Orangeyes Daily Articles for Thursday for Basketball

[sutomcat]

Welcome to National Taco Day!

Americans LOVE their tacos, and to celebrate, Thursday is National Taco Day. Celebrated on Oct. 4, there are several deals from companies across the nation for the day.

According to nationaltacoday.com, Americans ate over 4.5 billion tacos last year (wow!). That's equal to more than 490,000 miles of tacos, which could take you to the moon and back. It's also equal to 775 million pounds, which is the weight of two Empire State Buildings.

Taco Bell
Obviously, Taco Bell has to be in on the National Taco Day celebrations. They're offering four tacos for $5.

Moe's Southwest Grill
Though there aren't many locations in metro Detroit, Moe's Southwest Grill is offering buy two, get one free tacos if you download the Moe's Rewards app.

SU News

Waters: Syracuse basketball looks like a 'top four' ACC team in 2018-19 - The Juice Online (the juice; podcast; Bierman)

Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters calls in to talk about the 2018-19 Syracuse basketball season with host Wes Cheng. The Juice Online’s Brad Bierman then calls in to talk about an SU football team that is right outside the top 25.

Here are the highlights from the show:

Wes Cheng: Mike, I wanted to get your prediction on how this season will play out.

Mike Waters: I think they’re going to be good. I think Syracuse fans are going to enjoy a year where they’re watching a team that’s not on the NCAA bubble down the stretch. Probably a top four, top five finish in the ACC is reasonable. At least to me. You look at the other teams mentioned up there. After you get past Duke which has an amazing array of talent, albeit it young talent, once you get past them, I think Syracuse matches up pretty much with every team in the league including Virginia, North Carolina. They’ll all be there together. Clemson has a lot of guys that will be back from a team that did well in the NCAA Tournament last year. […] I think this is going to be a much better Syracuse team. It’s going to be a much better season. And then we’ll see how March plays out.

Rundown:

1. Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters calls in
2. Is Syracuse deserving of a top 25 ranking?
3. Thoughts on incoming freshmen
4. Predictions on Syracuse
5. Editor in chief Brad Bierman calls in
6. Close loss at Clemson
7. Key game against Pitt
8. Closing thoughts and wrap up
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Syracuse proves too tempting to pass up for John Bol Ajak (cityofbasketballlove.com; McCue)

John Bol Ajak walked out of the gym unaware what was waiting for him.

Three years ago, Ajak was a freshman at the Church Farm School, in the United States for the first time after living in Kenya for the majority of his first 13 years. Church Farm coach Marc Turner decided to use a hands-on approach to teach the young big man what a winter climate is like.

“Coach Turner was out there with a snowball in his hand, and hit me in the face and was like, ‘Welcome to America,’” said Ajak, who was born in South Sudan but fled to Kenya when he was less than a year old. “I’ll never forget that.”

It’s a good thing the 6-foot-10 forward doesn’t mind the snow, as he’ll likely see a lot of it over the next several years. After traveling to upstate New York this past weekend for an official visit to Syracuse, Ajak made his commitment to the Orange on Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s part of the challenge, you want to be able to experience different stuff,” Ajak said. “I’ve experienced the hot weather for 13 years of my life. I appreciate the seasons, so it doesn’t affect my decision at all.

“It was all about basketball to me,” he added.

Ajak, who left Church Farm after three years to spend his senior season at the Westtown School, came back from his visit around 12:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and said he gave himself a 24-hour rule to think about his decision before he made any commitment.
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Getting To The Point (dukebasketballreport.com; Jacobs)

The tide comes in, the tide goes out. Talented players enter the ACC, become top scorers, and head out again.

This year it’s a bit of a different story. True, seven of the top 10 point producers, including three of the top four, are gone from 2017-18. But top-20 returnees are the most numerous since 2009.

Only once this century (2001) have 10 of the 20 scoring leaders returned. This year it’s nine.

Four of last year’s top five in point production were underclassmen, and two remain. The junior in the group, BC’s Jerome Robinson (20.7 points per game), was the second-leading scorer. The Eagles guard jumped to the NBA and was a first-round selection. The same was true of Duke freshman Marvin Bagley IiI (21.0 to pace the league) and Georgia Tech soph Josh Okogie (18.2).

The returning members of the top five, Syracuse’s Tyus Battle (19.2) and BC’s Ky Bowman (17.6), both contemplated following their high-scoring ACC classmates to the pros, then reconsidered and returned. Both are juniors.

Battle, a 6-6 guard, is the ACC’s top returning career scorer with 1097 points in 71 games (15.5-point average). If Battle plays anything approaching last year’s astronomical 39 minutes per game, he figures to be the favorite for ACC scoring leadership.
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ACC Preview #7 - Clemson (dukebasketballreport.com; King)

Clemson basketball has tradition too. It’s just not like the kind you find in the Big Four, where even Wake Forest has made a Final Four and has seen some of the game’s true legends pass through, notably Tim Duncan, Chris Paul and Muggsy Bogues.

At Clemson, they’ve had some great talents too, just infrequently and without a lot of support. Horace Grant played there, along with Sharone Wright and Tree Rollins. Skip Wise passed through in the ‘70s.

Still, Clemson’s tradition, traditionally, is this: be fairly average, get to post-season periodically (typically the NIT), lose and go home.

Mix in a periodic home upset and that’s about it.

Not last year.

Clemson started off great, then had a bad break with an injury to Donte Grantham. It seemed like it might derail the season but the Tigers regrouped and played well, losing to Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen, 80-76.

That wasn’t the game that had everyone buzzing though. No, that would be the prior game, against Auburn, when Clemson was not very Clemson-like - at least when it came to the NCAA tournament.
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Carrier Dome beer a ‘big revenue piece’ as schools tap into alcohol offerings (DO; Gutierrez)

About a decade ago, Daryl Gross called a meeting with Nancy Cantor, then-Syracuse University chancellor. He wanted to bring a Manhattan-style bar into the Carrier Dome.

The Carrier Dome has sold beer at home football and basketball games since its opening in 1980. But this was almost unheard of: Before 2008, only six schools sold beer during games, per Vice Sports.

Alcohol had long been a driver in Syracuse’s concession sales, but there wasn’t a place fans could go to enjoy a drink or shareable platter away from their seats. An in-venue bar, Gross thought, would be perfect, and it would increase game-day sales.

The conversation ended in less than an hour, Gross, the former Syracuse director of athletics, recalled. Cantor told Gross to “go for it.”

Soon, SU launched the project to build Club 4.4, an exclusive members-only club located behind sections 108 and 109. Construction finished in 2010.

“I was telling everybody that this will make so much money,” Gross recalled. “It was low-hanging fruit. We wanted to make a more wholesome experience.”

The addition was part of a leading charge to upgrade food, beer and overall amenities in what’s a tradition-bound world of stadium concessions. As Club 4.4’s popularity grew, Gross said beer revenue ticked upward. It was a “big revenue piece” during Gross’ tenure, which ended in 2015.

Gross also brought the addition of floor seats to the Carrier Dome, which has generated about $2 million in annual revenue. He said alcohol sales were less than half of floor seat revenues when he left Syracuse, but SU has sold beer in “mass quantities, enough to create a significant line item” on its financial statements.
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2018 Virginia Basketball Countdown: A New Hope (streakingthelawn.com; Darney)

The start of the Virginia Basketball season is right around the corner, and we are counting down the days until the Hoos welcome Towson to John Paul Jones Arena on November 6. The season starts in 34 days, and today it’s time to put the 2017-18 season in the past.

Whew, that was a long offseason. For some of you, that offseason wasn’t long enough. I’m fully aware that a number of Virginia fans won’t even open or read this, and that’s fine. Everyone deals with tough losses in their own way, and there’s literally no guidance on how to attempt to bounce back as a fan when your No. 1 overall team loses to a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Don’t know if you’ve heard, but that’s never happened before.

So, we are in no fan’s land.

One of the hardest parts about trying to move on from the loss stems from the fact that the team was outstanding. Virginia was hands down the best team in the country for the majority of the season and rose from unranked to unanimous No. 1. They put together an unreal 31-2 regular season record and 17-1 ACC record en route to claiming the ACC regular season and tournament titles.

Seven points on the road at West Virginia and one point in an overtime loss to [team redacted] was all that separated the Hoos from an undefeated regular season. Virginia beat UNC twice, got their first win at Cameron Indoor Stadium since before anyone on the team was even born, and De’Andre Hunter made the bank heard round the world at Louisville.

The loss to UMBC was a fluke, it was soul-crushingly sad, and it’s something that has become part of Virginia’s history. It is what it is.

And I think it may be time to let it go. I know that’s tough to read, but hear me out.
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Other

Syracuse ghost stories: 25 haunted places in CNY area (PS; Herbert)

Want to hear some ghost stories? Central New York is home to a slew of truly haunted houses, cemeteries of unrest, and other sites of paranormal activity.
Many historical sites offer guided tours, especially in the summer and around Halloween, and some even let your conduct your own investigations on ghost hunts. From "13 Curves" to Casey's Cottage, we've selected 25 Syracuse-area sites that are allegedly home to spirits and other supernatural phenomena.
Note: These are not hayrides with fake graves and people in creepy clown costumes jumping out to make you scream. (You can find a list of fun haunted houses here.)
If you want real scares that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, then grab a flashlight and enjoy our list of haunted places in Syracuse and CNY.

Beardslee Castle (Little Falls)
A stone's throw from the Thruway (Route 90) is John Beardslee's home, built in the early 1800s, now a popular wedding destination -- especially for fans of the supernatural. Stories of hauntings from victims of the French and Indian War have persisted for decades, but other legends include ghosts of a woman named "Abigail" who died the night before her wedding, and Pop Christensen, the first owner of the castle when it was turned into a restaurant, who allegedly hung himself in the building.
» More info

Brae Loch Inn (Cazenovia)
This popular Scottish-themed inn and restaurant was originally the home of William Burr. According to hauntedplaces.org, several rooms are haunted by visions that include a man in a kilt (known as "Scotty"), a young girl in a blue dress carrying a tray of candles and a shadowy male figure.
» More info
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