sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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The day should be celebrated by accepting the world's absurdities and working to bring even more absurdity into it. Spend the day being absurd in your dress, speech, and actions. Have you had some pretty crazy ideas of pranks to pull to really confuse people? Today is the day to do them. You could also read some works by absurdist authors and playwrights, such as Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has some elements of the absurd, and may also be fitting to read. You could also watch an absurdist film such as El Topo, an acid western by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
SU News
Heyen: Syracuse needs to find an identity (DO; Heyen)
Last season, a shutdown defense and NCAA Tournament run masked how bad SU’s offense was. With the additions Syracuse made for this season, progression should have followed. Two early wins seemed to show improvements.
But at Madison Square Garden last week, Syracuse faced Connecticut and a top-tier backcourt, followed by then-No. 13 Oregon and 7-foot-2 phenom Bol Bol. Those teams made their open 3s, took advantage of Syracuse turnovers and crashed the glass hard. They also stifled an SU offense that still wasn’t up to par.
The step up in competition exposed SU’s issues. But it wasn’t just a two-game blip.
“We’ve gotta play much better offensively if we’re gonna be successful,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Our defense is nowhere near what it was last year … The only thing good about this time of the year is getting these things happen to you, we’ve got a long road to do, we’re a long ways away.”
In their surprise run to the Sweet 16 a year ago, Syracuse embraced an identity as the team that did things right everywhere but on offense to make up for inefficiencies at that end. Winning can disguise problems, and that’s exactly what Syracuse’s season-opening two-game win streak did. Now, the offense has underwhelmed despite additions, and the defense and other aspects of the game have taken steps back. It’d be tough for the Orange to elevate all the aspects of their game. But for SU to avoid losses like its two at Madison Square Garden, it needs to embrace one as an identity.
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Oregon basketball holding opponents to extremely low shooting percentage to start season (oregonlive.;com; Crepea)
Oregon has opened the season among the nation's best defensive teams thanks in large part to the interior presence of Bol Bol and Kenny Wooten.
The No. 21 Ducks (3-1) are holding opponents to 30.3 percent from the floor, which ranked fourth nationally entering Monday's games, and are ranked 18th in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.
"I think that Bol and Kenny have a done a decent job around the basket," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "Francis (Okoro), when he's in there has done a good job. So we've pushed people away from the basket, which has helped those numbers.
"Our defense has a long ways to go but I think we have done some things good for this early in the season. Communication needs to be much better for us to make another big jump."
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The Appeal of Syracuse Should be Clear to Five-Star Isaiah Stewart – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; Shults)
While Syracuse’s showing at Madison Square Garden this past weekend may have dampened expectations for the rest of the season, there is a silver lining. After seeing the poor play of Paschal Chukwu and Bourama Sidibe, 5-star recruit Isaiah Stewart may have realized that there’s an abundance of playing time available at SU.
That’s not to say that Stewart wouldn’t receive immediate playing time at other schools like Duke and Michigan State. He would, he’s the fourth best recruit in the 2019 class according to ESPN. However, besides playing time, the Orange also have the advantage of being close to Stewart’s hometown of Rochester, NY.
The lack of a skilled big man on the current squad will be a problem all season long and could result in a quick bounce from March Madness if SU gets an unlucky matchup. However, adding a player of Stewart’s talent could spur the Orange to a deep postseason run next year.
Against UConn, Syracuse’s weakness at center became blatantly clear as point guard Jalen Carey led the team in rebounds. Meanwhile Huskies forward Eric Cobb corralled a double-double as the senior snagged 13 rebounds and put up 13 points. If Chukwu and Sidibe can’t stop a 6’9” forward from having their way in the paint, there is zero chance the big men can stop ACC bigs like Duke star Zion Williamson.
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The Toughest ACC Schedule Belongs To... (dukebasketballreport.com; Jacobs)
There are all sorts of ways to gauge which team has the toughest ACC schedule.
You can examine various analysts’ ratings based on pet mathematical formulas, which is what the vast majority of observers do. You can go deeper and look at various coaches’ records against one another, and better rate the likelihood of a given result. You can put in perspective when meetings take place, prelude a good indicator of outcome.
All those measures are revealing and perhaps definitive. But, as far as a granular view of ACC matchups within an unbalanced schedule, we’d direct your attention to which venues teams must visit.
As noted earlier here, three programs are the dominant forces during the ACC regular season, at least since 2012 when Tony Bennett’s Virginia clubs came to the fore. UVa, Duke and UNC each have finished among the conference’s top five in every one of those seven seasons.
So we’d argue the team that’s required to visit all the home courts of that trio confronts the toughest task. As it turns out there’s only one such club, as the following chart illustrates.
That uphill route is to be run by Miami, which plays at Cameron Indoor Stadium, JPJ Arena, and the Smith Center. Jim Larranaga’s Hurricanes also host the Tar Heels.
The only teams that meet the contemporary behemoths more often are Notre Dame, facing UVa and UNC home-and-home and Duke in Durham, and Louisville, which has a similar tit for tat arrangement with those two dominators. First-year Cardinals coach Chris Mack at least gets Duke on UL’s tasty home floor at the Yum! Center.
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ACC Football Rx: MBB: ACC off to great start in 2018 (accfootballrx.com; HM)
While the football season is near to an end, the basketball season is just getting started. Already the ACC is 51-6 overall, with Florida State, Duke, Virginia Tech and North Carolina all undefeated against top 25 RPI schedules...
TEAM W L RPI RANK
Florida St. 3 0 5
Duke 4 0 9
Virginia Tech 4 0 18
North Carolina 5 0 23
Georgia Tech 2 1 29
Miami (FL) 3 0 71
Clemson 4 0 85
Louisville 3 0 111
Pittsburgh 5 0 147
Wake Forest 3 1 192
Notre Dame 3 1 204
Syracuse 2 2 218
NC State 4 0 245
Boston College 3 1 264
Virginia 3 0 265
Seems like we should have something good to watch when the bowls are over!
(soundcloud.com; podcast; Degens)
Happy Thanksgiving ACC hoops fans! The boys break down the Thanksgiving Tournament schedule for the ACC teams, including Maui, Battle 4 Atlantis, the NIT Pre-Season and more. We discuss games that have already tipped, and ones yet to transpire, and move on to pick our winners for each of the tournaments.
NCAA Basketball: Big Ten dominates, Syracuse slips in winners and losers of the week (bustingbrackets.com; Childs)
Two weeks are in the books for the NCAA Basketball season and we are starting to learn a few things about certain teams. Who were the big winners of this week and who should start to worry?
It is still early in the college basketball season, but some teams are starting to show their true colors whether it is good or bad. Duke still looks like a monster and Kentucky continues to look just ordinary. The Atlantic Ten looks like it could be just a one-bid league and the Big Ten flexed its muscles this week.
The early season non-conference tournaments have started and there have been some good games and some others that prove that there are probably too many tournaments out there. The real fun starts this week with the Maui Invitational who has a loaded field. The Battle for Atlantis is also this week and that looks to be a good tournament also. Which big-time powers will come out of there and which teams will surprise. It should be a great week of basketball.
But before we get too engrossed in the third week and get sleepy from all the turkey this week, let’s take a look back at the winners and losers from week two. Who is starting to step up and who is thinking maybe they shouldn’t be playing basketball this year. For every good thing that has happened, there is an equally bad thing.
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Other
Thanksgiving Eve 2018: What changed in the Syracuse bar scene since last year (PS; Cazentre)
It's one of the biggest bar nights of the year -- even bigger, perhaps, than New Year's Eve or St. Patrick's Day in Syracuse.
It's Thanksgiving Eve, aka Blackout Wednesday, aka Drinksgiving -- Nov. 21 this year. Bars are crowded with pre-holiday revelers, boosted by the enormous number of out-of-towners returning home (think college students).
If you're back in town and ready for a night out this Thanksgiving Eve -- or you just don't get out much -- you may find a few things have changed in the bar and restaurant scene since last year.
Here's a look at some of the year's openings, followed by a list of notable closings.
Middle Ages Brewing Co., Syracuse
This barely makes the list: The tasting room and bar at Middle Ages Brewing Co. had its soft opening over Thanksgiving weekend 2017. The Middle Ages Public House is adjacent to the expanded brewery at 120 Wilkinson St., and offers plenty of its own beers and occasional food trucks out front. The brewery itself opened in 1995.
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Syracuse might buy streetlights from National Grid (DO; Palmer)
Syracuse’s Common Council plans to vote next week on a proposal to approve the city’s purchase of the entire streetlight system from National Grid.
The purchase would cover all of the lighting fixtures that the city currently pays to maintain but not privately-owned lighting fixtures. Lonny Bornstein, energy manager for the city of Syracuse, said the city will replace all of the fixtures, which are about 25 years old, near the end of their lives.
The city plans to replace the high-intensity discharge lights with LED lights, which will be low-maintenance and increase energy savings, Bornstein said. The project also includes funds to update poles, conduits, wires and other parts that are not visible when the light is on.
“After 25 years, you’ll have not only 25 years of light, but you’ll have the ability to replace that with the next new technology — that is built into the project,” Bornstein said.
Mayor Ben Walsh said in an April interview that if the city owns the street poles, it can install “smart technology” for traffic and congestion management.
“It really opens up an entire world of technological opportunities we’re currently not using here,” Walsh said. “Again, with the whole purpose being to deliver services more effectively and efficiently.”
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