sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Comic Book Day!
Today is a day to celebrate the popular entertainment and collector's item, the comic book. The first American comic book is seen as being Famous Funnies, which was released in 1933, although many books and comics predated it and helped lead to its creation. For example, an 1842 hardcover book titled The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck was made up of comics. In the early 20th century periodicals that contained comics were printed in the United States. American comic books are divided into different eras.
In 1938, the release of Superman launched the Golden Age of comic books. Superhero comics were introduced and very popular for most of this era.
The Silver Age is seen as beginning with the introduction of Flash in 1956, which led to a rejuvenation in superhero comic books. The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man came about during this era, and the era lasted until sometime in the early 1970's, when the Bronze Age began, which lasted until the mid-1980's. From the end of the Bronze Age until the present day is known as the Modern Age. Non-mainstream comic books such as underground comix sprang up in the 1960's, followed by alternative comics in the 1980's. Comic book stores became popular in the 1970's, and comic book conventions are another way that collectors and comic book fans have connected and enjoyed their hobby.
SU News
Where in the world are former Syracuse basketball players? (PS; Ditota)
Last August, an Italian sports reporter asked Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim to predict which players on his current roster were likely to end up on Italian professional teams.
Boeheim did not bite on that query. But he did allow that plenty of his former players had played abroad, many of them in Italy.
That's true this season as well, though at this point, no former Orange men are slotted onto Italian pro rosters. Some former SU players have yet to land on a professional team. Some we're not entirely sure about. We'll update as rosters continue to evolve.
Here's a current list of where former SU players and Syracuse natives will ply their trades professionally this season.
Dion Waiters
Dion Waiters, 27, plays for the Miami Heat.
The Heat this season opens at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 23 and this could be an important year for Waiters.
He returned to the Heat mid-season last year after ankle surgery and was out of shape and relatively ineffective. Forbes reported this week that Waiters - a confident scorer - had undergone a dramatic diet shift this summer as he worked to get his body into optimal playing shape. He's down to 215 pounds, which is exactly what he weighed his final season at SU. Waiters will make $12.1 million this season.
Jerami Grant
Jerami Grant, 25, will play for the Denver Nuggets after that team traded for him last July.
Grant, still so young, is playing on his third NBA team and has dramatically improved his 3-point shooting stroke. He has carved a niche in the NBA, too, as a quality shot-blocker, his extreme athleticism allowing him to make spectacular plays at the rim.
Grant, a Philadelphia and Oklahoma City alum, will make about $9.4 million in 2019-20. His Nuggets open at Portland on Oct. 23.
Michael Carter-Williams
Michael Carter-Williams, who turns 28 in October, signed a free-agent deal with the Orlando Magic in the offseason. He is scheduled to make $2.03 million this year.
MCW parlayed some late-season success for the Magic last season (he started with a 10-day contract that eventually paid him for the remainder of the year) into a new contract with the team. His size and athleticism as the Magic's back-up point guard last season convinced Orlando to re-sign him. He is a 25 percent career 3-point shooter in the NBA, though his passing ability and his interest in defense has kept his career alive.
The Magic open at Cleveland on Oct. 23.
Tyler Lydon
Tyler Lydon, 23, signed a free agent deal for the NBA minimum with the Sacramento Kings over the summer.
His contract stipulates he will earn more money the longer he sticks with the Kings this season. (He's guaranteed $215,000 if he's not waived before Oct. 30, for example. The NBA minimum is about $1.6 million.) Lydon, contractually-bound to a Denver team with a plethora of forward options throughout his brief NBA career, now gets a chance to prove that his 3-point shooting stroke and his ability to block shots can be an asset to the Kings.
Sacramento opens at Phoenix on Oct. 23.
Oshae Brissett
Oshae Brissett, 21, signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Toronto Raptors, which could mean many things, but likely means he will start the season with the Raptors 905 G League team. The Raptors, interestingly, have not signed any players to two-way contracts yet and Brissett could snare one of those more lucrative deals.
Brissett, a native of Mississauga (where Toronto's G League team plays), sustained a somewhat mysterious knee injury during Canada's FIBA Olympic qualifier and went home to heal before the Raptors' training camp starts this week. The 905 opens Nov. 5 at home; the NBA champion Raptors (coached by Nick Nurse, who also coached Team Canada this summer) open Oct. 22 at home vs. New Orleans (and Zion Williamson).
Nurse this summer was impressed by Brissett's ability, in particular, to rebound and defend from the small forward spot.
Tyus Battle
Tyus Battle, newly 22, played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Summer League last July and was offered an Exhibit 10 contract with the team.
The T'wolves have reached their limit of two-way players (two) and Battle could be one of three Exhibit 10 signees. Those contracts come with limited guarantees (if players are cut from the training camp roster, they must stick around with the G League team for a prescribed period to make money) and if Battle stays with the Minnesota organization, he likely will play for the team's Iowa G League affiliate.
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Waters: Syracuse basketball 'can make hay' in the ACC in 2019-20 - The Juice Online (the juice; podcast; Waters & Cheng)
Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters calls in to break down the 2019-20 Syracuse basketball season with host Wes Cheng on The Juice on the Cuse podcast hosted by SNY.tv. TJO editor in chief Brad Bierman then calls in to chat about the football team’s win over Western Michigan.
Here are the highlights from the show:
Wesley Cheng: How do you see the rest of the season playing out? Can Syracuse replicate some of the success they had last year?
Mike Waters: I think they’re a bubble team. I see them inching their way in. The earlier part of the season is going to be vitally important. This is a young team that lost four starters from last year’s team. They’re young and inexperienced and they have a tough early schedule starting off with Virginia, the national champion. But I still think if they can do well enough in the early part of the season, I think this team can make hay in the ACC. Once you get past the first four ACC teams in the top tier, Syracuse is going to have to make sure they’re in the next two or three teams in order to get a bid. The schedule plays out in their favor. I have them going 10-10 or 11-9 in the ACC and making the tournament if they can keep their head above water in the beginning of the year.
Rundown:
1. Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters calls in
2. Healthy Bourama Sidibe
3. Improvement from Jalen Carey
4. Can Joe Girard make the rotation?
5. How will Syracuse do in 2019-20?
6. TJO Editor in Chief Brad Bierman calls in
7. Win over Western Michigan
8. Look forward to Holy Cross
9. Closing thoughts and wrap up
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Syracuse forward Marek Dolezaj cleared for basketball activities, per report (scacchoops.com; Szuba)
Dolezaj did not participate in the Italy games with a broken finger.
After missing four exhibition games in Italy last month with a broken finger, Syracuse Orange men’s basketball forward Marek Dolezaj has been cleared for all basketball activities, per CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.
ACC Basketball: Preseason rankings for 2019-20 season (bustingbrackets.com; Rauf)
ACC basketball has been the country’s premier conference, and the title race looks to be wide open in 2019-20. Who will reign supreme in the new season?
ACC basketball experienced another banner year last season by producing three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament (Duke, Virginia, North Carolina), which was only the second time that had been done.
The conference also produced the national champions in the Cavaliers, who claimed their first title in program history and became the fourth school currently in the ACC to win a championship this decade (Louisville was a member of the Big East when they won in 2013, though that title has since been vacated).
The ACC will remain one of the country’s best conferences in 2019-20, but there’s no doubt it will take a small step back.
There is no surefire national championship contender that returns an entire experienced, accomplished core like Virginia and UNC did last year. There is no school loaded with a historic freshman class like Duke was. And the depth of the conference will not be as good as it was last year.
It will also be a year of great turnover and transition in the ACC. Only two all-conference performers are back (Louisville’s Jordan Nwora, Notre Dame‘s John Mooney), and both of them were only third-team selections. Neither is the conference’s most notable returner either, as that distinction belongs to Duke’s Tre Jones. Almost every team will be looking to establish a new core group and find new stars, which creates a lot of unknown.
The conditions are ripe for a surprise team or two to sneak their way up the standings. At the same time, they’re also ripe for the handful of coaches on the hot seat to seal their fate.
How will the upcoming college basketball season play out in the nation’s premier basketball conference? Here are our preseason rankings for the ACC:
15 HOKIES LAST YEAR: 26-9 (12-6 ACC)
Virginia Tech made the Sweet 16 for just the second time in school history last year, but the drop off is going to be steep.
Buzz Williams left for Texas A&M and has been replaced by former Wofford head coach Mike Young, yet virtually all VT’s important players left, too. Justin Robinson graduated, Nickeil Alexander-Walker will be coming off the bench for the New Orleans Pelicans, and All-ACC big man Kerry Blackshear is finishing his college career at Florida.
Wabissa Bede is the only returning starter, and Isaiah Wilkins and PJ Horne are the only other players returning from the rotation. They’re hoping to receive a boost from Landers Nolley, who was academically ineligible last season, but the Hokies are going to have to rely on their freshmen class to contribute in a big way.
Young managed to piece together a solid class considering the late start he got, headlined by Jalen Cone, a four-star prospect that figures to be the team’s starting point guard and one of their better players.
Still, this program is set to embark on yet another rebuild. It will probably take a year or two before they become anything close to competitive in the ACC.
14 EAGLES LAST YEAR: 14-17 (5-13)
The writing is on the wall for Jim Christian. Through five seasons at Boston College, he is only 62-100, has never won eight conference games in a season, has never finished outside the bottom third of the ACC, and has only led the Eagles to one postseason appearance (2018 NIT).
He needs to win now. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen – especially now that Wynston Tabbs is out for the year with a knee injury.
It was already going to be a tough year for the Eagles as they had to replace Ky Bowman, who led them in points, assists, steals, and was second in rebounding last year. Now, returning big man Nik Popovic and Duke/USC transfer Derryck Thornton will have to do virtually everything for this seemingly lackluster group.
That 2018 NIT team – the only team Christian has had at BC that finished with a winning record – was led by the star backcourt of Bowman and Jerome Robinson, who ended up being the No. 13 pick in the 2018 draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. The combination of Thronton and Tabbs was supposed to at least come close to replicating the success of that style. Without Tabbs, the Eagles will be missing a significant scoring punch for which there’s no obvious replacement.
Unless a player or two has a breakout year for Boston College, this is looking like it will be Christian’s last year in charge.
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11 ORANGE LAST YEAR: 20-14 (10-8)
This is a weird one.
Syracuse clearly has a higher pedigree and a major coaching advantage over every school on the list to this point, and even over several schools to follow. Unfortunately, this team also seems to be devoid of the typical talent the Orange are used to having.
The departures of Tyus Battle, Frank Howard, Oshae Brissett – the program’s three best players each of the last two years – leave serious holes in the lineup that the current roster likely won’t be able to fill.
Elijah Hughes is the only returning player that averaged over seven points per game last season and he’ll be relied on to be the go-to guy offensively. After him though, Syracuse is looking to the likes of Buddy Boeheim and Marek Dolezaj to be their secondary scoring options – and that’s not a good thing. Buddy Boeheim has a reputation for being a knockdown spot-up shooter, but there wasn’t a ton else to his game as a freshman last year. Dolezaj didn’t score more than 10 points in a game last season, and he only hit that mark on three occasions.
Even Syracuse’s patented 2-3 zone is expected to take a hit because of the lack of length, athleticism, and interior strength on this roster. Jim Boeheim has even said his squad will play some man-to-man this season because of it.
The Orange also keep an extremely short rotation, but Boeheim will be forced to fill that rotation with a lot of freshmen from a less-than-spectacular class. Brycen Goodine and Joe Girard III will likely see the most time off the bench.
This is a team with more holes than answers. I think they’ll be lucky if they even get into the NCAA Tournament bubble conversation we’ve become so accustomed to having Syracuse in on an annual basis.
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Other
HGTV star visits CNY’s Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards: ‘I’m in heaven’ (PS; Herbert)
It’s apple-picking season in Central New York, and even national television stars are getting in on the fun.
HGTV star and designer David Bromstad visited Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards in LaFayette this past weekend, posting several photos on Instagram and of himself making “wonderful memories.”
“Basking in the glory of an apple orchard. But really I just forgot my sunglasses,” he wrote for a selfie with his eyes closed on a sunny Saturday afternoon. “If u want to see the whole story go to my insights and check out this adorable place to create wonderful memories. It’s called apples yes!”
Bromstad posted more than a dozen photos and videos from Beak & Skiff in an Instagram Story titled “Apples yes!” as he enjoyed apple-picking and other offerings, from apple cider and doughnuts to its alcohol brand, 1911 Established.
“I’m in heaven," he sang in one clip.
These video stills from an Instagram story posted by David Bromstad show the HGTV host visiting Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards in LaFayette, N.Y., on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019.
Bromstad didn’t elaborate on why he was in town, but he hinted it may have been to film an upcoming episode of HGTV’s “My Lottery Dream Home." Bromstad travels often as the host of the real estate reality TV show where he helps lottery winners find their dream homes.
In one clip, he said he was in the area and had finished a “half day” of work, so he decided to visit Beak & Skiff for fun. The 116-year-old family-owned business south of Syracuse has frequently been named the best apple orchard in America.
Bromstad didn’t stay in CNY long, though, as he posted more photos and videos Monday from the Universal Studios resort in Orlando, Florida.
The Miami Beach resident first rose to fame as the winner of the debut season of “HGTV Design Star" in 2006. He’s hosted “Color Splash with David Bromstad” since 2007 and also hosts “My Lottery Dream Home.”
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