sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was born on this day in 1706, in Boston, making today Ben Franklin Day. He was a polymath, or expert in many subjects. Some of the titles that could be given to him are inventor, scientist, politician, diplomat, civic activist, printer, author, postmaster, and mapmaker. He also founded or was a part of many organizations and groups.
Franklin was the tenth and youngest son of a soap and candle maker, Josiah Franklin, and Josiah's second wife, Abiah Folger. The elder Franklin wanted his son to follow the path of a preacher, but did not have the money to send him to school. Benjamin only attended school up until the age of ten, when he began working full-time in his father's shop. At the age of twelve he was sent to apprentice his older brother James, who was a printer. James started The New England Courant in Boston when Benjamin was fifteen. Benjamin wanted to be printed in the paper, but James would not allow it. So, he wrote letters under name of Silence Dogood, a fictional widow, and slid them under the print shop door at night. The fourteen letters he wrote were published; they gave advice and were filled with critical observations of the world. Benjamin eventually confessed to writing them, and James was not happy. Later, after harassment and beating at the hands of his brother, Benjamin ended up running away to New York, and then ended up in Philadelphia in 1723.
SU News
SU basketball at Virginia Tech: What to know (PS; Waters)
A rematch less than two weeks in the making.
The Syracuse Orange will travel to Blacksburg, Va., for a return game against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday.
Syracuse and Virginia Tech met on Jan. 7 with the Hokies rallying for a 67-63 win over the Orange at the Carrier Dome.
Syracuse (10-7 overall, 3-3 in the ACC) has won twice since that loss to Virginia Tech, while the Hokies have won three straight games. Virginia Tech (13-4, 4-2) has won seven of its last eight games with the only loss coming at Virginia on Jan. 4.
Syracuse will try to claim its second revenge game of the year. The Orange defeated Virginia in Charlottesville, Va., just last Saturday after dropping the season-opener to the Cavaliers on Nov. 6.
The SU-Virginia Tech game is scheduled for a noon start and will be televised on the Regional Sports Network.
Here are 10 key things to know:
The historical significance
Syracuse and Virginia Tech have played just 13 games against each other, but in just those few meetings they have met as independents and as members of both the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences.
Syracuse leads the all-time series 9-5, but the Hokies have won three of the last four meetings.
Syracuse is just 2-2 at Virginia Tech’s Cassell Coliseum. All four games at Cassell have come since Syracuse joined the ACC in the 2013-14 season.
Oddly, Syracuse never played at Virginia Tech during the Hokies’ brief time as a member of the Big East Conference.
Can SU get open for 3s?
Syracuse averages roughly 26 attempts from 3-point range per game this season. The Orange is also making 9.6 shots from outside the line.
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Virginia Tech vs. Syracuse - Q&A with the SB Nation’s ‘Cuse site Nunes Magician (gobblercountry.com; Reynolds)
Following Virginia Tech’s third straight win they now head back home to host Syracuse this Saturday. The Hokies have only lost once in Cassell Coliseum this year and the match-up comes just 11 days after the two schools met in New York. Meanwhile, the Orange have rebounded since dropping that earlier match against Tech, defeating UVA on the road and Boston College at home.
To get a better sense of how things are going for Syracuse we spoke with Kevin Wall from Nunes Magician, SB Nation’s site on all things Syracuse. We get his thoughts on the first game, his expectations for the Orange this season, their shorter than normal rotation, Elijah Hughes, Jim Boeheim’s future, and a prediction for Saturday.
Check back in for a link to our answers to their questions once the article it published.
GC: When the Hokies visited the Carrier Dome a few weeks ago, Syracuse controlled the first half as Virginia Tech struggled against the zone. What did the Orange do in the second half that Boeheim needs to adjust ahead of Saturday?
NM: I think he needs to use Howard Washington in this game. The backup point guard didn’t see the court and I think fatigue down the stretch was an issue. In the last two games Washington has gotten some extended run in the first half which has allowed Joe Girard to get some rest and see what the defense is giving him from the bench. Girard isn’t a true point guard and sometimes falls into the trap of hunting for his own shot over running the offense. Washington is a calm player and he moves the ball around when he’s in the game as this Syracuse team can struggle when it becomes more isolation-heavy.
GC: Syracuse is currently 3-3 in the ACC, one of five teams tied for 5th place. Heading into the season what were your expectations for the team in the ACC and overall?
NM: Most Syracuse fans felt this team would be somewhere between 6th and 8th in the ACC but comfortably in the NCAA Tournament unlike the last couple of years. While the ACC being down has improved Syracuse’s standing in the league it’s disappointing to still have a lot of work to do to get into bubble discussion. This is a crucial stretch for the Orange as they face both Virginia Tech and Notre Dame on the road after having already dropped home games. It seems as though Syracuse needs to win them both to continue to make a post-season push.
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Once in a slumber, Syracuse basketball's bench begins to emerge - The Juice Online (the juice; Zych)
Now that the students are back on campus, it was a good time to build a little momentum by beating a just-as-erratic Boston College team Wednesday night.
The Eagles, who also toppled Virginia last week, could not get anything going at the Dome to fall decisively to the Orange. Both teams are now 3-3 in an equally up-and-down ACC.
SU, on Buddy Boeheim’s 15 first-half points, handedly outscored Boston College en route to a 25-point cushion. As a result, Howard Washington, Quincy Guerrier and Jesse Edwards saw the court in the game’s first 20 minutes. Brycen Goodine, who is wearing a mask for a broken nose suffered in a recent practice, played in the second half to show flashes of potential.
“We are getting better but we’re not where we need to be,” the coach said following his team’s much-needed league victory in the Dome.
Once the Orange broke free from the Eagles in the dreadful, low-scoring first 12 minutes, the coach felt comfortable experimenting with on-court chemistry to determine who could be a contributing rotational player down the stretch when every victory…or slip-up…is magnified.
He singled out Washington, the junior point guard who has played sparingly due to injuries and medical reasons. Washington looked comfortable running the offense and finished with three assists in just over 13 minutes of action.
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Elijah Hughes on scary Wednesday fall and the tape on his shooting hand (PS; Ditota)
With 13 minutes and change left in the first half Wednesday in the Carrier Dome, Elijah Hughes drove the lane and collided with Boston College’s Steffon Mitchell.
Officials whistled the Syracuse forward for an offensive foul, but when Hughes stayed stuck to the Dome floor clutching his side, what seemed like a routine block-charge interaction loomed as something much more serious.
Was SU’s best player hurt?
“The dude tried to take a charge and I kind of landed on my ribcage,” Hughes said later in the Orange locker room. “It was really painful, hard to breathe. It was kind of a mixture of getting the wind knocked out of me and landing on my ribs. That hurts.”
SU athletic trainer Brad Pike spoke to Hughes, who rose from a prone to a seated position. He was eventually ushered off the floor for a spot on the Syracuse bench. He sat there for four first-half minutes, a relative luxury this season.
Hughes leads the ACC in minutes played. He chuckled when asked about all the rest he received in SU’s 76-50 pasting of BC. He usually plays 40 minutes. Against BC, he played a little more than 31 minutes.
Hughes said he visits Pike “as much as I can” to submit to various treatments aimed at keeping his body fresh over a long season. He also watches what he eats.
He still wears tape that crisscrosses over his right thumb. The tape is a lingering concession to a hand injury he sustained when SU played in Brooklyn last November. Hughes said his hand only occasionally aches, but he feels better with the support tape protecting it. He does not consider himself superstitious, but he recognizes he’s shooting the ball just fine with the tape as a support guide.
As for the ribs, whenever he talked about them Wednesday night, his right hand subconsciously drifted to the sore spot on his right side. Syracuse visits Virginia Tech on Saturday.
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Virginia Tech vs Syracuse: 2019-20 key storylines for 2nd league clash (bustingbrackets.com; Freeman)
Syracuse and Virginia Tech will face off for the second time this season. What are the key storylines for the return matchup?
The ACC has been absolutely wild this season. Six games in and everyone has at least both a win and a loss, including Duke who just recently got upset by Clemson. The true top and bottom-tier of the league are incredibly small, with a large middle group of teams that can beat anyone. That includes the subjects of this piece…. the Virginia Tech Hokies and Syracuse Orange.
Virginia Tech 13-4 (4-2) is one of the biggest positive surprises of the season. With a new head coach and a completely retooled roster, the Hokies somehow have put themselves right in the thick of the NCAA Tournament picture. They’re coming off of a big 80-70 road win at Wake Forest earlier this week, led by 21 points apiece from Landers Nolley and Tyrece Radford.
Syracuse 10-7 (3-3) is also coming off a win, handling Boston College by a big margin of 76-50. Buddy Boeheim led all scorers with 22 points, while forward Marek Dolezaj recorded a solid double-double. It was an impressive performance on both ends of the court, limiting the Eagles to just 33% shooting from the field and no one scoring in double figures.
The Hokies are looking for a season sweep against the Orange, winning the earlier matchup a couple of weeks ago, 67-63 in the Carrier Dome. The leading scorer from the game came off the bench, with Virginia Tech freshman Jalen Cone going for 19 points. Syracuse is looking for not only some revenge but also a major win for their tournament resume.
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Five things: Can Duke men's basketball rebound in its toughest ACC test yet? (dukechronicle; Lindqwister)
After riding high after a dominant start to its ACC slate, the Blue Devils came crashing down to Earth Tuesday night with a loss to an unranked Clemson team.
And with its first ranked matchup in over a month on the horizon, No. 3 Duke must show not just the resiliency to bounce back from defeat, but the intensity to defend its home court against a No. 11 Louisville team hungry for a statement win.
Saturday evening's contest against the Cardinals is slated as the Blue Devils' first true marquee conference meeting of the season. Here are five things to watch for as two ACC powers clash.
Big problems
Omer Yurtseven, Aamir Simms and James Banks III are all names that should keep the Blue Devils up at night. Duke has struggled all season to contain dynamic bigs, and if the Blue Devils aren't prepared, Louisville's Jordan Nwora may be next on that list.
A terror to defend on all levels of the floor, the 6-foot-7 Nwora leads the Cardinals with 20.4 points per game and shoots a red-hot 44.0 percent from downtown. Add in two hulking interior presences in Steven Enoch and Dwayne Sutton and the Cardinals have all of the pieces needed to beat the Blue Devils in the paint and clean up on the glass.
The key for Duke headed into this matchup will be the defensive prowess of Jack White, Javin DeLaurier and Vernon Carey Jr. Without Wendell Moore Jr.'s length and quickness to slow down Nwora and Sutton, the Blue Devils will need White and DeLaurier to step up as defensive leaders inside and take off some of the pressure on Carey, who has struggled at times to maintain his defensive intensity.
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