sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Teachers give us so much. A boost of confidence when we really need one. Extra help when we’re having trouble. A welcoming presence when everything else seems out of control. And though we know we can’t ever thank them enough, we can take a moment during National Teacher Appreciation Week to share our appreciation for the special educators in our lives.
Join NEA and the National PTA in saying “Thank You” by sharing one of the following on social media during Teacher Appreciation Week, May 2-6:
- A picture of yourself with your favorite teacher, past or present;
- A picture of your child with his or her teacher;
- A picture of yourself holding a piece of paper with a simple message saying Thank You to a teacher and why you’re thanking him or her.
Dion Waiters at Center of Controversy Regarding the End of the Thunders-Spurs Game Last Night (foxsports.com; Kurtenbach)
The final play of Game 2 of the Thunder and Spurs' Western Conference Semifinals series was a hot mess of unadulterated chaos, a kerfuffle of the highest order, and a botch job by all parties that was so calamitous it needs to be watched a dozen times over to fully grasp it.
It was an ending that was, at first glance, completely unbefitting a game of that stature and magnitude, but because it so defies logic and challenges the imagination, it might just be perfect.
Let's break it all down. Where else can we start but with the man of the hour, day, week, and perhaps month: Dion Waiters.
The Syracuse product has made a career out of committing reckless basketball acts, but Monday was by far the best work of his career.
Billy Donovan has made a lot of silly, imprudent decisions in his year in charge of the Oklahoma City Thunder, but having Waiters — the Dion Waiters — inbound the ball up one with 13.5 seconds remaining in a playoff game has to be the single most brain-dead thing he's done, and this is a man who didn't realize it was prudent to stagger the playing time of his team's two All-Stars for more than half a season.
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Matt Schneidman's Duck (OD; Schneidman)
Editor's Note: Each year at the end of the spring semester, there is a long standing tradition where the seniors on the DO staff write a story reflecting on their work for the DO, thanking people who helped them, recounting funny stories, etc. It is called a 'duck'. Matt covered SU basketball extensively. Here is his duck:
My first “story” was a 250-word, one-source compilation of throw up on a keyboard about the club Frisbee team, and it was all one paragraph. David Wilson kindly told me to take a hike and try again, and I’m certainly glad I did. Almost three years later, I almost actually threw up on a humid flight from Dallas to LaGuardia returning from the Final Four because I was sitting in between two grown men, but I wouldn’t want any of the 521 bylines, countless road trips down the East coast or my four semesters in-house that happened in between to go away.
Mom and dad: I’m not sure if you actually read in full as many of my stories as you claimed, but I trust that you did because you’re my parents. My flights to the Final Four wouldn’t have been possible without you and I really appreciate the understanding when I had to dip out on school breaks to go cover a game, the tolerance when I stepped away from the dinner table to write a quick story or anything else you did to help cultivate my career in something that, at times, you didn’t understand. But that’s OK, because you’re my parents.
Jesse: I’ll never forget cowering in my dorm room freshman year, waiting for the call that would inevitably tell me to try again next semester for a copy editor spot. I still think it was an a**hole move to start the phone call off the way you did, but I’m forever grateful that you gave me a chance as a freshman even though (this isn’t a full confession) it said in Football Guide that Terrel Hunt had almost 6,000 passing yards in 2013. Thanks for being one of my closest friends at the paper and always giving me a standard to live up to.
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Wildcat Fan Decides to Walk-On at Arizona After Talking to Carter Sanderson About His Experiences at Syracuse (tucson.com; Pascoe)
Scrambling to find a new home for his final year of college basketball, Tucson native Talbott Denny was on the phone with Cal State Bakersfield earlier this month, with a scheduled visit to Ball State in his back pocket.
Then Sean Miller called.
“I said, ‘I’m taking that,’” Denny said.
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Once the UA offered Denny a scholarship last month, Denny just had to weigh taking a limited role with the Wildcats against playing significant minutes or starring elsewhere.
“I was kind of in-between on it but I talked to one of my former teammates (Carter Sanderson), who walked on to Syracuse two years ago,” Denny said. “He was like, ‘If I had to choose again, I would have gone to Syracuse every time.’ He said it was just an unreal experience moving up to that level.
“And coming back home, it’s ridiculous the amount of support I’ve already gotten. It’s been my team since I was born.”
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Spike Leaning Away From Syracuse (TNIAAM; Menefee)
Michigan graduate transfer Spike Albrecht has not visited campus and is expected to go elsewhere for his last year of eligibility.
University of Michigan graduate transfer Spike Albrecht is expected to go somewhere other than Syracuse to use his last year of eligibility. Syracuse.com's Mike Waters is reporting that Albrecht did not visit SU on Sunday as was previously anticipated.
Albrecht saw action in just eight games last season due to undergoing bilateral hip surgery in the summer of 2015. His junior year he averaged 7.5 points per game.
Albrecht may have been deterred by the recent commitment of another graduate transfer, John Gillon from Colorado State, despite the fact that the Orange have enough roster spots for both of them next season. The coaches are particularly focused on recruiting the guard position, which Albrecht and Gillon both play, due to the possibility of current guard Malachi Richardson leaving for the NBA. Gillon visited Syracuse this weekend and announced his commitment Sunday.
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Hoops Legend Washington Remembered as a 'Pearl' of a Person (brooklyndaily.com; Staszewski)
He’s still shining.
Hundreds of people celebrated former Boys & Girls basketball star Dwayne “Pearl” Washington at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York on April 29. The Brooklyn-born baller, Syracuse University alum, and three-year National Basketball Association player died on April 9 at the age of 52 after losing a long battle with brain cancer.
Many knew the point guard for his ostentatious on-court personality, but friends said his public persona was only one of the man’s facets.
“He was flamboyant and flashy on the court, but he was quiet, modest and humble off the floor,” said St. John’s coach Chris Mullin, who knew Washington since the eighth-grade and was his Big East rival in the mid-‘80s. “Being a great basketball player is only part of who you are.”
The Brownsville native’s accomplishments on the court are well documented — the half-court shot at the buzzer to beat Boston College, the Big East Rookie of the Year award, the signature crossover, and the shake-and-bake move that usually led to a basket and a wide smile. But more than a strong player, Washington was an entertainer, his son said.
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Other
Video: John Lennon Celebrates 31st Birthday at the Hotel Syracuse (PS; Herbert)
Just a year after the breakup of The Beatles,John Lennon was in Syracuse on Oct. 9, 1971.
The visit included the opening of his wife's first major art exhibit, at the Everson Museum, a 31st birthday celebration and almost a Beatles' reunion.
Yoko Ono's art exhibit, entitled "This is Not Here," ran for three weeks at the Everson, and drew thousands of visitors to the museum. Celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Dennis Hopper viewed it.
The exhibition took up most of the museum, and Ono encouraged visitors to reach out and touch her work. Pieces included a bubble gum machine that offered invisible trinkets, and a pane of glass titled, "Painting to let the evening light through."
In an interview with the Post-Standard in 2006, Ono called her time in Syracuse as a "most beautiful memory," and "a milestone in my life."
David Ross, an assistant to then Everson director Jim Harithas, spent hours trying to assemble equipment for what was to be Lennon's surprise birthday gift, a secret midnight concert of at least three of the Beatles at the theater in the Everson, accompanied by some of the greatest musicians in the nation. Paul McCartney, estranged from Lennon at the time, declined, and George Harrison couldn't make it.
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