange, which can’t afford too many more losses, especially at home.

Syracuse is 0-2 at home in the ACC. The Orange has lost its first three conference home games just once. That was in the 1996-97 season. Syracuse finished that year 9-9 in the Big East and failed to make the NCAA tournament.

Virginia Tech is off to a 10-4 start under first-year coach Mike Young, who came from Wofford University to replace Buzz Williams. The Hokies are 1-2 in ACC play.

Virginia Tech comes into Tuesday’s game with a solid road win at Clemson and an upset of Michigan State in the Maui Invitational to its credit. The Hokies’ four losses have come at Duke, at Virginia and against both Dayton and BYU in Maui.

The game is scheduled for a 9 p.m. start and will be televised on the ACC Network.

Here are 10 key things to know:

The historical significance

Syracuse and Virginia Tech have played just 13 games against each other, but in just those few meetings they have met as independents and as members of both the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences.

Syracuse leads the all-time series 9-4, but the Hokies have won two of the last three meetings.

Jim Boeheim has been Syracuse’s coach in 12 of the previous 13 games against Virginia Tech, with the lone exception being a 92-81 Virginia Tech win on Feb. 28, 1976. That was Roy Danforth’s last regular-season game as Syracuse’s head coach.

Syracuse earned an NCAA bid with two ECAC playoff wins before losing to Texas Tech in the first round of the NCAA tournament that year.

Boeheim’s tenure as SU’s head coach began the following season.
...

Roundtable: State of Syracuse men’s basketball heading into ACC play (DO; Staff)

The first half of Syracuse’s season has left much to be desired. Though SU handled lesser-talented out-of-conference opponents like Oakland, North Florida and Bucknell, the Orange stumbled through the BIG10/ACC Challenge and NIT Season Tipoff games in the Barclays Center. Still, the Orange were a blown whistle away from sending Notre Dame to overtime and possibly winning their fourth-straight game.

As conference play heats up, SU (8-6, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) has sunk toward the bottom of a struggling ACC.

Here’s what our beat reporters think about three major storylines thus far:

With the conference in somewhat of a down year, how many ACC teams will make the NCAA Tournament and how many conference wins would SU need to be one of them?

Nick Alvarez: I’d definitely consider this a down year for the ACC. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has just five teams slated for the big dance, the fourth-most from any conference. I think that number rises a bit, let’s say seven, due to conference play artificially boosting lower-tier teams — like Georgia Tech, who just beat North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’d also keep an eye on Notre Dame, and that’s only partial recency-bias after they outlasted Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last weekend. The combination of T.J. Gibbs’ shooting and John Mooney’s interior dominance (he leads the nation with four 16-point, 16-rebound games) sold me on the Irish’s ability to beat up on lower-tier ACC teams, get to 20 wins and secure a tournament berth. Where does that leave Syracuse? Well, the Orange are a perennial bubble team and conference play usually gives them the opportunity for marquee wins. But with the ACC struggling, the Barclays Center losses loom large. Even if they pull off home upsets against Duke and North Carolina, I can see the overall resume costing the Orange, like it did in the 2016-17 season when 19 wins left them hosting the NIT.
...

How important is the Syracuse Men's Basketball matchup with Virginia Tech? (cnycentral.com; Tamurian)

Short answer: Very.

Syracuse Basketball sits at 8-6 overall, a mark that conjures memories of the 2017 campaign when Syracuse started 11-9.

That team, led by Tyler Lydon, Andrew White III and John Gillon III, eventually made a charge to be in the conversation on Selection Sunday by knocking off teams like Virginia, Florida State and Duke at home.

They still ended up in the NIT, mainly for lack of a quality road win.

Every year is different obviously but the point is clear that the Orange needs to start winning.

And it needs to right now.

The loss to Notre Dame hurts, not just because Syracuse played so well offensively and seemed poised to pull out the victory, but because they'll simply need as many quality wins as possible to make things interesting that third Sunday in March.

Virginia Tech for their part boasts a better record and has a resume win over Michigan State already, so for Syracuse to beat them would be a nice tally for their own case and of course for the rest of the way.

The last two seasons in 2018 and 2019 Syracuse featured 20 wins going into Selection Sunday and making the big dance. For that to happen in 2020 the Orange needs to finish the ACC with a 12-8 record and they currently sit at 1-2.
...

https://accsports.com/acc-news/bask...ore-jr-to-be-out-a-while-after-breaking-hand/ (accsports.com; Geisinger)

Duke Basketball will be without freshman wing Wendell Moore when the Blue Devils play at Georgia Tech this week. Moore could be out for a while after that game, too, according to Mike Krzyzewski. During the win at Miami, Moore suffered a broken bone in his hand. He will undergo surgery on Monday, Jan. 6.

So far this season, Moore appeared in all 14 games for Duke (13-1); he averaged 7.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. And while he’d struggled with his shot (46.2 eFG%), Moore was playing good basketball — emerging as a secondary creator and strong driver of the basketball.

Duke freshman Wendell Moore Jr. will have surgery today for a broken bone in his hand. Coach K: "We think everything is going to be good, but he'll be out for awhile."

— Bob Sutton (@tnBobSutton) January 6, 2020

Fortunately for Duke, there’s still plenty of depth on the wing. Fellow freshman Cassius Stanley has played good basketball this season, including a 20-point outburst at Miami. Joey Baker and Alex O’Connell offer perimeter shooting, too. The Blue Devils have also used the dual-point guard combination of Tre Jones and Jordan Goldwire together as well.
...

Other

Feeling the crunch from Grubhub, Syracuse restaurateurs seek alternatives (PS; Pucci)

One of the most popular items on the menu at Toss & Fire Wood-Fired Pizza is the Cuse Salt Potato pizza.

Owner Nick Sanford charges $18 on Grubhub ($17 if you eat-in) for the large potato, bacon and cheese-topped pizza.

Order it through Grubhub and you’ll still pay $18—plus tax and a delivery fee that might be as much as $9.99—but Toss & Fire will see just $14.85 of that, while Grubhub takes $3.15. Get it delivered and Grubhub’s cut jumps to $4.95.

Add in the order process fee and in the end, Toss & Fire is left with about $12.50.

That commission—17.5% marketing commission on orders, an additional 10% on deliveries, plus an order process fee of 30 cents plus 3.05%—is common for restaurants that use Grubhub and other mobile delivery apps. But with around 30% of the proceeds potentially going to the company, restaurants around Syracuse are looking for alternatives.

"With Grubhub, you’re pretty much paying your employees to make food to keep them busy,” Sanford said.
...

 

[Ozone!]