sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Pi Approximation Day!
Pi Approximation Day celebrates the pi symbol (π) and its importance to mathematics. The symbol is a Greek letter, and it is used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The first digits of this ratio are 3.14159, and the number continues infinitely without a pattern, being an irrational number. It has been calculated to over one trillion digits after the decimal point. The symbol "π" was first used in 1706 by William Jones. It gained in popularity after being used by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.
Pi can be expressed as the fraction 22/7, which is an approximation of its actual value (hence the word "approximation" in the day's title). Pi Approximation Day is particularly celebrated in countries that write their dates in the date/month format, where today's date would be written as 22 July or 22/7. Those who write their dates in the month/date format are more likely to celebrate Pi Day. However, both holidays can be celebrated no matter where one lives. Pi Approximation Day may have first been celebrated at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
SU News
Will Buddy Boeheim be a preseason All-ACC first-team selection? (Mike’s Mailbox) (PS; $; Waters)
Buddy Boeheim ended the 2020-21 season on a high note, leading Syracuse to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.
Will the Syracuse guard enter the 2021-22 on a similar note?
That’s the leadoff question for this week’s Mike’s Mailbox. There is also a look back to last week’s Mailbox and a glaring omission on my part.
Let’s get started.
Q: In your opinion, will Buddy Boeheim be a preseason first- or second-team All-ACC pick?
Ray
Mike: After leading Syracuse in scoring last year and coming off an incredible string of March performances in the ACC and NCAA tournaments, I think Buddy Boeheim is a very likely pick for the ACC’s preseason all-conference team. Boeheim gained a lot of attention with his big tournament games against NC State (27 points) Virginia (31), San Diego State (30) and West Virginia (25).
In addition to Boeheim’s own late-season exploits, the ACC lost a huge percentage of its top players.
...
Justin Taylor, a 6-6 guard from Charlottesville, Va., committed to Syracuse on Saturday. Taylor is a consensus Top 60 prospect in the Class of 2022.Josh Verlin/City of Basketball Love
Peach Jam 2021: How did Syracuse men’s basketball recruits fare on Day 1? (PS; $; Curtis)
The Nike EYBL Peach Jam is back after being cancelled due to the coronavirus in 2020, and this year’s nationwide high school basketball tournament features plenty of players that are being recruited by Syracuse.
The tournament, held in North Augusta, South Carolina, will consist of a group play stage until Friday, then shift to single-elimination games over the weekend. The championship game will be played Sunday.
The event serves as a recruiting hotspot for college coaches, who will get the chance to see players in-person against high-level competition after spending the last year evaluating prospects through Zoom and other digital platforms.
...
How Syracuse Recruits Performed at Peach Jam on Wednesday (SI; McAllister)
Peach Jam is under way in group play. The top teams from group play (which takes place through Friday) will advance to a single elimination tournament in order to crown a Peach Jam Champion. Here is how Syracuse recruiting targets performed on Wednesday.
Note: JJ Starling did not play for City Rocks on Wednesday. Kyle Filipowski did not play for NY Rens either.
...
Syracuse Basketball: 4-star, 5-star targets take home Peach Jam honors (itlh; Adler)
The 2021 Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., will wrap up this coming weekend, and several Syracuse basketball prospects are aiming for the title.
An abbreviated regular season of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) took place last week at the Peach Jam, with pool play among qualifying squads going on this week, followed by a single-elimination tournament occurring this Saturday and Sunday.
The folks at The Circuit, which provides coverage of AAU competitions, have published a piece that details the stand-out performers from the EYBL regular season. This article has statistics for each player, by the way.
Multiple high-school prospects in various classes who have connections to the Orange are getting honored, and we’re taking a look at them in this column.
Orange coaches have reportedly reached out to Wagner, who is the No. 1 overall prospect across the country in his cycle.
On the first team is 2022 four-star power forward Kyle Filipowski, who is with the New York City-based NY Renaissance and a junior at the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass. Filipowski has fared quite well on the AAU circuit of late.
Members of the second team are Wagner and J.J. Starling, a Central New York native and a 2022 four-star guard. He competes for the Albany City Rocks and is a junior at the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind.
...
Is it time for Syracuse to change up its jerseys? Experts weigh in (theathletic.com; $; Gutierrez)
A mass of humans approaches the Carrier Dome before games, spreading the sidewalks, lawns of nearby homes and blocked-off roads. In the hours prior to tip-off, Carmelo Anthony’s No. 15 Syracuse jersey is seemingly everywhere on campus, from barbecues to frat houses to philosophy lectures. In bars, the jerseys worn by Pearl Washington and Derrick Coleman are clearly visible from Marshall Street. The people donning the jerseys are old enough to have seen games at Manley Field House. Others are young enough to have missed Anthony’s college season. There are toddlers, young children, students, parents and grandparents, in sizes ranging from XS to 3XL.
A scene like this plays out about 20 times each winter at Syracuse, and we’ll return to the full-looking crowds again this fall. But while the jerseys fans wear come in various forms, many of them are not what the team usually wears. Over the past few years, a growing chunk of the Orange faithful has donned throwbacks, mostly from the 1980s. It is not the current jerseys that many fans wear at games but the classic script look, reminiscent of teams, faces and moments from an earlier time. The question, then, becomes: Given the popularity of its throwbacks, is it time for Syracuse to wear them full time? Or not full time, but more frequently? Or maybe things are just fine the way they are, and the beloved throwbacks should be worn only a handful of times per season to mark a special game. In that case, maybe Syracuse’s regular jerseys could use a few minor changes.
...
Group licensing: A new way for college athletes to cash in (collegebasketball.ap.org; Beard)
In this image provided by Three Wishes Foods, Syracuse's Buddy Boeheim, left, poses with Three Wishes Foods co-founder Ian Wishingrad on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in DeWitt, N.Y. A new era in college sports got underway at the beginning of July, and with players now allowed to make money on their celebrity it's anybody's guess where this is all headed. Boeheim, the sharp-shooting son of Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim, inked a deal that will put his likeness on the front of a cereal box with him shooting, a morsel of Three Wishes cereal in his right palm. . (Scott Yager/Three Wishes Foods via AP)
Around the ACC: Notre Dame Basketball Preview Featuring Tom Noie (pittsburghsportsnow; Michalowski)
After a down year from his Notre Dame squad, Mike Brey is looking to lead the Irish to a ninth NCAA tournament in this upcoming season.
To get a better understanding of Notre Dame’s offseason moves, Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Tom Noie, who has covered Notre Dame hoops for almost 30 years for the South Bend Tribune.
“I think the fact that they can just have an offseason is just such an advantage for this program,” Noie told Pittsburgh Sports Now. Mike Brey builds so much into the summer program, having all of his guys back on campus for a seven-week summer session. They all take two or three classes depending on what year they are in school, and it’s such an advantage. When they’re not working with the coaching staff, they’re able to lock themselves in the practice facility and just go play.”
Brey brought in two freshman recruits, JR Konieczny and Blake Wesley, who are both ranked within the top 135 prospects in the country according to 247 Sports’ Composite Rankings.
“They’ve got two new freshman, both of whom went to high school probably about less than three miles each from the Notre Dame campus,” Noie said about the Irish recruiting class. “Just to be able to get into the program, get into some sort of routine, and start developing some really good habits and a rhythm heading into the 2021-22 season.”
While Brey did keep most of his roster together throughout this tumultuous offseason in college basketball, he did lose two seniors, including Juwan Durham, who put up 14 points in Notre Dame’s blowout win over Pitt last season.
...
Inside Syracuse Basketball: Chris McCullough joins Mike Waters (youtube; video)
Chris McCullough played just 16 games at Syracuse after a knee injury ended his freshman season. But McCullough has always wanted to play for Boeheim’s Army in the TBT. Why hasn’t he been able to play before this year? And why he believes this is the year Boeheim’s Army can win it all.
Syracuse Basketball: Devo’s transformation as leader back on full display (itlh; Clark)
It was no surprise that former Syracuse basketball star Eric Devendorf’s name was on the list when Boeheim’s Army unveiled its roster of players for this summer’s TBT. As we’ve grown accustomed, the captain will be the emotional leader on and off the court for this coming Saturday’s first game in Illinois that starts at noon ET on ESPN.
Devo, the Syracuse University guard from 2005-09, has been the heart and soul of the team predominantly composed of Orange hoops alumni, which is going into its 7th year competing for the winner-take-all $1 million prize.
What has been a pleasant surprise to most fans is Devendorf’s emergence as an MVP-like representative of the Syracuse basketball program in all walks of life. A string of selfless and positive acts involving charities, coaching and social media have improved his public persona and revealed a strength in character that casual observers might not have seen coming.
During Devendorf’s playing days with the Orange, he was one of the top scorers in program history, with a flair for the dramatic. But his on-court demeanor, best described as the player opposing teams loved to hate, and his unceremonious exit from SU with eligibility remaining made it feel like the prized recruit played out an unfulfilled career. His most famous shot seemed to capture the essence of his time at Syracuse: It was Devendorf’s three at the buzzer that would have won the 2009 Big East Tournament game vs. UConn and sent him soaring to the top of the scorer’s table at MSG in wild celebration, only for it to be waved off because it came just after time ran out.
...
Other
The seafood board for one to two people at Board & Bar Charcuterie in downtown Syracuse.Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com
First Look: Downtown Syracuse restaurant turns a classic appetizer into a meal and an experience (PS; $; Miller)
On the surface, the concept behind Board & Bar Charcuterie in downtown Syracuse might seem strange. This new restaurant in Clinton Square has built its entire menu around the traditional appetizer.
But once you actually sit down and have a conversation with friends while picking away at whatever charcuterie board you choose, you’ll understand why this could become a trend.
Nick and Laurie Salvetti, a husband-and-wife team that met at West Genesee High School, opened Board & Bar two weeks ago. Nick had been the chef and CEO of Défi Cuisine, the previous restaurant in this spot. Défi had its kitchen in the center of the dining room where he and another chef created unusual meals based on the customer’s mood and sense of adventure.
Défi closed for good during the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying restaurant shutdowns, but Nick wasn’t ready to give up on this spot. He and Laurie came up with a new approach based on their own habits.
“When we were going out to dinner—just the two of us—we were getting away from ordering entrées,” Laurie said. “We would have a couple drinks, and then we got to a point that we were ordering charcuterie boards. We’d pick at them while having a conversation. It was enjoyable.”
...
Pi Approximation Day celebrates the pi symbol (π) and its importance to mathematics. The symbol is a Greek letter, and it is used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The first digits of this ratio are 3.14159, and the number continues infinitely without a pattern, being an irrational number. It has been calculated to over one trillion digits after the decimal point. The symbol "π" was first used in 1706 by William Jones. It gained in popularity after being used by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.
Pi can be expressed as the fraction 22/7, which is an approximation of its actual value (hence the word "approximation" in the day's title). Pi Approximation Day is particularly celebrated in countries that write their dates in the date/month format, where today's date would be written as 22 July or 22/7. Those who write their dates in the month/date format are more likely to celebrate Pi Day. However, both holidays can be celebrated no matter where one lives. Pi Approximation Day may have first been celebrated at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
SU News
Will Buddy Boeheim be a preseason All-ACC first-team selection? (Mike’s Mailbox) (PS; $; Waters)
Buddy Boeheim ended the 2020-21 season on a high note, leading Syracuse to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.
Will the Syracuse guard enter the 2021-22 on a similar note?
That’s the leadoff question for this week’s Mike’s Mailbox. There is also a look back to last week’s Mailbox and a glaring omission on my part.
Let’s get started.
Q: In your opinion, will Buddy Boeheim be a preseason first- or second-team All-ACC pick?
Ray
Mike: After leading Syracuse in scoring last year and coming off an incredible string of March performances in the ACC and NCAA tournaments, I think Buddy Boeheim is a very likely pick for the ACC’s preseason all-conference team. Boeheim gained a lot of attention with his big tournament games against NC State (27 points) Virginia (31), San Diego State (30) and West Virginia (25).
In addition to Boeheim’s own late-season exploits, the ACC lost a huge percentage of its top players.
...
Justin Taylor, a 6-6 guard from Charlottesville, Va., committed to Syracuse on Saturday. Taylor is a consensus Top 60 prospect in the Class of 2022.Josh Verlin/City of Basketball Love
Peach Jam 2021: How did Syracuse men’s basketball recruits fare on Day 1? (PS; $; Curtis)
The Nike EYBL Peach Jam is back after being cancelled due to the coronavirus in 2020, and this year’s nationwide high school basketball tournament features plenty of players that are being recruited by Syracuse.
The tournament, held in North Augusta, South Carolina, will consist of a group play stage until Friday, then shift to single-elimination games over the weekend. The championship game will be played Sunday.
The event serves as a recruiting hotspot for college coaches, who will get the chance to see players in-person against high-level competition after spending the last year evaluating prospects through Zoom and other digital platforms.
...
How Syracuse Recruits Performed at Peach Jam on Wednesday (SI; McAllister)
Peach Jam is under way in group play. The top teams from group play (which takes place through Friday) will advance to a single elimination tournament in order to crown a Peach Jam Champion. Here is how Syracuse recruiting targets performed on Wednesday.
Note: JJ Starling did not play for City Rocks on Wednesday. Kyle Filipowski did not play for NY Rens either.
| Category | Amarri Tice | Chris Essandoko | Chance Westry | Denver Anglin | Matt Filipowski | Quadir Copeland | Justin Taylor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | City Rocks | Boo Williams | NY Rens | NY Rens | NY Rens | NJ Scholars | Team Takeover |
| Result | L 61-64 vs Pro Skills | L 72-77 vs Team Melo | W 78-71 vs Georgia Stars | W 78-71 vs Georgia Stars | W 78-71 vs Georgia Stars | W 63-60 vs Team CP3 | L 42-65 v Brad Beal Elite |
| Points | 18 | 3 | 23 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| FGs | 7-16 | 1-1 | 9-17 | 6-3 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 2-7 |
| 3PT | 4-7 | 0-0 | 2-7 | 3-7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| FTs | 0-0 | 1-3 | 3-6 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-4 |
| Rebounds | 9 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| Assists | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Turnover | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Blocks | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Steals | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Minutes | 27 | 2 | 30 | 28 | 18 | 9 | 20 |
...
Syracuse Basketball: 4-star, 5-star targets take home Peach Jam honors (itlh; Adler)
The 2021 Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., will wrap up this coming weekend, and several Syracuse basketball prospects are aiming for the title.
An abbreviated regular season of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) took place last week at the Peach Jam, with pool play among qualifying squads going on this week, followed by a single-elimination tournament occurring this Saturday and Sunday.
The folks at The Circuit, which provides coverage of AAU competitions, have published a piece that details the stand-out performers from the EYBL regular season. This article has statistics for each player, by the way.
Multiple high-school prospects in various classes who have connections to the Orange are getting honored, and we’re taking a look at them in this column.
Several stellar Syracuse basketball prospects have shined at the Peach Jam.
The Circuit named 2023 five-star point guard D.J. Wagner as the top underclassman. Wagner suits up for the Millburn, N.J.-based New Jersey Scholars Elite Basketball Club, and he is also a sophomore at Camden High School in Camden, N.J.Orange coaches have reportedly reached out to Wagner, who is the No. 1 overall prospect across the country in his cycle.
On the first team is 2022 four-star power forward Kyle Filipowski, who is with the New York City-based NY Renaissance and a junior at the Wilbraham & Monson Academy in Wilbraham, Mass. Filipowski has fared quite well on the AAU circuit of late.
Members of the second team are Wagner and J.J. Starling, a Central New York native and a 2022 four-star guard. He competes for the Albany City Rocks and is a junior at the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind.
...
Is it time for Syracuse to change up its jerseys? Experts weigh in (theathletic.com; $; Gutierrez)
A mass of humans approaches the Carrier Dome before games, spreading the sidewalks, lawns of nearby homes and blocked-off roads. In the hours prior to tip-off, Carmelo Anthony’s No. 15 Syracuse jersey is seemingly everywhere on campus, from barbecues to frat houses to philosophy lectures. In bars, the jerseys worn by Pearl Washington and Derrick Coleman are clearly visible from Marshall Street. The people donning the jerseys are old enough to have seen games at Manley Field House. Others are young enough to have missed Anthony’s college season. There are toddlers, young children, students, parents and grandparents, in sizes ranging from XS to 3XL.
A scene like this plays out about 20 times each winter at Syracuse, and we’ll return to the full-looking crowds again this fall. But while the jerseys fans wear come in various forms, many of them are not what the team usually wears. Over the past few years, a growing chunk of the Orange faithful has donned throwbacks, mostly from the 1980s. It is not the current jerseys that many fans wear at games but the classic script look, reminiscent of teams, faces and moments from an earlier time. The question, then, becomes: Given the popularity of its throwbacks, is it time for Syracuse to wear them full time? Or not full time, but more frequently? Or maybe things are just fine the way they are, and the beloved throwbacks should be worn only a handful of times per season to mark a special game. In that case, maybe Syracuse’s regular jerseys could use a few minor changes.
...
Group licensing: A new way for college athletes to cash in (collegebasketball.ap.org; Beard)
In this image provided by Three Wishes Foods, Syracuse's Buddy Boeheim, left, poses with Three Wishes Foods co-founder Ian Wishingrad on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in DeWitt, N.Y. A new era in college sports got underway at the beginning of July, and with players now allowed to make money on their celebrity it's anybody's guess where this is all headed. Boeheim, the sharp-shooting son of Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim, inked a deal that will put his likeness on the front of a cereal box with him shooting, a morsel of Three Wishes cereal in his right palm. . (Scott Yager/Three Wishes Foods via AP)
Around the ACC: Notre Dame Basketball Preview Featuring Tom Noie (pittsburghsportsnow; Michalowski)
After a down year from his Notre Dame squad, Mike Brey is looking to lead the Irish to a ninth NCAA tournament in this upcoming season.
To get a better understanding of Notre Dame’s offseason moves, Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Tom Noie, who has covered Notre Dame hoops for almost 30 years for the South Bend Tribune.
“I think the fact that they can just have an offseason is just such an advantage for this program,” Noie told Pittsburgh Sports Now. Mike Brey builds so much into the summer program, having all of his guys back on campus for a seven-week summer session. They all take two or three classes depending on what year they are in school, and it’s such an advantage. When they’re not working with the coaching staff, they’re able to lock themselves in the practice facility and just go play.”
Brey brought in two freshman recruits, JR Konieczny and Blake Wesley, who are both ranked within the top 135 prospects in the country according to 247 Sports’ Composite Rankings.
“They’ve got two new freshman, both of whom went to high school probably about less than three miles each from the Notre Dame campus,” Noie said about the Irish recruiting class. “Just to be able to get into the program, get into some sort of routine, and start developing some really good habits and a rhythm heading into the 2021-22 season.”
While Brey did keep most of his roster together throughout this tumultuous offseason in college basketball, he did lose two seniors, including Juwan Durham, who put up 14 points in Notre Dame’s blowout win over Pitt last season.
...
Inside Syracuse Basketball: Chris McCullough joins Mike Waters (youtube; video)
Chris McCullough played just 16 games at Syracuse after a knee injury ended his freshman season. But McCullough has always wanted to play for Boeheim’s Army in the TBT. Why hasn’t he been able to play before this year? And why he believes this is the year Boeheim’s Army can win it all.
Syracuse Basketball: Devo’s transformation as leader back on full display (itlh; Clark)
It was no surprise that former Syracuse basketball star Eric Devendorf’s name was on the list when Boeheim’s Army unveiled its roster of players for this summer’s TBT. As we’ve grown accustomed, the captain will be the emotional leader on and off the court for this coming Saturday’s first game in Illinois that starts at noon ET on ESPN.
Devo, the Syracuse University guard from 2005-09, has been the heart and soul of the team predominantly composed of Orange hoops alumni, which is going into its 7th year competing for the winner-take-all $1 million prize.
What has been a pleasant surprise to most fans is Devendorf’s emergence as an MVP-like representative of the Syracuse basketball program in all walks of life. A string of selfless and positive acts involving charities, coaching and social media have improved his public persona and revealed a strength in character that casual observers might not have seen coming.
During Devendorf’s playing days with the Orange, he was one of the top scorers in program history, with a flair for the dramatic. But his on-court demeanor, best described as the player opposing teams loved to hate, and his unceremonious exit from SU with eligibility remaining made it feel like the prized recruit played out an unfulfilled career. His most famous shot seemed to capture the essence of his time at Syracuse: It was Devendorf’s three at the buzzer that would have won the 2009 Big East Tournament game vs. UConn and sent him soaring to the top of the scorer’s table at MSG in wild celebration, only for it to be waved off because it came just after time ran out.
...
Other
The seafood board for one to two people at Board & Bar Charcuterie in downtown Syracuse.Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com
First Look: Downtown Syracuse restaurant turns a classic appetizer into a meal and an experience (PS; $; Miller)
On the surface, the concept behind Board & Bar Charcuterie in downtown Syracuse might seem strange. This new restaurant in Clinton Square has built its entire menu around the traditional appetizer.
But once you actually sit down and have a conversation with friends while picking away at whatever charcuterie board you choose, you’ll understand why this could become a trend.
Nick and Laurie Salvetti, a husband-and-wife team that met at West Genesee High School, opened Board & Bar two weeks ago. Nick had been the chef and CEO of Défi Cuisine, the previous restaurant in this spot. Défi had its kitchen in the center of the dining room where he and another chef created unusual meals based on the customer’s mood and sense of adventure.
Défi closed for good during the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying restaurant shutdowns, but Nick wasn’t ready to give up on this spot. He and Laurie came up with a new approach based on their own habits.
“When we were going out to dinner—just the two of us—we were getting away from ordering entrées,” Laurie said. “We would have a couple drinks, and then we got to a point that we were ordering charcuterie boards. We’d pick at them while having a conversation. It was enjoyable.”
...
