sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Spaghetti Day!
Today is National Spaghetti Day! Did you know that in the year 2000, 1.3 million pounds of spaghetti were sold in American grocery stores? If all of those packages were lined up, they would circle the Earth nine times!
The first historical reference to boiled noodles (found in the Jerusalem Talmud) suggests that the Arabs invented the dish thousands of years ago. What’s remarkable about this record is that it actually refers to dried noodles purchased from a vendor, which means that pasta has been sold in stores since at least the 5th century!
Today we associate pasta with the Italians, who have revolutionized the dish and invented a wide variety of pasta shapes. These include farfalle, conchiglie, rotini, penne, tortellini, and, of course, spaghetti. Spaghetti is the most common round-rod type of pasta and in Italian, “spaghetti” means “little lines.” Spaghetti is traditionally served with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese, but you can also add meat, garlic, oil, and pepper for extra flavor.
SU News
Syracuse men's basketball opponent preview: What to know about Miami (DO; Schneidman)
Syracuse’s season is quickly spiraling out of control, but the Orange (8-6, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) has a chance for its first conference win when Miami (11-2, 1-0) visits the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Hurricanes took care of N.C. State, 81-63, in their ACC opener, and come into the Dome having allowed 67 or fewer points in all but one game this season.
Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.
All-time series: Syracuse leads, 16-7.
Last time they played: The Orange has dropped its last two games with Miami, the most recent being a 64-51 result on Jan. 2, 2016 in Coral Gables, Florida. Then-No. 13 Miami only hit 3-of-25 3-pointers against an unranked SU team, but the Hurricanes made 17 more free throws and took 20 more foul shots than Syracuse. Malachi Richardson led the visitors with 20 points, and Tyler Roberson and Tyler Lydon each grabbed double-digit rebounds. Sheldon McClellan, who doesn’t return to this year’s Miami team, led the Hurricanes with 22 points in the win.
The Miami report: Miami holds opponents to 29.7 percent from behind the arc, according to Kenpom.com, good for 27th in the country, and 41 percent from inside the arc, ranking 16th in the nation. The Hurricanes also come in at eighth nationally in Kenpom’s effective field goal percentage defensive rating.
Ja’Quan Newton leads UM with 15.8 points per game, followed closely by Davon Reed’s 14.6 points per contest. Newton is the only player used on more than 24 percent of possessions while on the court, per Kenpom, and he’ll likely be the main focus for SU’s defense. He scored 14 points in the win against Syracuse last season. The Hurricanes also have two players shooting over 39 percent from deep, Reed (39.5 percent) and reserve Dejan Vasiljevic (40.7).
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Syracuse basketball's success; or lack of it, is tied directly to point guard play (PS; Waters)
There are a lot of reasons for the Syracuse Orange basketball team's disappointing 8-6 start to the season.
But in the aftermath of the Orange's 96-81 loss to Boston College on Sunday, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim got right to the point. The point guard position, that is.
Syracuse's point guards, sophomore starter Frank Howard and senior reserve John Gillon, combined to shoot 3-for-16 from the field in the loss to BC. Howard missed both of his 3-point attempts and Gillon missed all four of his.
More to the point for a point guard, Howard and Gillon failed to create scoring opportunities for their teammates and also committed too many miscues. Howard had three assists and three turnovers. Gillon was slightly better with three assists and just one turnover.
So that's why Boeheim, after he finished a scalding critique of his team's defense following BC's 96-point display, turned his attention to his point guards.
"We've got to get better play at the guard spot,'' Boeheim said. "Bottom-line. We're 3-for-16 tonight. That's pretty normal for the games we've lost. They just can't get it going. They're young. They're new. Maybe they'll figure it out.''
Boeheim wasn't sure if Howard, in his first year as a starter, and Gillon, a fifth-year transfer from Colorado State, would figure out a way to play better but he was dead-on when saying their combined effort was pretty normal for the games that Syracuse has lost.
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Can Syracuse basketball figure out how to play defense? (D&C; DiVeronica)
After watching another team torch his 2-3 zone, the defense that is part of his Hall-of-Fame coaching legacy, Jim Boeheim looked about as beaten up as his Syracuse University basketball team was at Boston College.
“Against anybody that can shoot at all our defense has been non-existent, whether it’s Wisconsin or Boston College or St. John’s,” he said on Sunday, rattling off games the Orange lost while allowing their opponent to shoot a combined 50 percent on 3-pointers (39-for-78).
“Anybody that can make an open shot at all is going to beat us because we’re not covering those guys. Our defense is (designed) to be able to limit those guys and we’ve always done it, been able to hold people below their 3-point averages, by usually significant margins, and this team can’t do that.”
Syracuse is just 8-6 overall and 0-1 in the ACC headed into Wednesday’s 7 p.m. ACC home opener against Miami (11-2, 1-0), yet another former Big East opponent, and Pittsburgh is next at noon on Saturday at the Carrier Dome. There is still a ton of time to pull things together, but even Boeheim has his doubts. He said as much on Sunday.
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Syracuse basketball should ditch the 2-3 zone and play man-to-man (TNIAAM; Szuba)
Okay, hear me out here. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that back in October I wrote a piece stating Syracuse shouldn’t play a minute of man-to-man defense. That was back when this team was forecasted to be a Final Four contender and on paper appeared to have the makings of a legitimate title contender. The local and national media alike all had Syracuse penciled in for the big dance, too. So what’s changed?
Well if you’ve been in hibernation — much like the Syracuse zone — the Orange has worked itself into an 8-6 hole and has gone winless against Power 5 teams. The flaws with the team are abundant, but by and large the team’s biggest issue is the defense.
“I don’t really have a good explanation for it. I think they’re working hard, I think they’re trying to do what we want them to do, but we’re not reading where the shooters are and if you give guys open shots in college basketball they’re going to make them,”
Jim Boeheim said following Syracuse’s 96-81 loss at Boston College. That’s been the issue all season. Syracuse has failed to close out on shooters and defend the high-post. That’s a recipe for disaster for any zone defense, so what gives?
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Other
Longtime Syracuse judge loved exotic animals, 'flushed' flimsy arguments down toilet (PS; Dowty)
Longtime Syracuse City Court Judge Jeffrey Merrill knew exactly what to do with arguments he found a waste of time.
He'd open an app on his courtroom computer that made the sound of a toilet flushing. And that was the end of that.
Merrill, who served three decades as a Republican City Court Judge, died Friday at the age of 71, several colleagues confirmed.
"It's a thin line between disrespectful and irreverent, and he was never disrespectful about the law, but he was irreverent," Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick recalled.
Lawyers and judges who went into Merrill's chambers entered a veritable jungle, with live rodents and lizards and preserved pterodactyls hanging from the ceiling. His gerbil while an assistant prosecutor was named the "Rodent of Justice."
"His office was like a menagerie," lawyer Nicholas DeMartino recalled. "He had lizards, rodents, other live animals in his office. It was sensory overload."
Merrill was the last Republican judge to be elected citywide in 2003. He retired at the end of his third 10-year term in 2013. All nine current City Court judges are Democrats.
Merrll retired as the supervising judge of City Court. His successor, Judge Stephen Dougherty, remembered Merrill as a Renaissance Man who had all sorts of plans for his retirement.
"He had an interest in everything," Dougherty said. "He had plans for all the places he was going to go, all the things he was going to do. It's a shame he only had two good years to enjoy."
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