sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Boxing Day takes place the day after Christmas and is primarily observed in the United Kingdom, where it started, as well as in countries that were once part of the British crown. There are a few possible theories as to how it got started, but its exact origin is unclear.
One theory says it was inspired by Christmas boxes. In seventeenth-century Great Britain, boxes holding a present or gratuity were given to tradesman and workers in service industries for their previous year's work. This went back to an even earlier tradition where servants would wait on and serve their rich masters on Christmas Day and would visit and celebrate with their own families on the day after Christmas. Their rich masters would sometimes give them a box with leftover food, a bonus, or another type of gift.
SU News
Syracuse Basketball: Orange need to end 2019 on a positive note vs Niagara (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse basketball will put the finishing touches on its out-of-conference calendar when the Orange hosts Niagara on Saturday evening.
Syracuse basketball has one game remaining in 2019, a home tilt against in-state foe Niagara this Saturday night.
Following that contest, the new year arrives, the Orange will have completed its non-conference docket, and Atlantic Coast Conference play will kick back into gear.
The current campaign has definitely proven a tad frustrating for ‘Cuse fanatics, myself included, as Syracuse will enter 2020 with at least five losses, and hopefully no more than that.
The Orange (7-5) is still a work on progress, particularly on defense, although the Syracuse offense has shown some promise in recent match-ups, like the consecutive conquests of North Florida and Oakland on the Hill.
Niagara (2-8), slotted at No. 10 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason poll, is experiencing a challenging 2019-20 stanza at this juncture. Its pair of successes are against Colgate in overtime and Norfolk State by four points. The bevy of the Purple Eagles’ setbacks are by decisive margins, and the Orange is a heavy favorite in this encounter.
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ACC Roundup - Georgia Tech Takes Third Place In Diamond Head Classic (DBR; King)
Only one game on Christmas Day as Georgia Tech topped Hawaii 70-53 to claim third place in the Diamond Head Classic.
Moses Wright has had a really good tournament for the Yellow Jackets. He’s hit for 18, 19 and 16 in three games. His rebounding was off against Hawaii but he still picked up 22 in three games.
In more good news, Jose Alvarado seems to be back in the saddle after missing several games. He’s played at least 29 minutes in every game and really he’s the key player for this team.
Georgia Tech is also incorporating Jordan Usher into the lineup with mixed results so far. The USC transfer has been eligible for four games so far, all in the Diamond Head Classic.
Assuming he continues to progress and fits in well, Georgia Tech’s lineup is now reasonably talented: James Banks at center, Usher and Wright at forwards, Alvarado and Micheal DeVoe at the guards.
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Vernon Carey is making a case for ACC Player of the Year (247sports.com; Watson)
Duke freshman center Vernon Carey was honored on Monday as the Atlantic Coast Conference's Freshman of the Week. It was the third time this season the 6-foot-10, 270 pound Florida native had taken home the award.
With all due respect to North Carolina's injured preseason Rookie of the Year, Cole Anthony, Carey has been the ACC's top freshman through the first third of the season. The numbers back it up, but there's an argument to be made that the Duke big man has also been the top player in the conference.
Having already played 11 games heading into the holiday break, Carey is averaging 18.6 points (fourth in the ACC) and 9.3 rebounds per game (third). He's shooting .610 (third) from the field and .667 from the three point line. He's doing all of this in just 23.7 minutes of action per night.
Not only have the seasons averages been elite, Carey has also continually passed the less scientific "eye test" like when he went for 31 points and 12 rebounds in just 22 minutes against Cal in Madison Square Garden. The next night he beat up on Georgetown for 20 points and 10 rebounds. Three games later the freshman exposed preseason No. 1 Michigan State's front line to the tune of 26 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes.
Following the game against the Spartans, Michigan State's Xavier Tillman called Carey "ferocious".
“He played tough. He played like he had a vendetta,” said Tillman. "He had an edge to him the whole night. If he was dunking, he was aggressive. Nothing he did was soft."
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Merry Christmas Card Nation: Why Louisville basketball will win Saturday (BRL; Wood)
Every December, there’s only one gift that diehard Louisville basketball fans really want – a victory over that one team down the road. In Coach Mack’s first trip to enemy territory, here’s why the Cards will deliver.
Kentucky sucks. That’s so fun to say, but I can hear it already: “we say that every year before Christmas & then they beat us again.” “You know we’re playing in Rupp right?” Yeah, yeah. I don’t care. And you shouldn’t either. Because Kentucky actually does suck, and our beloved Louisville basketball program is clearly the better team. It’s not a dream y’all, it’s a Christmas miracle.
Let’s remind ourselves that our starting lineup goes like this: Junior, 5th-year senior, Junior, 5th-year senior, 5th year senior. That is the kind of experience that wins championships. Remember how great UK’s recruiting class was once again? How many players do they have in the NBA? Nobody cares. They’ve lost two games in a row and dropped to 19th in the AP poll. The Cardinals are ranked third.
Rankings this early in the year don’t matter. Not really. But talent does. The ACC player of the year plays for Louisville. Jordan Nwora is averaging 21 points per game and has made the rest of the NCAA look like a bunch of scrubs. And nobody wants to see him on defense – this ain’t last year, Jordan has the clamps this season.
Steven Enoch is one of the best big men in the country. His footwork in the post along with his shotmaking ability make him Nick Richards‘ worst nightmare. Yeah, that Nick Richards. UK fans keep holding out hope for him to become the next Anthony Davis or something… we’ll hope in one hand and in the other and see which one fills up faster! Nate Sestina and EJ Montgomery don’t want any of this smoke either.
Malik Williams is literally gonna block every shot in his vicinity. David Johnson is gonna blow by Ashton Hagans and try to tear the rim off, shades of Russ Smith on Julius Randle style. It’s gonna be great. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned Ryan McMahon spraying three’s from the ugly blue logo or silky smooth Sam Williamson making their five-star freshmen look silly.
We all know that playing in Lexington means foul trouble as soon as we step off the bus. But no way in heck are we gonna concede a loss whenever our team is trying to win a National Championship. This is just another business trip for our Cards. Kensucky will be playing like their hair is on fire trying to avoid losing three straight games. But it won’t matter.
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The 20 best CNY teams of the decade: See our list (PS; Burrows)
The 2010s may not have given Central New York another Syracuse basketball or men’s lacrosse championship, but the decade did see plenty of other titles and incredible seasons.
Multiple high schools saw historic dynasties in their prime while both Syracuse University and Le Moyne College saw a women’s team take home a national championship for the very first time.
From prep dynasties and Calder Cup runs to Final Four finishes and first-ever national titles, here are the best teams from CNY over the last decade.
20. 2014 Syracuse Chiefs
The Syracuse Chiefs finished the regular season with an International League-best 81 wins, and though it didn’t end the longest-running Governors’ Cup drought, the 2014 season proved to be the best and possibly most important of the decade.
Syracuse would be swept by the Pawtucket Red Sox in the playoffs as fans debated scheduling formats and a team that was raided by the Washington Nationals as big-league rosters expanded.
In the end, though, fans in CNY witnessed the first playoff game at NBT Bank Stadium.
19. 2013 Syracuse men’s lacrosse
It’s impossible to follow a decade that saw five national championships, but only one title game appearance for the Syracuse men’s lacrosse team in the 2010s seems odd.
Outside of the Orange’s 2013 run, no team made it past the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals. John Desko and the Orange finished the season with an outstanding 16-4 record before falling to Duke, 16-10, in the title game.
The Orange opened with a 4-0 lead but would lose 21-of-30 faceoffs as the Blue Devils closed the gap and eventually secured the win.
The 2013 season featured a disappointing finish, but it’s impossible to ignore a season with wins against No. 4 Johns Hopkins, No. 2 Cornell, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 11 Yale and No. 6 Denver.
18. 2015 Syracuse men’s soccer
All-American Julian Buescher and the Syracuse men’s soccer team saw the program’s highest level of success in 2015. The sophomore became just the eighth player in program history to earn All-America accolades as the team advanced to the Final Four of the College Cup for the first time.
Behind an aggressive defense, the Orange beat Boston College, 1-0, to advance for a rematch with No. 2 seed Clemson. The Tigers topped SU for the second time in 2015, but the Orange still finished with the best season in program history.
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Other
Winter bear den visit, Onondaga Lake eagles, Adirondack hiking record: 2019 Upstate NY outdoors (PS; Figura)
Covering the outdoors for Upstate New York took me all over the state during 2019 as I wrote and learned about a wide variety of fascinating topics.
Some stories were fun or challenging to do. Some made me laugh. Others, I wrote with sadness or disgust. And in one case, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to report on a key development in an exciting, breaking news story.
The following are my choices for the top 15 Upstate N.Y. outdoors stories for 2019.
An eye-opening visit to a Catskill bear den during the winter (video)
This unique story opportunity took place in Minnewaska State Park in Ulster County in mid-January. I was allowed to tag along with a crew of state Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologists to check up on a collared female black bear who was asleep in her den. We were told to hang back as mama bear was tranquilized. Once things were safe, we were allowed to be on hand at the den as three, squealing cubs were found (I was allowed to hold one) and mama was pulled out, examined and weighed. The cubs were also examined and weighed. Read the full story and see the video.
51 bald eagles spotted on Onondaga Lake’s southern end
Nature never ceases to disappoint. Each winter Onondaga Lake freezes over, with the exception of small area at the lake’s southern end near Destiny USA and the Onondaga County waste water treatment plant. The warm effluent water prevents ice from forming and is an attractant for gizzard shad (a bait fish in the lake that prefers warm water temperatures) and waterfowl – all food for bald eagles. On one weekend, total of 51 bald eagles were spotted in the trees and circling the area in search of food. Greg Craybas, a local dentist and well-known wildlife photographer recorded the phenomenon with an eye-opening picture. Read the full story.
Adirondack moose spotted from a helicopter in the Eastern Adirondacks
Searching for Adirondack moose with DEC staff from a helicopter (Video)
For the past five years, the DEC has conducts aereal surveys of wide tracts of land in the Adirondacks to get feel for the numbers and health of the moose population. The survey divides the Adirondack park into grids and records every moose or group of moose seen. The survey crew then flies over to the sighting location, takes a GPS point, determines the number of animals, the age and sex of each animal, and notes general habitat characteristics for each moose sighted, I was able to get up one morning with two DEC staffers and another journalist from Albany to fly over one area near the Saranac Lake/Lake Placid area. We were among a group of journalists who took to the air that morning. We didn’t see any moose on our trip, through we did locate one that had been collared using a special electronic device in the helicopter. Unfortunately, it was only spotted briefly as a result of excessive tree cover. Regardless, it was a cool experience. Read the full story and see the video.
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