sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Festivus!
Festivus is a holiday that shuns the commercialism and pressures of the Christmas season, and takes place on December 23 each year. It was invented by writer Daniel O'Keefe, and originally celebrated by his family. The holiday permeated American culture after O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, wrote the holiday into an episode of Seinfeld titled "The Strike," which was first broadcasted on December 18, 1997. In the episode, the holiday was created by George Costanza's father Frank, and was celebrated at Frank and Estelle Costanza's house, with the attendance of Kramer, Jerry, Elaine, George, George's boss Kruger, and two men that Cramer invited that Elaine had been trying to avoid.
SU News
Quincy Guerrier ascends to role as Syracuse basketball's sparkplug - The Juice Online (the juice; Gustin)
Another game, another double-double.
Quincy Guerrier had single-handedly awoken Syracuse from the doldrums against Buffalo. With the Orange hitting zero 3s for the game four minutes into the second half, and the Orange trailing by what appeared to be an insurmountable 16-point lead, Guerrier rose and fired from the right wing for SU’s first 3-pointer of the game.
He followed that with three more free throws, and suddenly, the lead was whittled to 12, and, well, you know the rest. The Orange rallied to win in overtime 107-96.
Guerrier was his usual self. A career-high 27 points to go with a gritty 11 rebounds. It was his fourth double-double of the season through seven games, and a testament to how far he’s come.
“Quincy’s been great all year,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, never one to be overly effusive in his praise.
Of course, Guerrier’s journey to this point hasn’t been a straight line. To become Mr. Consistent, Guerrier needed to earn his place in SU’s rotation as a bench player in his freshman year.
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Stop the Debate: Joe Girard Needs to Start for Syracuse – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; May)
Let’s get one thing straight right off the top, who starts and who doesn’t doesn’t matter. Especially with a head coach like Jim Boeheim, whoever deserves to play is going to play. If a starter is having a horrible game, Boeheim will find someone to fill the spot, and if the starters are all playing well, he will stick with them. So, this big push to get Joe Girard out of the starting lineup is pointless because whoever is playing well is going to play the majority of the minutes, and that is what really matters.
With all of that being said, however, Girard needs to be the starter. There are multiple reasons for this, so here you go:
REASON #1: MENTAL WARFARE
Girard is a very hot and cold player, as we have all seen this season. He gets in his own head and is more affected than most when challenged. If Boeheim was to pull Girard from the starting lineup, that would completely mess with his psyche and send him down a rabbit hole with long term ramifications. The best thing to do is keep him as a starter, which tells Girard that Boeheim has confidence in him, and let him work out the issues he’s been having. If he can’t work them out, then pull him early in games (like the Buffalo game) and let Kadary Richmond step in.
Plus, many of the other starters have a really strong relationship with Girard, especially Buddy Boeheim. By taking him out of the starting lineup, it would mess with Buddy’s head and the feng shui of the team.
REASON #2: SPREADING THE FLOOR
With Joe Girard in the starting lineup, it completely changes how opposing teams have to gameplan for Syracuse. JG3 is known as a shooter, which means defenses need to stick with him on the outside. That in turn leads to the inside opening up and allowing the Orange to have success down there, which they’ve had plenty of this season. Plus, by Girard starting, SU has three (kind of four) shooters on the floor out of the gates. It stretches opposing defenses thin and allows Syracuse to do a lot more. If Richmond took over the starting role, teams wouldn’t need to key on him outside the three-point arc, which would stuff up the middle and make it more difficult for the SU offense.
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Another postponement for Wake Forest men's basketball (nsjonline.com; Friedlander)
The Wake Forest basketball team hasn’t played in nearly a month because of issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tuesday, the ACC announced that the Deacons will have to wait even longer to get back on the court.
Wake’s conference opener against Syracuse, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 30, has been postponed after one of the Orange’s recent opponents reported positive COVID-19 tests — requiring its team to be quarantined for contract tracing.
A makeup date has not yet been announced.
The Deacons are 2-0 under new coach Steve Forbes, but have not played since a 71-60 victory against Longwood the day after Thanksgiving in the second game of its Mako Medical Wake Forest Classic.
The Syracuse game is the fifth Wake has had either canceled or postponed because of its own COVID issues. The Deacons have been idle since pausing basketball activities on November 30. They resumed practicing on Sunday.
Their next scheduled game is January 3 at Georgia Tech.
In addition to the latest postponement, Wake also announced on Tuesday that redshirt freshman center Tariq Ingraham, who is recovering from COVID-19, will miss the remainder of the season, as will graduate transfer Ian DuBose.
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Syracuse Basketball: Three-star center Riley Mulvey sees recruitment grow (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse basketball continues to receive buzz for under-rated 2022 big man Riley Mulvey.
At the center position in the 2022 recruiting cycle, I get the sense that the two main priorities for Syracuse basketball are three-star Riley Mulvey and four-star Donovan Clingan.
Clingan has a ton of suitors and a recruitment that is somewhat tough to read as it pertains to a possible favorite or favorites. Mulvey, meanwhile, keeps on adding to his scholarship-offer sheet even as his national ratings remain a tad low in my opinion.
The 6-foot-11 Mulvey recently landed new offers from fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia Tech as well as Pennsylvania out of the Ivy League, according to Mulvey’s Twitter page and his bios on various recruiting Web sites.
His previous offers are from the Orange, along with Albany, Bryant, Iowa, Massachusetts, Penn State, Siena and Yale. Moreover, we penned a column a few weeks back in which Mulvey told recruiting analyst and Stockrisers.com founder Jake Weingarten that other squads to show interest in him include Kansas, Iona and Providence.
Syracuse basketball is thought to have a solid chance to pick up 2022 center Riley Mulvey.
Mulvey is a junior at the St. Thomas More School, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn. He attended the Albany Academy in Albany, N.Y., prior to that and has also suited up on the AAU circuit for the Albany City Rocks, a program that has sent multiple guys to the ‘Cuse in recent years.
Not all of the primary recruiting services rank Mulvey on a national scale, but make no mistake about it, this dude can flat-out compete. He’s a proficient rebounder and shot-blocker, and Mulvey’s scoring prowess in the paint would totally be welcomed by Syracuse basketball fanatics.
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Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant (9) holds the ball during the second half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, in Washington.AP Photo/Nick Wass
NBA season begins: 4 former Syracuse basketball players to watch (and 1 big question) (PS; $; Herbert)
The 2020-2021 NBA season begins Tuesday night, returning to arenas across the U.S. after the coronavirus pandemic forced the end of last season to be played in a bubble.
Currently, four former Syracuse basketball players are on an NBA roster, one is a big question, and two are in the G League: Oshae Brissett is on the Toronto Raptors’ G League team, Raptors 905, and Andrew White III will return to the New York Knicks’ affiliate, the Westchester Knicks.
Here’s a look at four (plus one?) Orange alumni to watch:
1. Carmelo Anthony, , Portland Trail Blazers: Melo, who led Syracuse to its only NCAA title in 2003, is returning to the Blazers after accepting a new role after years of being the first option. He averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds in 58 games, and could help Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Robert Covington, Enes Kanter, and Zach Collins go further in the playoffs after a first-round exit in Orlando this summer. Could Anthony get his first NBA championship trophy? He’ll have to get past old pal LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers first.
2. Jerami Grant, , Detroit Pistons: The former Orange wing helped the Denver Nuggets reach the Western Conference Finals and proved his NBA worth as a solid 3-and-D player, averaging 39% from three-point range over the past two seasons. As a free agent this summer, he signed a 3-year, $60 million deal with the Detroit Pistons, who have potential with Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin, Jahlil Okafor, Mason Plumlee and Rochester native Isaiah Stewart. (Fun fact: Anthony is the only former Syracuse basketball player with a bigger contract in NBA history.)
3. Elijah Hughes: G, Utah Jazz: Hughes, who averaged 19 points per game last year with SU, was selected 39th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. He scored 9 points in 12 minutes off the bench for the Jazz’s first preseason game last week, but may struggle to find playing time behind Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles and Jordan Clarkson.
4. Michael Carter-Williams, G, Orlando Magic: MCW re-signed with Orlando for a two-year deal after averaging 7.2 points per game last season, but the Magic are not expected to do well this season. The Sporting News predicted Orlando will be lucky to even make the 2021 playoffs.
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Other
Syracuse’s new snow plow names make John Oliver ‘furious’ (PS; $; Baker)
“Blizzard Beater.” “Salt City Express.” “Below Zero Hero.”
These are just a few of the names Syracuse slapped on its 10 new snow plows this month. And they make John Oliver “furious.” Sort of.
Oliver, the host of HBO’s hit talk show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” was a guest host on a satire-rich podcast called “The Bugle” last week. He led the hour-long show with a riff about Syracuse’s snow plow names and, specifically, how we missed the chance to name our snow-clearers with some world class puns (he must not have seen “Control Salt Delete.”)
“[The names] seemed fine, until I looked at what Scotland has been doing with its snow plow names, because it puts those names to shame,” he says on the show.
Oliver, who is British, rattles off some of the names given to snow plows in Scotland, including gems like “Han Snow-Lo” and “Snow-be-gone Kenobi.” Others include “Grit Expectations,” “Gritallica” and “Gritney Spears.” (Plows are often called gritters in the United Kingdom, named for the grit they spread on the road).
In Wilkshire, England, Oliver exclaims, they have a plow called Usain Salt. There’s one in Doncaster named David Plowie.
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