sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Beware The Ides of March!
The Roman calendar, which dates back to 753 BCE, had three fixed points throughout the month: Nones, Ides, and Kalends. Ides took place around the midpoint of each month, occurring on the 13th or 15th. In March it took place on the 15th.
The Ides of March is most remembered as being the anniversary of the day that Julius Caesar was assassinated, in 44 BCE. The day did, however, have some significance before this infamous event. It had long been a day of religious observances. The Ides of each month was sacred to Jupiter, Rome's supreme deity.
SU News
Syracuse basketball defeats Arizona State 60-56 (NCAA Tournament): Brent Axe recap (PS; Axe)
You can't spell survive and advance without SU.
The Syracuse University men's basketball team embraced the grind again in holding an Arizona State Sun Devils squad that averages over 80 points per game to a season-low in a 60-56 Orange win on Wednesday night at the First Four in Dayton, Ohio.
Oh, there was some offense. Oshae Brissett had a "Hello, America" moment with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Tyus Battle hit another clutch shot and Paschal Chukwu stepped up big at the free throw line (yes, seriously) to seal the victory.
The Orange now dance from Dayton to Detroit where old nemesis Jaime Dixon and his Pittsburgh Panthers ...errr ...Texas Christian University Horned Frogs await.
Dixon, you say? Well if Syracuse is going to grind then they may as well play a team that does the same thing.
Well, not exactly.
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Syracuse bests Arizona State in crunch time - ESPN Video (espn; video)
Syracuse bests Arizona State in crunch time
Syracuse guard Tyus Battle knocks down a go-ahead triple, and in the final seconds, Arizona State's Shannon Evans can't connect from deep.
On to the next round: Syracuse outlasts Arizona State (usatoday.com; AP)
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has made a concession for his thin roster — shorter practices and more sleep, especially for the Big Three.
Good formula so far.
The Orange, the last team selected for the NCAA Tournament, survived to play another day, holding off Arizona State 60-56 on Wednesday night in the First Four.
Syracuse guards Tyus Battle and Frank Howard are 1-2 in the nation in minutes played and freshman Oshae Brissett is sixth, all of them averaging at least 38 per game. Despite recovering from a case of strep, Howard never sat and neither did Battle as the trio, led by Brissett's 23 points and 12 rebounds, combined to score 50 points.
"These two guys are amazing," Boeheim said at the podium afterward, looking over at Howard and Battle. "They're going up against tremendous defensive teams all year long. They get doubled in everything every time they come off a screen.
"It's difficult to win when you've got three guys scoring. If they're off a little bit, it puts all the pressure back on our defense."
That defense rose to the occasion, holding Arizona State to a season low in scoring.
"It was a rock fight," Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley said. "We didn't make enough shots."
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Losses by UCLA, Arizona State make it a Pac-1 Tournament (wtop.com; AP)
UCLA played one of its worst games. Arizona State finished with a season low in points. With the First Four finished, there’s only one Pac-12 team left for the main draw in the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a Pac-1 show the rest of the way, with the league’s hopes all resting on Arizona after the league took a double blow in Dayton.
UCLA was relegated to the First Four for the first time in its storied NCAA Tournament history, which includes 18 Final Four appearances. The Bruins matched their season high with 20 turnovers, helping St. Bonaventure get its first NCAA Tournament victory in 48 years on Tuesday night with a 65-58 win .
A day later, Arizona State was stymied by Syracuse’s zone defense and lost 60-56 , by far the Sun Devils’ worst offensive showing of the season. Neither UCLA nor Arizona State managed to hit the 60-point mark at University of Dayton Arena.
“This feeling right now — it stings, it burns,” said Kodi Justice, who led Arizona State with 15 points.
There’s a lot of that going around his league.
The Pac-12 entered the tournament with one boast: the only conference to get a team to the Elite Eight in each of the last four seasons. Arizona made it in 2014 and 2015, Oregon the next two years.
This year, it’s more of an NIT outfit.
The Pac-12 managed to get only three teams into the NCAA Tournament, with fourth-seeded Arizona the only one in the main draw. The Wildcats play Buffalo in Boise in the South Region.
One is such a lonely number, given how the other conferences fared.
The Atlantic Coast Conference matched its own record of nine tournament teams when Syracuse squeezed into the field as the final one. And then the Orange squeezed the Pac-12 down to one team for the opening round.
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NCAA: Possible Zero ACC Teams Reach the Final Four? (SI; video)
No Virginia, Duke or North Carolina in the Final Four? Seems unlikely... but it's possible.
Other
WATCH: 60-ton piece of bridge at Letchworth State Park plunges into Genesee river (PS; Axelson)
For more than a century, a rail trestle has stood over the Genesee River at Letchworth State Park, but over time, bits of the 1,050-ton structure have been removed or fallen away.
On Wednesday, a planned demolition took out another massive, 50-60-ton section of truss, and plunged it into the river below. You can watch the epic destruction of this part of the 1875 bridge in the video, by Upstate NY photographer John Kucko, above.
According to Kucko, who took the video using a planted GoPro camera while he was offsite, the entire remaining structure weighs just 20 tons.
The portion that was removed on Wednesday will now be cut up and trucked offsite to be recycled.
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