sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to World Water Day!
March 22nd is World Water Day - a day to pause and acknowledge the global water crisis, then take a step to act.
Of the millions of people without safe water, most live in rural, hard-to-reach places. People like Qasim and his family, who live in a parched, remote village in Southern Ethiopia. Safe water is hard to access here--there are only so many natural springs, and hand-dug wells simply can’t go deep enough.
We want to bring safe water and the good news of Jesus to Qasim. But to do that, we need to go deeper than ever before. Help us fund the first-ever Lifewater drill rig to serve more than 100,000 people in Bensa and West Arsi, Ethiopia--people who will otherwise not have reliable access to clean water in their community.
SU News
Schwedelson: Syracuse’s season will be remembered for its unfulfilled potential (DO; Schwedelson)
Some day, when the sting fades and joy overrides disappointment, you’ll sit back and reminisce. You’ll remember the feeling you had when John Gillon couldn’t miss on his way to his first buzzer-beater and 43 points. When Tyus Battle converted the game’s final shot, got mobbed by his team and you jumped off your couch. When, “I’ll never step on the Carrier Dome court again,” crossed your mind three times in the span of a month.
But then as the memories flood back, they’ll come with a crippling caveat. Syracuse lost its most games ever under 41-year head coach Jim Boeheim. It lost its most nonconference games in program history. It made a postseason tournament, but not The Tournament.
The Orange never lived up an incredibly frustrating concept: its potential.
This season won’t be remembered positively because that promise was never realized. The unfulfilled expectations are what led to the upset, anger and pull-your-hair-out experiences. A team that beat three Top 10 opponents in the Dome should be at least somewhat competent on the road. A team ranked No. 19 preseason should do a little better than 8-6 to start the year. A team supposedly better than last season’s Final Four team should …
“Whatever you hope is irrelevant. It’s what the team does,” Boeheim said. “We did not play well early. That’s what ended up costing us.”
With former head coach-designate Mike Hopkins’ departure for Washington the day after the Orange lost in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament, SU’s season ended with more than just a thud.
While Boeheim said he’s as excited as ever for the upcoming season, it’ll take time for the bitter taste of this past one to dissipate.
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Wilson: Hicker, inductees still appreciate high school hoops (oleantimesherald.com; Wilson)
When it comes to distance traveled to attend the 2017 Big 30 Senior Basketball Classic, George Hicker and family may have beaten the rest of the gymnasium combined.
Roughly 2,220 air miles separate Los Angeles, Hicker’s home city, and Portville Central School, site of the third annual basketball senior game. But Hicker, a Franklinville native and former Syracuse basketball star, said that’s not all it takes for him to visit his home region in the Southern Tier.
“Maybe once a year,” he said of how often he comes home. “It pretty much takes longer to get from Los Angeles to Franklinville than it takes to get from Los Angeles to London. You've got to change planes in Chicago, you've got to get into Buffalo, you've got to stop at Schawbl's (restaurant) and then you've got to drive an hour, hour and a half to get here.”
So why take the rare trip back home Sunday? Hicker joined four others (Port Allegany star Brian Stavisky, Wellsville coach Lou Molisani, Hinsdale coach Carl Saglimben and late Johnsonburg coach Bill Fulton) in the third Big 30 Basketball Hall of Fame class, inducted at halftime of the boys senior game.
“IT’S AN HONOR, no matter what kind of accolade like this is an honor that anybody would feel blessed to get,” Hicker said.
Hicker, his wife and son (a junior at SU), also got to see old friends at a hall of fame luncheon at Angee’s Restaurant in Olean, and then visited his parents’ gravesite before attending the Classic in Portville.
Hicker, who said he still follows Franklinville basketball and watched a stream of the Panthers’ state final four game Friday, said he’s most proud of a 36-game win streak from the end of his junior year through an undefeated senior season.
“(We went), back then, as far as you could go in high school basketball, which was playing in the Aud in Buffalo,” Hicker said. “Our team my senior year was so good that Billy Case was a freshman on that team, our seventh man, started at Syracuse. That's how good the players were. Obviously he improved a lot, but that's remarkable in town of 2,000 with a graduating class of 56.”
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Hop, Howard and Hooplah Aplenty - Syracuse New Times (syracusenewtimes.cmo; Michael)
In the aftermath of the Syracuse University men’s basketball team’s season-ending 85-80 loss to Mississippi in the second round of the NIT March 18 at the Carrier Dome, we can safely say there are only three certainties about next season for SU:
1. The Orange will play better defense, because it can’t get much worse than this season.
2. Next season won’t be Jim Boeheim’s last as SU’s coach.
3. Even if Steph Curry and Kevin Durant decide to finish their college eligibility at Syracuse next season, Boeheim will never, ever say again that he has a talented team.
Boeheim, who completed his 41st year at SU, said the loss to Ole Miss was a microcosm of the Orange’s 19-15 season: If Syracuse didn’t shoot well, it didn’t win because it couldn’t stop the other team’s shooters. Ole Miss shot a whopping 46.9 percent from 3-point range (15 for 32), while the Orange couldn’t overcome an 8-for-30 effort from beyond the arc that included misses on its first nine attempts.
“We’ve never got out of the mentality that you have in high school where you hope they miss,” Boeheim said. “You have to get up and you have to guard the shooters.”
Back in the fall, before practice even started, Boeheim made a remark to ESPN that, “This is the best team we’ve had in a long time.” The Orange did finish 10-8 in the ultra-competitive Atlantic Coast Conference and defeated three then-top-10 teams, but in the end it wasn’t even the best NIT team that SU has had in a long time.
“I tried to be optimistic, which you can’t do because people like you (in the media) and other people always go back,” Boeheim said. “I’ve already corrected that 10 times. On paper, looking at what we had coming in, it looked like we had more talent than we’ve had in a while. That’s exactly what I said. Not in Syracuse basketball history; in a while. And after we started playing, I saw right away that we don’t have that kind of a team.
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Syracuse Basketball: Paschal Chukwu Expects to Be Back In Orange Next Year. (itlh.com; Peelman)
Syracuse Basketball finally has some good news! Paschal Chukwu expects to be back next year after eye surgeries. Inside the Loud House examines the impact he could have next year for the Orange.
Syracuse Basketball Center Paschal Chukwu stands 7’2, according to ESPN.com. He’s a tall guy, and that’s not an understatement. A great rebounder, and shot-blocker, he seemed like the ideal fit as a starter at center this year. However, an injury to his left eye caused him to be out indefinitely, and eventually the season.
Many, including Chukwu wondered if he’d ever play again. The Sophomore transfer from Providence started the year strong in his first few games, but then fell to injury. Unlike most big men who get leg or knee injuries during their careers, Chukwu’s injury was neither.
In about 15 minutes of action in each in his first seven games in Orange, he particularly looked solid on D. He averaged 2 blocks per game, but had multiple games where he had 3-4 blocked shots. He got into foul trouble early and often, but that will get better in time as he plays smarter and has more training in Boeheim’s zone.
The news that Chukwu is expected to be back next year, according to Syracuse.com, is great news. Especially after ITLH’s Paul Esden Jr. reported yesterday afternoon that Tyler Lydon declared for the NBA draft.
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Other
Wegmans announces opening dates for 2 New Jersey stores (PS; Axelson)
Wegmans has announced the opening dates for two new locations in New Jersey, as the chain continues to expand towards New York City and into the southern United States.
The new location in Hanover at the intersection of Route 287 and Route 10 will open on July 23, and the Montvale location on West Grand Ave. will open on September 24, according to NJ.com.
Each store will feature a Burger Bar, which is Wegmans in-store restaurant counter. They will also lease space to a third party wine, beer and spirits shop.
Wegmans plans to employ 500 workers between the two locations.
Each new location is roughly 30 miles from New York City, as the Rochester-based grocery chain continues inching toward that destination. The Democrat & Chronicle reported that Wegmans has plans for locations in Westchester and Brooklyn for as soon as 2018.
Wegmans also has announced plans for 10 other stores, including an expansion into North Carolina, where four stores are scheduled to begin opening soon.
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