sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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The popular board game Scrabble is celebrated today, on the birthday of its creator, Alfred Butts. Butts lost his architectural job in 1931, during the Great Depression, and began brainstorming with the goal of creating a game. He organized board games into three categories: strategy games, numbers games, and word games. Realizing most games weren't word games, he set out to make one that everyone could enjoy. He wanted to combine chance and skill, and was influenced by crossword puzzles and anagrams. In his new game, which he called Lexico, words were built by drawing and discarding from letter tiles. Nine letter tiles were held at a time and there was no game board. Between 1934 and 1938, he made Lexiko sets by hand. He tried to license them to Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers but was rejected.
In 1947, Alfred Butts was contacted by James Brunot, who paid Butts a small royalty and put the game back into production in the summer of 1948. Brunot changed the name of the game to Scrabble, which means "to scrape or grope frenetically with the hands." Brunot and his wife Helen began making the games in their home and stamped the letters on each wooden tile. In 1949, they made 2,251 Scrabble games for a loss of $450. Shortly thereafter, a fortuitous event is said to have occurred: an executive of Macy's department store came across the game while on vacation. It is believed this is what made business begin to boom in 1952.
SU News
Scouting Syracuse Commit Kamari Lands (SI; McAllister)
Syracuse basketball picked up a big commitment in class of 2022 wing Kamari Lands recently. We spoke to SI All-American's Jason Jordan to find out exactly how big.
"I think it's huge," Jordan said. "I've liked Kamari all year over at Prolific. It's just kind of the way the game is going. 6-8, covers a lot of ground, especially in that zone. He's going to cover a lot of space in that zone. He's just a great defender anyway. I've seen him cover all five positions this year, and effectively. He's a guy who's going to be really key, specifically in that matchup zone covering that backline for sure. On the offensive end, multi-talented. I think he's an underrated shooter. If they watch the numbers, I think he was around low 40s on the three point efficiency this year. That's obviously really good. Obviously he's on a really talented team. He knows how to play with talent, plays well with talent. I think he plays better with talent.
"He's going to be a guy who can impact the lineup in a lot of different ways. He can run different positions. He can sometimes slide over and play the two. Very athletic, finishes efficiently in the lane. I think he's an underrated playmaker. One of the biggest knocks on him was his ball handling ability. That's grown substantially this year. I'm pretty high on Kamari as a playmaker and as a scorer. Obviously he's super athletic. His wingspan is around 6-11. That kind of player in Jim Boeheim's system should flourish and I think he will because he's one of the most talented two-way players in the top half of that class, for sure."
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30 Minutes In Orange Nation 4-12 (ESPN; radio; Steve & Paulie)
Steve and Paulie start the show looking back on an exciting finish to the Masters and asking themselves if it’s possible to pick the winner of a golf tournament from the entire field. Then, the hosts discuss a new basketball league for the top prospects in the country ages 16-18 on Today’s Business. Later, a caller wonders what it will take to make Syracuse fans happy.
On The Block On Demand 4-12 (ESPN; radio; Axe)
Brent continues to question some of the outrage surrounding the transfer portal and discusses the news of Alan Griffin declaring for the NBA Draft including what a scout is telling him about Griffin’s draft stock.
Syracuse Basketball: 5-star Benny Williams primed for big freshman impact (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse basketball 2021 commit Benny Williams should have a golden opportunity to do a ton of damage for the Orange as a freshman in the upcoming campaign.
The 6-foot-8 Williams, a five-star forward from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., is one of the highest-rated recruits for the ‘Cuse in recent program history. He is ranked as high as No. 15 nationally in his cycle, according to .
Head coach Jim Boeheim often will prefer to have veterans in his starting rotation, and that could hold true in the 2021-22 stanza. However, given all the roster changes for the Orange of late, I’ll be interested to see whether Williams contends for a starting spot at forward.
Just as Boeheim said would occur, the Syracuse basketball line-up is undergoing a significant make-over, with the squad experiencing defections and picking up additions. While the roster is becoming a bit clearer, it wouldn’t surprise me if further shake-ups transpire.
One of the latest developments is that junior forward Alan Griffin plans to enter the NBA Draft and “is expected to sign with an agent,” per a report by college basketball insider Adam Zagoria.
Griffin, a transfer from Illinois, suited up for one season on the Hill. For part of 2020-21, he led the Orange in scoring, although Griffin did struggle down the stretch.
I figured that he would test the NBA Draft waters and maybe hit the NCAA’s transfer portal, although I didn’t necessarily think that Griffin would forgo the rest of his collegiate eligibility altogether.
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Pittsburgh Basketball: 5 major offseason storylines for Panthers in 2021 (bustingbrackets.com; Freeman)
The 2020-21 season for Pittsburgh Basketball had its fair share of ups and downs. It started off bad, falling to Saint Francis to open the campaign. But as things stabilized, the Panthers started showing real promise for the first time in the Jeff Capel era.
After beating rival Syracuse back-to-back times, Pittsburgh got a program-defining victory at home against the Duke Blue devils. They may have been off this year, not making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over two decades, but that night put the Panthers on the map. It was thanks to Justin Champagnie, who went for a career-high 31 points and 14 rebounds that game and went on to be one of the best players in the ACC.
That win over Duke proved to be high point for Pittsburgh Basketball. The team fell apart afterwards, losing to Boston College, Wake Forest, and Notre Dame to derail any postseason hopes. But before the final loss to Miami, the team lost key starters Au’Diese Toney and Xavier Johnson to the transfer portal.
Things are looking rough for the program, with two vital players off the team, three others also transferring out so far this offseason. And their star player Champagnie is currently looking at the 2021 NBA Draft.
But while Pittsburgh has lost plenty of talent, there remains opportunities to land key players for the 2021-22 season. There are hundreds of players still in the portal and Coach Capel is hard at work.
Here’s a closer look at some key storylines to watch for with Pittsburgh Basketball in the coming months.
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Virginia men’s basketball adds ECU transfer Jayden Gardner to the roster (streakingthelawn.com; Darney)
The Virginia men’s basketball team got good news on Monday afternoon as talented forward Jayden Gardner announced he’d be committing to the Cavaliers. Gardner, a transfer from ECU, just finished his junior season and will have two years of eligibility thanks to the extra year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. He will also be able to play immediately for the Hoos.
“It has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid to play in the ACC and compete against the best of the best,” Gardner said in his commitment tweet. “With that said, I will be committing to the University of Virginia. Go Hoos!”The Marathon Continues . Virginia what’s good!!
— Jayden Gardner (@Jayy_Baller_1) April 12, 2021
At 6-7, 235 pounds, Gardner fills an immediate role for the Hoos following the departures of Sam Hauser (graduation) and Justin McKoy (transfer to UNC) in the front court. He averaged 18.3 points per game for the Pirates last season, and averages 18 flat over his career. With ECU, Gardner had 8.3 rebounds per game with a 21.5% defensive rebounding rate in the 19 games played in the 2020-21 season.
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MBB: Most NCAA Units since 1985, by Conference (RX; HM)
Syracuse played a key role in helping to lead its conference to 8 of the 9 best years for NCAA units in conference history...
MBB: Most NCAA Units since 1985, by Conference
The Pac-12 made away with the most NCAA Tournament units this year with 19. How does that compare with the biggest March Madness takeaways, historically? From "highest NCAA tournament 'unit' earning conference from 1985-2021" posted by jhasting on CSNBBS, this goes back to 1985:| season conference total units | |||
| Rank | Year | Conference | Units |
| 1 | 2015-16 | ACC | 25 |
| 2 | 2008-09 | Big East | 24 |
| 3 | 2011-12 | Big East | 23 |
| 4 | 2010-11 | Big East | 22 |
| 5 | 2018-19 | Big Ten | 21 |
| 5 | 2017-18 | ACC | 21 |
| 5 | 2014-15 | ACC | 21 |
| 5 | 1984-85 | Big East | 21 |
| 9 | 2018-19 | ACC | 20 |
| 9 | 2012-13 | Big Ten | 20 |
| 9 | 1998-99 | Big Ten | 20 |
| 12 | 2020-21 | Pac-12 | 19 |
| 12 | 2018-19 | SEC | 19 |
| 12 | 2017-18 | Big 12 | 19 |
| 12 | 2012-13 | Big East | 19 |
| 12 | 2007-08 | Big East | 19 |
| 12 | 2005-06 | Big East | 19 |
| 12 | 2003-04 | ACC | 19 |
| 12 | 2002-03 | Big 12 | 19 |
| 12 | 2001-02 | Big 12 | 19 |
| 12 | 1999-00 | Big Ten | 19 |
Bottom Line:
What the Pac-12 did this year was impressive, but... the ACC has earned that many units or more five times since 2003!By the way, in case you're wondering, the ACC earned 11 units this year.
Other
This former marina is where Trey Jay Loso LLC is planning a 248-unit luxury, gated apartment complex on the Oneida Lake shoreline with rents up to $1,800 a month. Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com
Tax breaks for luxury lakeshore apartments run into opposition from Cicero officials (PS; $; Moriarty)
A developer’s request for $6.1 million in tax breaks for a planned 248-unit luxury apartment complex on the Oneida Lake shoreline has hit stiff resistance from Cicero town officials.
The Cicero Town Council voted 5-0 recently to oppose any tax breaks for the 25-acre development proposed by Trey Jay Loso LLC at a former marina north of the intersection of Lakeshore and Mud Mill roads. The council said there was “no logical or rational justification” for the tax breaks sought by the company.
The resolution does not kill the developer’s application for exemptions from property, sales and mortgage recording taxes. It serves as a recommendation to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, which will decide whether to grant the breaks or not.
However, the council’s unanimous opposition to the tax breaks likely hurts the developer’s chances of getting the breaks. The agency’s chairman, Pat Hogan, has already said he will vote against the application.
Town Councilor Jonathan Karp, who introduced the resolution to the council at its meeting March 24, said tax breaks for the project are not justified because the area where the apartments will be built is not distressed in any way.
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