sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Suspenders Day!
Today is devoted to suspenders, an accessory made of straps of fabric or leather that cross over a wearer's shoulders and hold up their pants. Suspenders usually form an X or Y shape on the wearer's back, and attach with clips or buttons. In Britain they are known as braces, and in the nineteenth century they were sometimes called galluses. Outside the United States the term suspenders refers to a garter belt.
Modern day suspenders were invented in 1820 by Albert Thurston, and their popularity has waxed and waned since then. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they were almost universally worn, because most people wore high cuts pants, which made belts impractical. Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, received an early patent for suspenders in 1871. Suspenders lost some popularity following World War I, where men had become used to wearing belts with their uniforms. Up until the mid-twentieth century suspenders were still considered an undergarment, and were covered by vests, waistcoats, or cardigans. Thus, as men wore vests less in the 1930's, they also wore suspenders less. In the 1940's fuller cut trousers came back into fashion, helping revive suspenders a bit. Now it is considered acceptable for suspenders to be seen, and that is often the preferred way to wear them. Although suspenders have not rivaled the belt for decades, there has been some resurgence in recent years. The film Wall Street may have helped contribute to this, and other prominent figures such as Larry King and Annie Lennox from the Eurythmics have also sported them.
SU News
Chris Bunch Will Decide Thursday, Here’s the Scouting Report – Orange Fizz – Daily Syracuse Recruiting News & Team Coverage (orangefizz.net; Amendolara)
Syracuse’s Class of ’22 is getting full, but there might still be room for one more. Just days after 3-star Maliq Brown decided on the Orange, Chris Bunch will make his choice. Thursday at 5p the 4-star, 6’7″ small forward will decide between SU, Washington and Rutgers. It’s an interesting trio for Syracuse to be connected to. Of course, Mike Hopkins is leading the Huskies, while SU has battled (and beaten) Rutgers for years on the recruiting trail, especially as Big East rivals.
247 Sports ranks him as the 58th player nationally in his class, and believes interest is warm for SU and Washington, but cool for RU. Syracuse was the third school to offer Bunch back in April ’20. He’s taken two officials to CNY, and sounds like he’s extremely interested. The Fizz has documented how confident he is, and his showmanship quality.
The Fizz queued up Bunch’s highlight reel from May, a film produced by Ball Dawgs, titled “Life & Times (Vol. 2).”
- Bunch uses his 6’7″ frame to angle into shots. As a scorer, he’s nimble enough and thin enough to insert himself into tight spaces, then get the shot up.
- He runs the floor easily. He can get up and down as quickly as anyone on the court, and can get out in front to run in transition.
- He’s confident in his mid-range jump shot. His form may need some polishing, although that’s very common for high school players once they get on a campus. His mechanics will likely be worked on to create a smoother form with more height at the release point to shoot over taller college defenders.
- He’s feathery and light on his feet. He’s not the type to work underneath the rim, grabbing rebounds or battling body-to-body. Bunch is a wing player in college, able to burst towards the basket with his long strides.
- He’s confident in his outside shot as well. Again, perhaps there’s some technique work to encourage him to rise up on shots and deliver over taller defenders. At times his outside shot can be flat-footed.
- As a benefit, his release is quick. If there’s only a fraction of second before a defender closes, he can get the shot up.
Syracuse Basketball: In final piece of 2022 puzzle, 4-star target to reveal (itlh; Adler)
I recently went on record saying that I believe 2022 high-priority target Chris Bunch will ultimately don a Syracuse basketball uniform, and we’ll soon know whether my prediction was correct.
The 6-foot-7 Bunch, who is a four-star wing and a top-60 prospect in his class according to 247Sports, was reportedly going to announce his college decision on Halloween, but those plans have changed.
Bunch said via Twitter that he will commit on October 21 at 5 pm EST. He is down to three finalists, and they are the Orange, Mike Hopkins-led Washington and Rutgers.
As of Monday evening, I hadn’t seen any projections from national analysts or recruiting insiders on the 247Sports Web site or https://n./content/prospects/2022/chris-bunch-256079 as it pertains to Bunch’s collegiate destination.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he picks any of his three finalists, although if I had to rank them in terms of likelihood of winning this recruiting battle, I would put the ‘Cuse first, followed by Washington and then Rutgers.
Syracuse basketball is in a great spot with 2022 four-star prospect Chris Bunch.
We’ve noted of late that Bunch, who is a senior at the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, has taken two official visits to the Hill, as compared to one each to Washington and Rutgers.That being said, he is from the west coast, so I definitely wouldn’t count out Washington and Coach Hop, who is an excellent recruiter regardless of how the Huskies fared a stanza ago.
In its 2022 cycle, the Orange has verbal commitments from four-star point guard Quadir Copeland, four-star wing Justin Taylor, power forward/center Peter Carey and, most recently, from three-star power forward Maliq Brown.
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Baye Moussa Keita 'excited' about upcoming Syracuse season - The Juice Online (the juice; Cheng)
Syracuse’s basketball season is less than two weeks away, and we chatted with former Orange center Baye Moussa Keita on this week’s The Juice on the Cuse Podcast, presented by SNY.tv, to get his take on the upcoming year.
“I’m always excited to see the team,” Keita said. “Coach (Jim) Boeheim is like a magician. When you perform your art, you do different things to see what fits and what (doesn’t).”
One of Boeheim’s tricks over the past half decade has been finding a way to guide Syracuse teams with lesser talent to the NCAA Tournament, often making deep runs despite a higher seed.
“We always find a way to make a run,” Keita said. “Every year there is a different challenge. With all of the people transferring, there’s going to be a challenge getting new guys into the system and getting them to run our offense. I’m excited to see how the pieces come together.”
Keita appeared in 142 games during his four-year Orange career, and was part of one of the most successful periods of SU basketball. Aside from being a part of 119 wins, Keita was also a member of the 2013 team that made the NCAA Tournament Final Four.
“When I was in Syracuse, it was never a question of if we were going to the Tournament, it was where we were going,” Keita said. “We took that for granted.”
Syracuse has tailed off since Keita’s departure, averaging closer to 20 wins a season and has been on the NCAA bubble for the last six seasons. There are a variety of reasons for this, Keita said, rattling of a list of factors that included the departure of longtime assistant Mike Hopkins and the transition from the Big East to the ACC.
“In the Big East, we were like in a boxing match every single night,” Keita said. “When you were in the ACC, it was run and gun. Contact we were used to the Big East was in a foul in the ACC.”
As for Hopkins, Keita says that Syracuse has missed his vocalness and his calming presence since he took the head coaching job in 2017 at Washington.
“He was a mastermind and he always had something for us to do after practice,” Keita said. “He wasn’t just focused on the game, but also on your mental well being.”
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Culpeper County’s Maliq Brown (5) verbally committed to play basketball at Syracuse University last Saturday. Brown is a senior power forward at Blue Ridge School in Saint George.
High school basketball: Culpeper native Maliq Brown commits to Syracuse (starexponent.com; Payne)
At long last, Maliq Brown can take a deep breath and focus on playing basketball.
Following a lengthy recruitment process that was drawn out due to complications from the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown verbally committed to Syracuse University last Saturday.
The 6-foot-9, 210-pound Culpeper County native chose Syracuse over four other schools he’d narrowed his list down to early last week: Virginia Tech, Georgetown, N.C. State and Penn State. He also had offers from in-state suitors VCU, Richmond, James Madison and Old Dominion, as well as Texas A&M, TCU, Wake Forest, St. John’s and Murray State.
“I chose Syracuse because it felt like home as soon as I stepped on campus,” said Brown, who took an official visit to the school a few weeks ago. “It’s a place I can see myself enjoying and improving as both a person and a student-athlete over the next few years.”
Brown, who attends Blue Ridge School in Saint George, is considered a three-star prospect by the major recruiting services, including Rivals, ESPN and 247Sports. Rivals lists him as the 28th-best power forward in the country in the 2022 recruiting class, while 247 has him ranked 44th and ESPN 47th. He averaged 12.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.3 steals and 1.6 blocks per game last season for the Barons, helping them win their third consecutive Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division II state championship.
“Things are a lot less stressful now that it’s over,” Brown said of the recruiting process, which was drawn out due to an inability to take official visits to schools he was interested in during the height of the pandemic. “The process was very difficult, especially when I’d start to make connections with players and coaches at the various schools and then have to decide whether or not their school was the right fit for me.
“This was probably the hardest decision of my life, and the support and love of my family and friends means a lot to me,” he added.
Blue Ridge head coach Cade Lemcke told John Harvey of the Charlottesville Daily Progress that he’s enjoyed watching Brown develop over the past few years.
“It’s a pretty unique situation,” Lemcke said. “Maliq and his family are one of the first four-year boys that we’ve had in our program. It’s been a pretty cool and special treat to watch him grow from ninth grade all the way to this special day. I know he has big plans for his senior season as well.”
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Blue Ridge's Maliq Brown 'ready' for ACC opportunity with Syracuse (cbs19nwes.com)
All week leading up to the commitment ceremony, Maliq Brown dropped subtle hints to former St. Anne's-Belfield guard and Syracuse commit Justin Taylor about Brown's college decision.
"I tried to give him hints throughout the week, him and [fellow Syracuse commit] Quadir Copeland, but the day before I committed they all knew I was going to Syracuse," Brown said on Tuesday at Blue Ridge School.
RELATED STORIES: Brown seizing long-awaited opportunity with Cavaliers
Brown committed to Syracuse over a top-five which included Virginia Tech, NC State, Georgetown and Penn State. The Culpeper native will now join his AAU teammate and four-star guard Justin Taylor in Upstate New York as part of Syracuse's Class of 2022.
"Me and Justin have been playing together since we were younger," Brown said, "Growing up together we were working out, playing on the same AAU teams, it means a lot knowing I can trust him and he knows he can trust me and we know each others game and just keep developing each other."
RELATED STORIES: Taylor finds perfect fit with Syracuse basketball
A three-star forward in the Class of 2022, Brown has grown into one of Central Virginia's top players, ranking seventh in the state according to 247 Sports. Brown has played a key role on both ends of the court in Blue Ridge's three-straight VISAA Division II State Titles, earning second team All-State in 2020.
As the 6-9 Brown prepares for a run at a fourth state title to round out his Barons career, he is also excited about the opportunity ahead to play in the Carrier Dome, putting on the same uniform as former Orange star Carmelo Anthony and playing for one of the country's top coaches in Jim Boeheim, no matter how much longer Boeheim is on the sidelines.
"Coach Boeheim is a legend, there's been some really good conversations," Brown said, "One of the conversations was I know a lot of people ask is he going to be there, but I'm ready to go and just keep working and develop my game and be behind Coach Boeheim."
Brown visited Syracuse two weekends ago, a trip that reaffirmed the choice he ultimately made to commit. As a kid from Virginia, Brown will eventually have the chance to come back to face teams like UVA and Virginia Tech on the ACC stage.
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Syracuse Basketball: In new rankings, Canadian target no longer 5 stars (itlh; Adler)
We’ve penned columns in the past detailing how Syracuse basketball 2023 target Elijah Fisher has said that he believes he’s the No. 1 prospect in his recruiting cycle.
And some national analysts and recruiting insiders have also spoken in the past about the possibility of the 6-foot-7 Fisher contending for the top spot in 2023.
Recruiting rankings can ebb and flow, but if the latest update from one recruiting service is any kind of indication, Fisher may not be in the running for the No. 1 overall rating in the 2023 class moving forward.
Let’s be clear, though. Regardless of where some of his rankings may stand these days, Fisher is an elite prospect. This top-flight wing attends Crestwood Preparatory College in Toronto, Ontario, and landed a scholarship offer from the Orange back in the summer of 2020.
Syracuse basketball prospect Elijah Fisher dropped a bit in one new set of rankings.
Recruiting service 247Sports recently updated its national rankings for the 2023 class, and Fisher fell 17 spots, from No. 3 overall to No. 20.
He is also now four stars via 247Sports, rather than five stars. Fisher is the No. 2 shooting guard throughout the entire 2023 cycle, per 247Sports.
In all fairness, though, ESPN has Fisher as five stars. So, too, does , although Fisher dropped to No. 14 overall in this recruiting service’s most recent 2023 update.
The industry-generated 247Sports Composite, at the time of this writing, had Fisher as five stars and No. 17 overall, as well as the No. 1 shooting guard.
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On The Block On Demand 10-19 (ESPN; radio; Axe)
Brent gives his thoughts on the Buffalo Bills MNF loss to the Tennessee Titans before transitioning into some Virginia Tech preview. Then, he discusses the preseason ACC men’s basketball rankings where the Orange is ranked 7th.
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Luna Food Lover, 105 W. Fayette St. in downtown Syracuse. (Don Cazentre | dcazentre@syracuse.com)
Luna Food Lover: New downtown Syracuse dining spot aims ‘to make everybody happy’ (PS; Cazentre)
Shadi Tabala is accustomed to running 30-plus dining outlets in the gigantic metro area of New York City.
Today, he’s running one place in a much smaller place, downtown Syracuse.
Tabala opened Luna Food Lovers, a quick-serve, deli-style, grab-and-go restaurant and market at 105 W. Fayette St. earlier this month. It’s in the spot that was most recently home to a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop that closed in early 2020.
“I like being downtown and the people here are so friendly,” Tabala said. “It’s quite nice.”
Luna features pre-made but still fresh sandwiches, salads and mixed bowls, plus a build-your-own pasta bar, tacos and more.
The cuisine is a mix of Italian, French and Greek, with some Middle Eastern and Mexican thrown in. The “about” section of its Facebook page calls it “an American kitchen” and that seems to sum it up.
“We want to make everybody happy,” Tabala said. “So we have something for everyone.”
Tabala is from New York, and built a business that operates three dozen deli markets in venues around the city, including inside supermarkets and similar locations. He decided to retire, and travel, until the Covid pandemic changed his plans.
A friend invited him to Syracuse, “and I became sort of stuck here in the pandemic,” he said.
Now his brother is in charge of the New York City business, and Tabala and his wife decided to start fresh in Syracuse.
“Like I said, it’s friendly,” he said. “And the houses are cheaper.”
Luna Food Lover has a big open kitchen, with some booths and tables, not unlike the Jimmy John’s layout.
Here’s how it works: To the left as you enter are the refrigerator cases holding sandwiches (served on baguettes) and salads, plus some sauces and spreads you can take home.
There are several hot soups available each day. There also pre-made items like lasagna and chicken parmesan over pasta. Mixed bowls include items like fish, shrimp, chicken wings or tenders with fries.
You grab these and taken them to the check-out counter. They are fresh-made each day. Any items that are unsold after a day are donated to a local homeless shelter, Tabala said.
“Nothing goes to waste and everything here is fresh,” he said.
At the pasta bar, you can order from a choice of pasta shapes, and choose different sauces, toppings (chicken, shrimp etc.). Tacos are filled the same way.
There are also daily specials. One day last week it was grilled salmon over rice. See the menu.
Luna Food Lovers uses the word “gourmet” in its signs and Tabala said he’s hired two chefs, Khandija Zahir and Appolinario Delut, to work the kitchen.
Luna Food Lovers is currently open six days a week (excluding Sunday). Current listed hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. Tabala said he’s hoping to expand the hours soon and add breakfast items earlier in the day.
“We are here to serve people downtown and give them what they want,” he said.
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