sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to April Fools' Day!
April Fools' Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day) is celebrated every year on 1 April by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting April Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in small letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country.
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) contains the first recorded association between 1 April and foolishness.
SU News
Syracuse Not Worried About Shooting in Cavernous Stadium (chron.com; Verdejo)
The Final Four isn't new to playing in a football stadium, having done so every year since 2000.
The bigger buildings allow for larger crowds - each of the last two championship games (at AT&T and Lucas Oil stadiums) have topped 70,000 people. It also means deeper backdrops for shooters, most of whom haven't played in a similar facility on a regular basis.
Syracuse is an exception to the rule.
"Well, we play in a pretty big building so I'm hoping it translates," said assistant Gerry McNamara, a former guard for the Orange from 2002-06 who shot 88 percent from the foul line for his career and 35 percent from behind the arc. "I never felt it.
"They say it does matter. Certainly with the backdrop being a lot deeper than they're used to, but with the preparation and the practice time we'll have here, our guys will do fine and adjust to it."
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In College Basketball, Cavernous Stadiums Tend to Dampen Shooting (nytimes.com; Tracy)
For a long time, the most famous — and probably the first — college basketball game played in a large domed stadium was between No. 2 Houston and No. 1 U.C.L.A. in January 1968 at the Astrodome. Despite the presence of center Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Bruins shot 26 of 77 from the field — a paltry 34 percent, held down by Alcindor’s eye injury — in their 71-69 loss.
This weekend, next door to the vacant yet inexplicably still standing Astrodome, there is reason to believe that the shooting at NRG Stadium in the Final Four could be similarly wanting.
The N.C.A.A.’s own statistics show that shooting percentages fall slightly in domes compared with arenas. But there is some evidence that the problem is particularly acute at NRG, the home of the N.F.L.’s Houston Texans. (Its retractable roof will be closed during the Final Four.)
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Why Villanova Matters in the Final Four (app.com; Carino)
Seton Hall great Dan Callandrillo, a founding star of the Big East, offers perspective on the league's past and present.
It nearly came undone in 2013 until a leaner version emerged, shedding the gridiron yoke to once again focus laser-like on the hardwood.
Less relevant, detractors crowed.
Until now.
Villanova is in the Final Four, with a real chance to win the national championship. This weekend, the Big East's founding fathers and their offspring are Wildcat fans.
“It’s good to see Villanova right there,” said Callandrillo, who went on to become Big East Player of the Year in 1982 and now lives in Middletown and coaches youth basketball in Red Bank. “I always root for everyone in the league, even Georgetown although that’s hard to say out loud -- we never did beat them.”
Callandrillo tells great stories. Before his senior year Raftery approached him with sad news: He was leaving the Hall after 11 years at the helm.
“I said, ‘Where are you going? I’ll transfer to play with you,” Callandrillo said. “He said, ‘I’m leaving coaching to try this new thing, ESPN. They do 24 hours a day of sports.’”
Callandrillo couldn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘Coach, forget it. Who’s going to watch ESPN?’”
A few months later, Raftery was back in Walsh calling Seton Hall-Georgetown for the network. A snowstorm hit the area. It’s hard to believe now, but Callandrillo -- the Big East’s best player -- had moved back home for his senior year and was commuting to school from North Bergen.
It took him four hours to drive down to South Orange, and he was late for tip-off. Raftery and Pirate coach Hoddy Mahon somehow delayed the start of the game.
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Spirit Members Are Gearing Up for the Final Four (DO; Michael)
The first time Cameron Spera cheered for Syracuse University’s football team, she was standing inside the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. SU was playing Penn State, and the broadcast and digital journalism major, who was a freshman at the time, was surrounded by thousands of screaming sports fans.
“You’re in front of 30,000 people, and that’s just a normal thing,” Spera said on what it’s like to dance in front a stadium full of rowdy fans.
Now a junior, Spera is one of the captains of the SU dance team and is gearing up to support the SU women’s basketball team for its Final Four game in Indianapolis.
Spera’s team is part of the Spirit Squad, which is a collection of three groups that cheer for SU athletic teams in order to provide support, as well as to pump up and entertain the crowds. The cheer team, the dance team and the student-run pep band, otherwise known as the Sour Sitrus Society, all attend SU games and sports functions.
Together with Otto the Orange, the three groups work together during games to give the best possible experience for the players and crowd.
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Ra Ra Riot
Ranking the Final Four Teams Based on Their Musical Alumni (DO; Weiser-Schlesinger)
This year’s Final Four begins play this Saturday, as Villanova matches up against Oklahoma and North Carolina play’s Syracuse. While some pundits will provide predictions of this weekend’s games based on player talent, statistics and other rational methods, I’m putting a musical spin on it — matching up schools against each other based on their best (in this columnist’s opinion) music alumni. Here are the teams:
Villanova Wildcats
The Wildcats have a surprisingly robust list of musical alumni. Manhattan Transfer vocalist Tim Hauser is a graduate. Country musician Toby Keith and “American Pie” singer Don McLean attended too, but neither completed their degrees at the school. (As a bitter Syracuse fan, I don’t feel like giving my time of day to one-and-dones.)
But the winner from this group is Jim Croce, the iconic singer-songwriter known as a pioneer of the American folk rock movement in the 1960s and ’70s. Croce tragically died in a plane crash in 1973 just as he was at the peak of his fame, but his influence on the soulful folk music of the music after his passing has been felt ever since as a now-essential name in the movement.
Oklahoma Sooners
The Sooners have a mixed record when it comes to basketball in recent years — this year marks the team’s first Final Four appearance in 14 years and its third since 1947. Musically, the school has a rough track record as well.
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Villanova vs. Oklahoma — Winner: Villanova
UNC vs. Syracuse — Winner: Syracuse
Villanova vs. Syracuse — Champion: Syracuse
Other
Hillary Clinton Will Unveil $10 Billion Manufacturing Plan in Syracuse Visit (PS; Weiner)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will use her visit here today to unveil a $10 billion plan to revive American manufacturing through public-private partnerships with colleges and universities.
Clinton will outline her idea for "Make It in America" partnerships, an idea inspired by some of her work in New York during eight years representing the state in the U.S. senate, according to her campaign advisers.
At a manufacturing roundtable discussion in Syracuse, Clinton will call for partnerships between the government, small and large businesses, their workers, and universities and community colleges, the advisers said.
Clinton views her plan as the best way to bring back higher-wage manufacturing jobs in Upstate New York cities like Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo and other rust belt communities across the nation.
"We fundamentally believe that her work as senator in Upstate New York can serve as a blueprint for how she would seek to create the good-paying jobs of the future as president," said Jake Sullivan, the Clinton campaign's senior policy adviser.
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