sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to International Orangutan Day!
August 19th is the annual International Orangutan Day. This international event aims to promote the conservation of critically endangered orangutan and encourage the welfare of their habitat.
There are only approximately 50,000 to 65,000 orangutans left in the wild, with approximately 2,000 to 3,000 orangutans being killed annually. Along with this, orangutans have lost over 80% of their natural habitat over the last 20 years, with an estimated one-third of the wild population dying during the fires of 1997-98.
The primary threats to the survival of wild orangutans are:
- Loss of habitat via deforestation
- Palm oil plantations
- Illegal hunting
- Illegal pet trade
How to help:
- Donate to an orangutan conservation organization
- Educate yourself on deforestation and other threats to orangutan welfare
- Spread awareness about orangutan conservation
Class of 2021 Syracuse basketball recruit Benny Williams plays for IMG Academy in the Myrtle Beach Tip-Off Nov. 14-15. Photo by Tre Bravo
Does SU's Benny Williams have chance to be ACC Rookie of the Year? (Mike’s Mailbox) (PS; $; Waters)
This week’s Mike’s Mailbox has it all. Incoming recruits, who’s next in Syracuse’s 2022 recruiting class, a look at SU’s women’s program and a look through the record books sparked by former SU star Demetris Nichols’ return to his alma mater as a graduate assistant.
That’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started.
Q: In your opinion, might Benny Williams be picked as the top freshman in the ACC going into the upcoming season?
Ray
Mike: Benny Williams is not going to be picked as the ACC’s preseason Rookie of the Year. That honor is going to go to Duke’s freshman phenom Paolo Banchero. The 6-9 forward from Seattle is ranked No. 4 in the 2021 class by ESPN.com and is easily the highest-ranked player from the ‘21 class entering the ACC this year.
However, Benny Williams could wind up as the ACC’s Rookie of the Year by the end of the season. Here’s why:
Banchero is a supreme talent. All the scouts and recruiting experts are raving about him.
But he is one of several highly-ranked recruits in Duke’s 2021 class. The others include Trevor Keels, a 6-5 shooting guard who is ranked No. 23 in the class, and A.J. Griffin, the younger brother of former SU player Alan Griffin, who is ranked No. 29 by ESPN.
Duke also has some solid veterans in Jeremy Roach, Wendell Moore and Mike Williams.
It remains to be seen what kind of offensive numbers Banchero can put up. Will he be the breakout star that many think he’ll be? Or will he fill a role on a talent-laden roster?
Benny Williams, on the other hand, has the chance to stand out at Syracuse. The 6-foot-9 forward is ranked 32nd in ESPN’s 2021 ratings and is the only incoming freshman at Syracuse. He is also part of a completely revamped frontcourt as Syracuse lost Quincy Guerrier, Alan Griffin and Robert Braswell to transfer or the pros.
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Syracuse Basketball: Top target joins former 4-star prospect at prep power (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star prospect Chris Bunch, a high-priority target for the Orange in this cycle, has proven one of the fastest-risers across the country in his class in recent months, according to 247Sports.
Now the 6-foot-7 wing has elected to transfer to one of the premier prep-school squads nationwide for his senior season, and that should provide Bunch with even greater exposure.
Per a recent tweet from Jake Weingarten, the founder of Stockrisers.com, Bunch is moving on to the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah.
Bunch will head to the Wasatch Academy from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif. In the most recent campaign, the Wasatch Academy was a top-15 group overall, and this team could end up as a pre-season top-10 squad ahead of the upcoming stanza, particularly with Bunch on board.
Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star target Chris Bunch has a new prep home.
At the Wasatch Academy, Bunch will team up with a roster that also includes 2022 four-star shooting guard Roddy Gayle Jr., who previously played at Lewiston-Porter High School in Youngstown, N.Y.
Last November, Gayle had the ‘Cuse among his six finalists before opting to compete in the future for Ohio State out of the Big Ten Conference.
Gayle is a top-60 player in the 2022 class, according to most recruiting services. Bunch, meanwhile, recently vaulted into the top-60 nationally, per 247Sports. That’s quite a talented duo for the Wasatch Academy entering the 2021-22 term.
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Syracuse Basketball: Top match-ups if alliance made with Big Ten, Pac-12 (itlh; Adler)
Amid Oklahoma and Texas recently deciding to bolt the beleaguered Big 12 Conference for the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, realignment talk among the Power 5 leagues is running rampant, and that could affect Syracuse basketball and its Atlantic Coast Conference peers down the road.
Noted college basketball analyst Jay Bilas of ESPN recently floated the possibility of the ACC and the SEC merging into a super league. The ACC could also potentially team up with other Power 5 conferences, according to recent media reports.
For one, ESPN senior writer Adam Rittenberg recently published a piece where he said that the ACC, the Big Ten Conference and the Pac-12 Conference have held “preliminary discussions about forming an alliance.”
Well, well. That would prove interesting for sure. Rittenberg writes that such an alliance is in the early stages of possibly being developed, so we’ll of course continue to monitor this and other conference realignment speculation.
Syracuse basketball could have some intriguing battles in an alliance of Power 5 leagues.
If the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 were to develop an alliance, we’ve got a few ideas about teams in those other conferences with which we’d love to see the Orange play.
In the Big Ten, my top-five duels would be with Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Rutgers. Maryland is located in the recruiting-heavy Washington, D.C., and Baltimore markets, where the ‘Cuse grabs a lot of prospects.
Michigan and Michigan State are annually two of the best teams in the Big Ten. The Wolverines are performing well of late on the court, and their recruiting efforts are among the finest across the country in recent years.
The Spartans, meanwhile, are always dangerous come March Madness time. I thoroughly enjoyed when Syracuse basketball upset Michigan State in the round of 32 in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
The ‘Cuse and Penn State have geographic proximity and a history together, particularly in football. Rutgers, a basketball program on the rise, is a former Big East Conference foe.
Switching over to the Pac-12, and my top-five encounters would be versus Washington (duh), Oregon, Southern California, UCLA and Arizona.
Washington is a no-brainer. Its coach is former long-time ‘Cuse assistant Mike Hopkins. In recent seasons, Oregon is perhaps the Pac-12’s top group, and the Ducks have also snagged several Syracuse basketball recruiting targets of late.
USC and UCLA are in the massive Los Angeles market, so that’s a plus. Southern Cal is doing well in the recruiting arena, while UCLA made the Final Four this past spring.
Arizona is a national brand with a rich tradition in college basketball that has struggled a tad in recent stanzas. But the Wildcats recently hired former Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd as their next head coach, which I think is a huge development.
So if an alliance of these three conferences were to transpire, which teams would you like to see the Orange play?
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Carmelo Anthony on the Lakers is perfect for him, the Lakers, and me - The Juice Online (the juice; Goodman)
Full disclosure: I’m a lifelong Los Angeles Lakers fan. I’m also a Syracuse fan. I was in New Orleans when Carmelo Anthony led the Orange to the NCAA National Title. So, while I may not be the most objective person to write this article, I am also the most qualified, having watched way too many hours of Lakers and Carmelo basketball over my lifetime.
It’s important to understand that is not 2003 Carmelo. It’s not 2010 Carmelo. It’s not even 2018 Carmelo. None of those Carmelos, from the talented scorer in the earlier years to the older, forced-out-of-the-league Melo, would have worked alongside LeBron James. It doesn’t matter how good of friends they are.
There’s a reason why LeBron didn’t throw Anthony a lifeline when the Rockets cut him and he was out of the league for over a year. He wouldn’t have fit alongside LeBron’s playmaking ability because he wasn’t ready to relinquish control of the ball.
A lifetime 34.7 percent 3-point shooter before 2019, Carmelo wasn’t ready to be the recipient of LeBron’s sniper-like passes. Spotting up in the corner would not have suited that Carmelo Anthony. He didn’t believe his prime had passed.
But now, in 2021, after a two-year stint in Portland, Melo showed LeBron that he’s ready to be one of his wingmen.
During his tenure in Portland, Carmelo proved he could accept a lesser role and come off the bench. He proved he’d concede touches to the team’s younger stars. And most importantly, he proved he could excel in that role, upping his 3-point shooting to 40 percent over those two seasons.
Portland wasn’t good enough to compete for a championship, but for the first time in his career, you couldn’t put the blame on Carmelo. His 27 points without Damian Lillard playing in Game 5 of the 2020 first round almost kept them in the series against the eventual champion, the Lakers. Now, he joins a team that is primed for a championship run, and the pressure isn’t on him at all.
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UNC Basketball: The Tar Heels are ranked second in College Hoops Today’s ACC preseason power rankings (tarheelblog.com; Anderson)
Here’s a wild thought: college basketball will return to us all in less than three months. It is hard to process when there is so much hype around UNC’s football team going into next month, but truly November will be an emotional, exciting, and somewhat terrifying time for Carolina basketball fans everywhere. The good news is that Hubert Davis is being given the benefit of a doubt when it comes to preseason rankings (so far), which leads us to College Hoops Today podcast host Jon Rothstein’s latest article.
Yesterday Rothstein released his ACC preseason power rankings, and things are looking pretty good for the Tar Heels. He ranked the Heels as the second-best team in the conference, and even provided his projected depth chart. Here is what he thinks the starting lineup with look like:
G Caleb Love
G RJ Davis
G Kerwin Walton
Dawson Garcia
C Armando Bacot
We will almost certainly release our own projected starting lineup article within the next couple of months, but it is fascinating that he has Kerwin Walton starting at the three spot. As many know, Walton was one of the standouts from Roy Williams’ final season, and finished his freshman campaign shooting at a 42% clip from three-point range. The one burning question will be whether or not he will be improved defensively, but all and all it’s understandable why Rothstein would have Walton completing a three-guard lineup.
When looking at this roster in its entirety compared to the rest of the ACC, it’s easy to see how Rothstein has the team ranked second in the power rankings. While there will be some familiar faces across the league, UNC probably has one of the better combinations of talent and experience compared to other teams. Armando Bacot is coming off of a fantastic season, we expect to see a lot more out of Caleb Love (and hopefully Leaky Black), and transfer newcomers Dawson Garcia, Brady Manek, and Justin McKoy should all give the Heels valuable minutes. This is all before getting to incoming freshmen Dontrez Styles and D’Marco Dunn, both of whom finished out their high school careers on a high note. Hubert Davis is entering his first year as the head coach with one of the better rosters he could’ve asked for, but of course we will have to wait and see if he can get this team to execute to its full potential.
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Other
Jason M. Robinson, DEC's Unit Leader -- Lake Erie Fisheries Research, (left) and James L. Markham, fish biologist with the Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit, (right) tag lake trout on Lake Erie in 2017, leading to discovery of the fry.
Lake Erie success story: Lake trout finally naturally reproducing following 60-year effort (PS; Figura)
Following 60 years of significant investments in money and time by U.S. and Canadian agencies, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced this week a significant milestone for lake trout restoration in Lake Erie.
The DEC confirmed identification of wild lake trout fry recently collected by the department’s Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit in late May. DEC staff collected “multiple, recently hatched fry” in fry traps in Eastern Lake Erie – specifically, on a rock reef about five miles west of Barcelona Harbor in Chautauqua County.
In July, Dr. Chris Wilson at Trent University positively identified the fry as lake trout through genetic testing.
“This phenomenal Great Lakes story of recovery is a testament to the perseverance of the researchers and biologists from DEC and partner agencies who worked tirelessly to help restore this fishery,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos in a press release.
The recent discovery is the result of an acoustic telemetry study, conducted by DEC expert staff and partners, which identified potential lake trout spawning areas in eastern Lake Erie. DEC worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System, and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
Lake trout were once the top predator in Lake Erie with records of fish measuring in excess of 50 inches and weighing 75 pounds. Commercial fishing for lake trout in Lake Erie began in the late-1700s, and by the late 1800s, the population had significantly declined. By the 1930s, the commercial fishery had all but ceased, and by 1965, lake trout were considered extirpated from Lake Erie.
Modern-day efforts to restore lake trout began in 1982, with annual stocking by USFWS in partnership with DEC and PFBC. In 1986, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission began suppressing the invasive sea lamprey population to support lake trout rehabilitation efforts. The sea lamprey is a parasitic jawless fish that feeds on other fish by attaching to them using a suction-disk mouth filled with rasping teeth and a file-like tongue.
Recently, biologists determined that adult, stocked lake trout numbers had improved to a level at which natural recruitment could be detectable. “Although the number of wild lake trout fry collected earlier in 2021 was small, the discovery of evidence that lake trout are spawning and their eggs are surviving and successfully hatching is historic,” DEC said.
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Mike Flynn, owner of The Roofing Guys, wants to open a marijuana dispensary, Flynnstoned Cannabis Co., in the former Urban Outfitters store at 219 Walton St. in Syracuse's Armory Square. Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com
He’s a big fan of cannabis; he hopes to turn Armory Square building into Syracuse’s first pot dispensary (PS; $; Moriarty)
New York does not yet allow people to sell marijuana in the state, but local businessman and self-described cannabis fan Mike Flynn is already making plans to open a dispensary in Syracuse’s Armory Square.
Flynn bought 219 Walton St., the former home of an Urban Outfitters store, for $2 million on July 29 and said he plans to apply for a license to operate a marijuana dispensary as soon as the state begins accepting applications.
He is taking a gamble. The state has not yet set up the rules and regulations under which marijuana dispensaries will operate. However, he said he expects the state to have those things in place by early next year.
“I’m hoping to be the first, the biggest and the best,” he said. “We’re going to have the biggest workforce, the most square footage and the most product.”
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