sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Thumb Appreciation Day!
Today we celebrate—and show a little appreciation for—the thumb, which is considered to be one of the most important digits. Made up of two bones, thumbs are often known as opposable thumbs because they can be stretched opposite fingers in order to grip things. They can carry out a wide range of uses and motions, such as pinching, grasping, rotating, and flexing. Besides humans, some animals have opposable thumbs or toes, although most do not. These animals are mainly primates like chimpanzees and orangutans. On Thumb Appreciation Day, some people abstain from using their thumbs and instead just use their other fingers, which gives them a better appreciation for their thumbs. Others show their appreciation for their thumbs by using them in various ways, more than they usually would otherwise.
SU News
Another UofL-Syracuse matchup postponed due to COVID-19 (wlky.com; Chernoff)
The University of Louisville men's basketball game against Syracuse, which was scheduled for Wednesday evening inside the KFC Yum! Center, has been postponed.
The Atlantic Coast Conference made the announcement Wednesday afternoon.
"The postponement follows a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing within the Louisville men’s basketball program. The team is adhering to the outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report," according to the ACC.
The Cards have not played a game since Feb. 1 when they won 74-58 over Georgia Tech.
Shortly thereafter, the program went on a COVID-19 related pause.
Since the pause, the Cards have postponed four games: at Syracuse (Feb. 3), at Virginia (Feb. 6), vs. Pitt (Feb. 10) and vs. Syracuse (Feb. 17).
The next scheduled game for the Cards is, at this point, set for Feb. 20 at North Carolina.
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Beat writers undecided if Syracuse can defeat Notre Dame (DO; Staff)
Syracuse hosts Notre Dame in the Carrier Dome on Saturday after SU won its last game against Boston College. The matchup is the first of four regular season games that remain before the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Syracuse’s matchup with Louisville, also a regular season game, was postponed Wednesday due to COVID-19 within the Cardinals program. Head coach Jim Boeheim called the postponement a “missed opportunity,” noting that SU had two strong practices and felt ready to face the Cardinals.
Here’s what our beat writers think will happen when Notre Dame (9-10, 6-7 ACC) visits Syracuse (12-6, 6-5) on Saturday at 2 p.m.:
Andrew Crane (12-6)
That’ll do it
Notre Dame 82, Syracuse 80
Danny brings up a good point down in his blurb: Everyone was so worried about Syracuse getting Quadrant 1 wins, finding ways to boost a resume that may be beyond boostable, that it’s easy to overlook an opponent like Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish have an extremely efficient offense, one that’s only lost two games over the last month — one of which was a two-point loss to Georgia Tech on the road.
The Orange have been strong at home this season, even though most of the games have been close, but Notre Dame’s efficiency on offense will eventually overtake SU’s poor shot selection at times. Syracuse will need its guards to convert early and often on jump shots, so look for this to turn into a high-scoring game before UND finds a way to have one more successful possession at the end.
Anthony Dabbundo (14-4)
Luck of the Irish
Syracuse 81, Notre Dame 75
Notre Dame’s 3-point shooting ability has the potential to make this game difficult for Syracuse. The Orange have defended the 3 relatively well, but most of their opponents haven’t been particularly good at shooting. The Irish rank 27th in 3-point shooting percentage, which is the second-best shooting team SU has faced. While ND has the shooting, they don’t have much size or rebounding ability. The Orange have been very successful this season when they haven’t been dominated on the glass, and the Irish are not a team built to exploit Syracuse’s interior weakness.
The ND defense doesn’t force turnovers and doesn’t get enough stops to keep up with the Orange. Quincy Guerrier has one of his best games of the season with a double-double, and SU takes care of the Irish in a can’t-lose home game.
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Syracuse Basketball: Brandon Huntley-Hatfield likes idea of leading SU (itlh; Adler)
Five-star Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, one of the best players in the 2022 recruiting cycle, added Syracuse basketball to his list of finalists after the Orange offered him a scholarship last December.
Since then, in numerous interviews, he’s spoken highly of the ‘Cuse program and its coaching staff, although competition for the 6-foot-9 power forward is intense.
Huntley-Hatfield, a junior at Scotland Campus in Scotland, Pa., is deemed a top-10 prospect in his class by the bevy of main recruiting services.
He’s also the No. 1 power forward and the No. 1 player in Pennsylvania in this cycle, according to national ratings provided by the 247Sports Composite and 247Sports.
When Syracuse basketball offered Huntley-Hatfield, his half-dozen finalists became the Orange, along with Ole Miss, Kansas, Wake Forest, Tennessee and Auburn.
However, per an article by Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com, Huntley-Hatfield told recruiting guru Weingarten that “Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn, and Syracuse” remain “heavily in the mix.”
Whether that means Kansas and Wake Forest have gotten removed from Huntley-Hatfield’s group of finalists isn’t entirely clear to me, but it’s of course encouraging that the ‘Cuse is still in contention.
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Syracuse Basketball: Top Five Orange Dunkers Since 2000 (itlh; Mlodzinski)
Tyus Battle’s VTB United League dunk contest championship comes as no surprise. But is he a top-five dunker among Syracuse basketball players since 2000?
On February 14, former Syracuse basketball star Tyus Battle won the VTB United League dunk contest. This is Battle’s first year in the Russian-based professional basketball league. He plays for the basketball club Enisey.
Battle made all four of his dunks on the first attempt and showed off a wide array of tricks from his bag. Perhaps his most impressive was a between the legs dunk which he finished with his right hand. His final dunk came from a pass off the side of the backboard which he caught and windmilled for an athletic finish.
This isn’t Battle’s first time being crowned the top dunker in an event. He won Syracuse’s Orange Madness in 2016, using one of the same dunks that he repeated in the VTB United League dunk contest.
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ACC Roundup - Three Games, Two Cancellations (DBR; King)
Three games Wednesday, two cancellations and one improvised: NC State is at Pitt, Syracuse visits Louisville and UNC has a quickie with Northeastern, arranged via Twitter.
State and Pitt are both sliding but Pitt still has its best player while State doesn’t. The Pack is 2-8 in its last 10 games which doesn’t augur well for this one. Pitt meanwhile is 1-5 in its last six. We’ll have to go with the healthier home team here. Plus State will be missing Thomas Allen with an injury.
Syracuse and Louisville is really intriguing. Louisville is favored but Syracuse has been playing well although against mediocre competition. Two interesting defenses too. We’ll go with the three point shooters and take Syracuse to shoot over Louisville rather than vice-versa. Plus the Cards are coming off a long pause, so there’s that.
And UNC should surely beat Northeastern although this season, as we’ve seen many times, has no guarantees.
Scott Spinelli is the interim coach at BC, stepping in for the terminated Jim Christian, but he’ll have to wait for his debut as the BC-Georgia Tech game is postponed. Unless BC gets more players back, there’s no way they win this if it were going to be played and in fact may not win again this year, assuming they actually do play again. We’re not positive but we think the worst ACC record of all time is about seven wins although BC won’t match the losses due to the pandemic.
Clemson should be playing at Notre Dame as well and that would be a fun one since both teams were playing well. But that’s off.
Just another evening of pandemic hoops.
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MBB: 2020 ACC Bell Curve (RX; HM)
MBB: 2020 ACC Bell Curve
ACC MBB Standings - by the Bell (curve)
| CU | |||||
| NC | |||||
| ND | SU | FS | |||
| WF | UP | DU | VT | ||
| BC | UM | NS | GT | UL | VA |
(ACC football fans will recognize it right away).
Other
Angler gets closer to world ice fishing record: 47-inch tiger muskie caught on Otisco Lake (PS; $; Figura)
Inch by inch, ounce by ounce, the tiger muskies caught ice fishing this winter on Otisco Lake just keep getting bigger.
Will the world ice fishing record for a tiger muskie caught on a tip up be broken this winter? Three anglers this winter have come close. The most recent catch was a 47-incher caught Saturday by Walter Kemblowski, 61, of Marietta, on a small shiner.
And coincidentally, Kemblowski was accompanied on the ice that day by fishing buddy Tom Boise of Lakeland, who currently holds the record set in 2009. That fish measured 45 ½ inches and weighed 27 pounds, 5 ounces. The world record, maintained by the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Wisconsin, is determined by weight.
Kemblowski’s fish was weighed on the ice with a reliable electronic scale, said the two anglers. It was 26 pounds, 10 ounces.
Walter Kemblowski, of Marietta, holds up a 47 inch tiger muskie on Otisco Lake. The scale he's hold shows the fish weighed 26 pounds, 10 ounces.
Looking at cell phone photos afterward that he took of Kemblowski holding the fish and the blood around its mouth, Boise joked that his fishing buddy “added a pound of lipstick to it to make it heavier.”
Other impressive tiger muskies caught this winter include Joshua Stratmann’s fish that measured 45 3/4 inches and weighed 24 pounds and 8 pounds, and Christopher William’s fish that measured 45 1/2 inches and weighed a little more than 26 pounds.
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