National Voter Registration Day, which was started in 2012, is a holiday celebrating democracy in the United States, in which the goal is to make sure everyone has the opportunity to vote. Awareness is raised so that tens of thousands of people register to vote who may not be reached otherwise. Volunteers work on the ground and with technology and media to make sure this happens. The day is endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State and State Election Directors.
SU News
Coach Gerry McNamara with JJ Starling. The Syracuse basketball team hit the court at the Carmelo K. Anthony Center for a practice Sept. 13, 2023. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com
JJ Starling considered it the worst-kept secret. People at Notre Dame were talking about the inevitability of his transfer last winter, he said, before he made a final decision to leave.
The Baldwinsville native, a McDonald’s All-American and five-star talent who signed with the Irish despite heavy interest from the Orange, had endured a “mentally taxing year” in South Bend.
He injured both shoulders. He tore the meniscus in his left knee. Notre Dame kept losing games, spiraling toward a 3-17 ACC record and an 11-21 overall mark. Midway through last season, Mike Brey announced his retirement.
It was a lot for an 18-year-old basketball prodigy to process.
Starling tried to bury the Brey news and focus on the day-to-day work of playing college basketball, he said. But this was the man who showed up at Starling’s Indiana prep school in a cherry red Ferrari to drive him the 45 minutes to Notre Dame for his official visit. This was the man he trusted with his college career, the man he still believes in.
After the Irish season ended last March at the ACC Tournament, Starling made it official. He informed the Irish he would transfer and entered his name into the portal.
“At the end of the season, I got to think about that more,” he said. “(Brey’s departure) was definitely a factor. And it also got me thinking that I needed a new environment to grow. No disrespect to Notre Dame. They have a great program. But I needed to be in a different spot to grow and continue to get better.”
... NBA team hires former Syracuse basketball star Hakim Warrick as a scout (PS; $; Waters)
Hakim Warrick, the former Syracuse University basketball star and key member of the school’s 2003 NCAA championship team, has been hired as a scout for the Detroit Pistons.
Warrick, an assistant coach for the G-League Ignite for the past two seasons, will be an East Coast scout for the Pistons and will be based in Washington D.C.
Detroit Pistons’ general manager Troy Weaver confirmed Warrick’s hiring via text message. Weaver was an assistant coach at Syracuse when Warrick played for the Orange from 2001-05.
Warrick returned to the SU campus last March for a ceremony honoring the ‘03 team. In addition, the school honored Warrick’s No. 1 jersey, raising a replica to the JMA Wireless Dome’s rafters.
Warrick ranks fifth in Syracuse history with 2,073 career points and fourth with 1,025 rebounds. He was the Big East’s Player of the Year as a senior in 2005.
...
Class of 2025 Charlotte (NC) Myers Park forward Sadiq White is a 6-8 180 pound elite athlete who is one of the most coveted players at his position. He already holds offers from Alabama, Cincinnati, Florida State, Georgetown, Georgia, Illinois, LSU, NC State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and many others. Over the weekend, White spent time on the Syracuse campus for an unofficial visit.
"When I got there, we went to Prime Steakhouse," White said. "I talked to the full coaching staff, I had already known coach Brenden (Straughn). Finally got the chance to meet the head coach, met coach G-Mac and everyone else on the staff. I met Kyle (Cuffe), the kid who transferred in from Kansas. Really good dude, embraced me. And then met JT (Justin Taylor) as well. After dinner they showed me around the school. Had a good time."
...
Former Orange standout Cole Swider visits as the Orange take on the Duke Blue Devils at the JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday February 18, 2023. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com
For more than a month, Cole Swider has been running alongside the Miami Heat’s latest set of developmental prospects, through drill work and scrimmages at Kaseya Center.
But to the forward who went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2022, the feeling is more that he is running alongside Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Orlando Robinson and all those who previously have made good with such Heat opportunities.
“It was a big part of my decision-making process,” Swider told the South Florida Sun Sentinel after 5-on-5 scrimmaging on the Heat’s practice court. “There were a lot of teams that were interested. And a lot of ‘em were interested in the same thing the Heat were interested in, an Exhibit 10 (tryout contract) and the opportunity to earn a two-way or a roster spot.
“But the success with the Heat with those guys gave me an easy decision, in terms of they’re going to give you a real opportunity in training camp, they’re going to give you real opportunities to get on the floor and play through mistakes and make the team.”
With that, Swider mentioned the previously undrafted prospects who converted their summer sweat into the Heat’s developmental pipeline.
He also spoke of the opportunity at hand, with Vincent and Strus turning that Heat sweat equity into lucrative free-agency contracts this offseason with, respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers.
...
Call me biased if you want, but I simply don’t understand the massive national ranking disparities for Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star commit Elijah Moore, an elite shooting guard from New York City.
The 6-foot-4 Moore, who verbally committed to Syracuse basketball in late January over other finalists Alabama, Arkansas, Miami and Oklahoma State, just checked in at No. 52 nationally and No. 10 at shooting guard, according to updated 2024 national ratings from 247Sports.
All of that, to me, is logical. And I readily admit that I’m not a recruiting analyst or a scout. But I’ve covered Elijah Moore for a while now, and between his stellar play in high school as well as on the AAU circuit, I feel like he’s a lock as a top-100 national prospect and should push the top 50.
In recent months, numerous recruiting experts and scouts have echoed those sentiments to me, for what it’s worth. Oh, and tons of fellow Syracuse basketball fans are in the same camp as me when it comes to Moore’s rankings.
Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star commit Elijah Moore is vastly underrated.
ESPN recently updated its top 100 for the 2024 cycle. Moore didn’t make the cut. For some context, ESPN has him as four stars, with a scout grade of 80, which puts him just outside of the top 100.
What puzzled me even more, frankly, is that ESPN rates Moore as the No. 37 shooting guard around the country in the senior class. I just don’t see how there are 36 “better” shooting guards than him in this cycle.
MADE Hoops, meanwhile, presently has Moore at No. 126 in the 2024 class. Respectfully, I think that’s too low. Full disclosure, I really like the analysts and scouts at both ESPN and MADE Hoops, and they’ve been good to me in providing context for various recruiting stories of late.
...
Recently, several of the main recruiting services have published their initial national rankings for the 2026 class, and Syracuse basketball four-star target Maximo Adams has emerged as one of the highest-rated prospects around the country.
The 6-foot-6 small forward, a standout player on the west coast who received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff this past February, has jumped into the top 25 according to multiple recruiting Web sites.
On3, when it unveiled its first 2026 national ratings, placed Adams inside the top 20 and just outside of the top 15.
Adams is a sophomore at Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif. He recently transferred there after having a solid freshman season at Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles.
Syracuse basketball 2026 target Maximo Adams is a top-25 national prospect.
Adams likely has a long way to go in his recruiting process, as college coaches can’t begin initiating direct communication with 2026 prospects until June 15 of next year.
Besides USC and the Orange, Adams’ full offer sheet includes schools such as West Virginia, Missouri, Kansas, BYU, Kansas State, St. John’s, Texas, Xavier, Oregon, TCU and Mississippi State, among others.
In early July, at the Nike EYBL league’s annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., Adams was a top scorer as he shined for the 15U squad of the Los Angeles-based Team Why Not.
...
Syracuse Orange fans, we’ve officially entered the “All-Coastal Conference” era... you guys trademarked that, right?
The “Atlantic” Coast Conference recently announced the additions of California, Stanford and Southern Methodist University following a vote among the ACC Board of Directors, bringing the conference to 18 total programs. All but three current members (Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina) voted in favor of expanding to include the new trio beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The addition followed a summer that saw major conference shake-ups across the NCAA landscape — including the downfall of the Pac-12 thanks to poaching from the Big 12 and Big Ten. Including the Cal/Stanford/SMU trio, 11 major programs in total will jump ship to new conferences in 2024.
Mike and I in this story discuss what the ACC’s new additions bring to the table, what comes next for the conference’s viability, and the bigger picture of conference realignment.
What we know and what we don’t
M: The ACC is adding all three programs as full members, meaning that the change affects the non-revenue sports just as much, if not more than, the flagship football and basketball programs. I’ve long been against the coast-to-coast travel that the under-the-radar teams will be subjected to under the new conferences, but there may be partial solutions here.
D: The ACC will aim to cut down on the student-athlete travel as much as logistically possible. Commissioner Jim Phillips outlined some theoretical plans for how travel could work with the new trio in the fold. The 14 current ACC football programs would travel west once every other year, while Cal and Stanford would make at least 3-4 trips east for conference play.
...
It has taken less than two years for name, image and likeness to become a normal part of college athletics.
Syracuse University athletes have taken full advantage of NIL opportunities with car commercials, jersey sales, social media engagement and more.
On Episode 14 of Syracuse Sports, NIL expert Dan Greene and I discuss SU’s latest NIL collective, the latest trends in the NIL world and have a little fun ranking the Top 5 NIL athletes we’d want endorsing our fictional product.
...
Other
Gavin Rossdale of Bush performs at the Ryman Auditorium on February 20, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Bush is returning to Syracuse for a greatest hits concert.
The Gavin Rossdale-led rock band will perform at the Landmark Theatre on Nov. 19 as part of Bush’s “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere” tour dates. Special guests Bad Wolves and Eva Under Fire will open the concert at 7 p.m.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Sept. 22, at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. An artist and Citi cardmember presale will begin Tuesday at 10 a.m.; additional presales will be available Wednesday through Spotify and Syracuse radio station K-Rock. VIP packages with autographed vinyl will also be available while supplies last.
Bush said Monday the Grammy-nominated band will be celebrating its career with a new release, “Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023,” on Nov. 10. The British group dominated ‘90s rock radio with hits like “Everything Zen,” “The Chemicals Between Us,” “Machinehead” and “Glycerine.” Rossdale, Bush’s lead singer and sole original member, is also known for his acting career (”Constantine,” “Criminal Minds,” “Hawaii Five-0″) and his previous relationships with Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love.
Bush previously played K-Rockathon 16 in 2011 and performed with Alice in Chains and Breaking Benjamin at St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview last year.
Bush is scheduled to perform one more Upstate New York concert this fall: Nov. 22 at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo. Bad Wolves will not appear at the Buffalo concert.
West Genesee Central School District wants to buy a nearby golf course for $4 million. The purchase would be contingent on voter approval, according to the school superintendent.
The school board held a special meeting on Saturday and approved a resolution authorizing the board to approve the contract to buy the Westvale Golf Course, which is adjacent to West Genesee High School.
The purchase, if finalized, would add 117 acres to the district’s assets. The 18-hole course includes a clubhouse, restaurant and parking lot.
West Genesee Superintendent David Bills posted a letter to the community Saturday saying the district would hold community forums, discussions at board meetings and a public vote before finalizing the purchase.
The district is considering a range of uses for the land, from a new transportation garage to more athletic fields, Bills told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. He also said the land could be used for things like the expansion of universal pre-K, special education, fine arts and the career tech program.
“We know it won’t continue as a golf course,” he said.
...
National Voter Registration Day, which was started in 2012, is a holiday celebrating democracy in the United States, in which the goal is to make sure everyone has the opportunity to vote. Awareness is raised so that tens of thousands of people register to vote who may not be reached otherwise. Volunteers work on the ground and with technology and media to make sure this happens. The day is endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State and State Election Directors.
SU News
Coach Gerry McNamara with JJ Starling. The Syracuse basketball team hit the court at the Carmelo K. Anthony Center for a practice Sept. 13, 2023. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com
JJ Starling considered it the worst-kept secret. People at Notre Dame were talking about the inevitability of his transfer last winter, he said, before he made a final decision to leave.
The Baldwinsville native, a McDonald’s All-American and five-star talent who signed with the Irish despite heavy interest from the Orange, had endured a “mentally taxing year” in South Bend.
He injured both shoulders. He tore the meniscus in his left knee. Notre Dame kept losing games, spiraling toward a 3-17 ACC record and an 11-21 overall mark. Midway through last season, Mike Brey announced his retirement.
It was a lot for an 18-year-old basketball prodigy to process.
Starling tried to bury the Brey news and focus on the day-to-day work of playing college basketball, he said. But this was the man who showed up at Starling’s Indiana prep school in a cherry red Ferrari to drive him the 45 minutes to Notre Dame for his official visit. This was the man he trusted with his college career, the man he still believes in.
After the Irish season ended last March at the ACC Tournament, Starling made it official. He informed the Irish he would transfer and entered his name into the portal.
“At the end of the season, I got to think about that more,” he said. “(Brey’s departure) was definitely a factor. And it also got me thinking that I needed a new environment to grow. No disrespect to Notre Dame. They have a great program. But I needed to be in a different spot to grow and continue to get better.”
...
Hakim Warrick, the former Syracuse University basketball star and key member of the school’s 2003 NCAA championship team, has been hired as a scout for the Detroit Pistons.
Warrick, an assistant coach for the G-League Ignite for the past two seasons, will be an East Coast scout for the Pistons and will be based in Washington D.C.
Detroit Pistons’ general manager Troy Weaver confirmed Warrick’s hiring via text message. Weaver was an assistant coach at Syracuse when Warrick played for the Orange from 2001-05.
Warrick returned to the SU campus last March for a ceremony honoring the ‘03 team. In addition, the school honored Warrick’s No. 1 jersey, raising a replica to the JMA Wireless Dome’s rafters.
Warrick ranks fifth in Syracuse history with 2,073 career points and fourth with 1,025 rebounds. He was the Big East’s Player of the Year as a senior in 2005.
...
Class of 2025 Charlotte (NC) Myers Park forward Sadiq White is a 6-8 180 pound elite athlete who is one of the most coveted players at his position. He already holds offers from Alabama, Cincinnati, Florida State, Georgetown, Georgia, Illinois, LSU, NC State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and many others. Over the weekend, White spent time on the Syracuse campus for an unofficial visit.
"When I got there, we went to Prime Steakhouse," White said. "I talked to the full coaching staff, I had already known coach Brenden (Straughn). Finally got the chance to meet the head coach, met coach G-Mac and everyone else on the staff. I met Kyle (Cuffe), the kid who transferred in from Kansas. Really good dude, embraced me. And then met JT (Justin Taylor) as well. After dinner they showed me around the school. Had a good time."
...
Former Orange standout Cole Swider visits as the Orange take on the Duke Blue Devils at the JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, N.Y., Saturday February 18, 2023. Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com
For more than a month, Cole Swider has been running alongside the Miami Heat’s latest set of developmental prospects, through drill work and scrimmages at Kaseya Center.
But to the forward who went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2022, the feeling is more that he is running alongside Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Orlando Robinson and all those who previously have made good with such Heat opportunities.
“It was a big part of my decision-making process,” Swider told the South Florida Sun Sentinel after 5-on-5 scrimmaging on the Heat’s practice court. “There were a lot of teams that were interested. And a lot of ‘em were interested in the same thing the Heat were interested in, an Exhibit 10 (tryout contract) and the opportunity to earn a two-way or a roster spot.
“But the success with the Heat with those guys gave me an easy decision, in terms of they’re going to give you a real opportunity in training camp, they’re going to give you real opportunities to get on the floor and play through mistakes and make the team.”
With that, Swider mentioned the previously undrafted prospects who converted their summer sweat into the Heat’s developmental pipeline.
He also spoke of the opportunity at hand, with Vincent and Strus turning that Heat sweat equity into lucrative free-agency contracts this offseason with, respectively, the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers.
...
Call me biased if you want, but I simply don’t understand the massive national ranking disparities for Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star commit Elijah Moore, an elite shooting guard from New York City.
The 6-foot-4 Moore, who verbally committed to Syracuse basketball in late January over other finalists Alabama, Arkansas, Miami and Oklahoma State, just checked in at No. 52 nationally and No. 10 at shooting guard, according to updated 2024 national ratings from 247Sports.
All of that, to me, is logical. And I readily admit that I’m not a recruiting analyst or a scout. But I’ve covered Elijah Moore for a while now, and between his stellar play in high school as well as on the AAU circuit, I feel like he’s a lock as a top-100 national prospect and should push the top 50.
In recent months, numerous recruiting experts and scouts have echoed those sentiments to me, for what it’s worth. Oh, and tons of fellow Syracuse basketball fans are in the same camp as me when it comes to Moore’s rankings.
Syracuse basketball 2024 four-star commit Elijah Moore is vastly underrated.
ESPN recently updated its top 100 for the 2024 cycle. Moore didn’t make the cut. For some context, ESPN has him as four stars, with a scout grade of 80, which puts him just outside of the top 100.
What puzzled me even more, frankly, is that ESPN rates Moore as the No. 37 shooting guard around the country in the senior class. I just don’t see how there are 36 “better” shooting guards than him in this cycle.
MADE Hoops, meanwhile, presently has Moore at No. 126 in the 2024 class. Respectfully, I think that’s too low. Full disclosure, I really like the analysts and scouts at both ESPN and MADE Hoops, and they’ve been good to me in providing context for various recruiting stories of late.
...
Recently, several of the main recruiting services have published their initial national rankings for the 2026 class, and Syracuse basketball four-star target Maximo Adams has emerged as one of the highest-rated prospects around the country.
The 6-foot-6 small forward, a standout player on the west coast who received a scholarship offer from the Orange coaching staff this past February, has jumped into the top 25 according to multiple recruiting Web sites.
On3, when it unveiled its first 2026 national ratings, placed Adams inside the top 20 and just outside of the top 15.
Adams is a sophomore at Junipero Serra High School in Gardena, Calif. He recently transferred there after having a solid freshman season at Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles.
Syracuse basketball 2026 target Maximo Adams is a top-25 national prospect.
Adams likely has a long way to go in his recruiting process, as college coaches can’t begin initiating direct communication with 2026 prospects until June 15 of next year.
Besides USC and the Orange, Adams’ full offer sheet includes schools such as West Virginia, Missouri, Kansas, BYU, Kansas State, St. John’s, Texas, Xavier, Oregon, TCU and Mississippi State, among others.
In early July, at the Nike EYBL league’s annual Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, S.C., Adams was a top scorer as he shined for the 15U squad of the Los Angeles-based Team Why Not.
...
Syracuse Orange fans, we’ve officially entered the “All-Coastal Conference” era... you guys trademarked that, right?
The “Atlantic” Coast Conference recently announced the additions of California, Stanford and Southern Methodist University following a vote among the ACC Board of Directors, bringing the conference to 18 total programs. All but three current members (Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina) voted in favor of expanding to include the new trio beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The addition followed a summer that saw major conference shake-ups across the NCAA landscape — including the downfall of the Pac-12 thanks to poaching from the Big 12 and Big Ten. Including the Cal/Stanford/SMU trio, 11 major programs in total will jump ship to new conferences in 2024.
Mike and I in this story discuss what the ACC’s new additions bring to the table, what comes next for the conference’s viability, and the bigger picture of conference realignment.
What we know and what we don’t
M: The ACC is adding all three programs as full members, meaning that the change affects the non-revenue sports just as much, if not more than, the flagship football and basketball programs. I’ve long been against the coast-to-coast travel that the under-the-radar teams will be subjected to under the new conferences, but there may be partial solutions here.
D: The ACC will aim to cut down on the student-athlete travel as much as logistically possible. Commissioner Jim Phillips outlined some theoretical plans for how travel could work with the new trio in the fold. The 14 current ACC football programs would travel west once every other year, while Cal and Stanford would make at least 3-4 trips east for conference play.
...
It has taken less than two years for name, image and likeness to become a normal part of college athletics.
Syracuse University athletes have taken full advantage of NIL opportunities with car commercials, jersey sales, social media engagement and more.
On Episode 14 of Syracuse Sports, NIL expert Dan Greene and I discuss SU’s latest NIL collective, the latest trends in the NIL world and have a little fun ranking the Top 5 NIL athletes we’d want endorsing our fictional product.
...
Other
Gavin Rossdale of Bush performs at the Ryman Auditorium on February 20, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Bush is returning to Syracuse for a greatest hits concert.
The Gavin Rossdale-led rock band will perform at the Landmark Theatre on Nov. 19 as part of Bush’s “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere” tour dates. Special guests Bad Wolves and Eva Under Fire will open the concert at 7 p.m.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Sept. 22, at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. An artist and Citi cardmember presale will begin Tuesday at 10 a.m.; additional presales will be available Wednesday through Spotify and Syracuse radio station K-Rock. VIP packages with autographed vinyl will also be available while supplies last.
Bush said Monday the Grammy-nominated band will be celebrating its career with a new release, “Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023,” on Nov. 10. The British group dominated ‘90s rock radio with hits like “Everything Zen,” “The Chemicals Between Us,” “Machinehead” and “Glycerine.” Rossdale, Bush’s lead singer and sole original member, is also known for his acting career (”Constantine,” “Criminal Minds,” “Hawaii Five-0″) and his previous relationships with Gwen Stefani and Courtney Love.
Bush previously played K-Rockathon 16 in 2011 and performed with Alice in Chains and Breaking Benjamin at St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview last year.
Bush is scheduled to perform one more Upstate New York concert this fall: Nov. 22 at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo. Bad Wolves will not appear at the Buffalo concert.
West Genesee Central School District wants to buy a nearby golf course for $4 million. The purchase would be contingent on voter approval, according to the school superintendent.
The school board held a special meeting on Saturday and approved a resolution authorizing the board to approve the contract to buy the Westvale Golf Course, which is adjacent to West Genesee High School.
The purchase, if finalized, would add 117 acres to the district’s assets. The 18-hole course includes a clubhouse, restaurant and parking lot.
West Genesee Superintendent David Bills posted a letter to the community Saturday saying the district would hold community forums, discussions at board meetings and a public vote before finalizing the purchase.
The district is considering a range of uses for the land, from a new transportation garage to more athletic fields, Bills told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. He also said the land could be used for things like the expansion of universal pre-K, special education, fine arts and the career tech program.
“We know it won’t continue as a golf course,” he said.
...
Westvale is a cute little course and hate to see it go, but longterm can probably benefit the school district more. The owners are smart to sell when the value is where it is.
