sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Spaghetti, a long, cylindrical, and thin pasta made of milled wheat and water, is celebrated today. Its name comes from an Italian word meaning "thin string" or "twine." The first written record of pasta is in the Talmud, which dates to the fifth century CE. It mentions dried pasta that could be cooked by being boiled. A popular theory claims that spaghetti was invented in China and Marco Polo brought it to Venice, but it is more likely that spaghetti was originally created in Sicily more than 500 years before his time. Arabs occupied Sicily in the seventh century CE, and brought a meal called itriyya, which was described as a "dry pasta". This is likely where spaghetti came from. In a geographical survey of Sicily and surrounding regions called the Book of Roger, commissioned by Sicily's monarch King Roger II and published by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154, a long strand hard wheat pasta is mentioned. It was manufactured in large quantities in the Sicilian town of Trabia and exported to other regions. This is the first definitive historical record of spaghetti production.
SU News
Syracuse reserve center Maliq Brown scored 18 points off the bench in the Orange's win over Pittsburgh. Syracuse's top three scorers in the game were all reserves.Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com dnett@syracuse.com
What did 3 SU reserves do against Pitt that hadn’t been done in over 10 years? (Mike’s Mailbox) (PS; $; Waters)
The ol’ Mailbox rings in the New Year this week with a variety of really interesting questions.
We’ve got everything from an achievement of sorts that Syracuse fans haven’t seen in just over a decade. I’ve got questions about the NCAA’s NET rankings. There’s an update on injured Syracuse guard Chance Westry and an intriguing suggestion from a reader that involves both the SU men’s and the SU women’s basketball teams.
Let’s get to it.
(If you have a question; follow-up or otherwise, for the Mailbox, email it to mwaters@syracuse.com).
Q: When was the last time the top three scorers were off the bench for the Syracuse men’s basketball team?
Tom D.
Mike: It seemed pretty amazing when three reserves were Syracuse’s top three scorers in the Orange’s 81-73 win over Pittsburgh at the JMA Wireless Dome last Saturday.
But I didn’t realize just how rare the feat was until researching the answer to this reader’s question.
Quadir Copeland scored a career-high 22 points in SU’s win over Pitt. Maliq Brown contributed 15 points, while Benny Williams also scored 15.
Judah Mintz was the highest-scoring starter with 12 points.
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Syracuse Basketball: ‘Cuse continues to recruit 4-star PG Nigel James on top-5 team hard (itlh; Adler)
Nigel James, a 2025 four-star point guard and a top-100 national prospect who is playing well so far as a junior at the powerhouse Long Island Lutheran, says that the Syracuse basketball coaching staff continues to recruit him hard.
The 6-foot James received a scholarship offer from the Orange in late August, and he took an official visit to the Hill shortly thereafter, in mid-September.
James has taken official visits to the ‘Cuse, Marquette, Providence, and Rutgers. He told top national analyst/scout Jamie Shaw of On3 in a recent interview that he’s eyeing potentially going on more visits in the future.
James transferred to Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, N.Y., for his junior season. One of his backcourt teammates at Long Island Lutheran in the 2023-24 season is another Orange priority recruit, 2025 four-star shooting guard Kiyan Anthony, who was offered by Syracuse basketball in November of 2022 and officially visited ‘Cuse in late October.
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Tuesday Night's Loss Is No Reason To Panic (orangefizz.net; Griffin)
The box score certainly does not look pretty, particularly when you glance at the second half. The lack of a student section inside Cameron Indoor Stadium can’t make you feel good either. It was the same old story on Tuesday night. Duke eviscerating Syracuse in Durham. Make it nine straight losses in the all-time series for the Orange, including 11 of the last 12. But let it be of some solace that this loss isn’t one that should have red flags raised super high.
Even if this isn’t the Duke of old with a Paolo Banchero or Zion Williamson pure superstar figure, it is still Duke. The Blue Devils are chalk-filled with four and five-star talent every season, and this year’s squad has something many past Duke teams do not. Experience. In an age where one-and-done rules all, Kyle Filipowski coming back for a second year was a game-changer in Durham. And again, this isn’t a world-beating top-5 Duke team, but it’s still the number-14 team in the country, on the road, in a venue that always draws a crowd, even when students are on break. The Blue Devils under Jon Scheyer may not be what they were under Coach K yet, but they are still college basketball royalty. Losing to them is no shame.
Tuesday’s game was also a fresh reminder that ACC road venues are no joke. One month exactly had passed since Syracuse was humbled by Virginia in Charlottesville. Say what you want about them only playing five games, but that is a long time in college basketball. With students coming back from winter break within the next week or two, environments like what we saw last night on the road are going to be the norm going forward. It’s the experience that you feel good about. Yes, even though the majority of the roster was with Syracuse or another ACC team last year, none of them are exactly in the same role. Last night’s game will prepare the Orange for the remainder of ACC play.
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Syracuse men’s basketball: Another career night for Maliq Brown (TNIAAM; Wall)
The one positive for the Syracuse Orange out of last night’s loss to the Duke Blue Devils was the career-high game of sophomore forward Maliq Brown.
Brown played 32 minutes, scoring a career-best 26 points and grabbing 7 rebounds as he more than held his own with Duke’s All-American candidate Kyle Filipowski. We’ve known about Brown’s defense and rebounding, but over the last few weeks he’s shown the ability to work into good spots and finish around the rim.
Against Duke, Brown shot 11-16 from the floor (1-2 from 3) and is now shooting 73.8% from the field on the season, 76% on 2-point attempts. Over the last five games, Brown has been in double-figure four times and he’s shooting 34-45 from the field and 7-8 from the foul line.
While many are clamoring for Adrian Autry to make changes to his starting line-up, it should be noted that Brown has played over 30 minutes in the last two games. He’s averaging over 23 minutes per game on the season, almost 10 more minutes per game than the starting center Naheem McLeod.
In addition to the uptick in scoring, Maliq has taken over the team lead in rebounding, raising his average to 5.7 boards per game to go along with 2.1 steals per game. His aggressiveness on both ends of the floor has increased and last night he was more active calling for the ball in post-up opportunities.
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Keeping Up With The 315 1-3-23 (ESPN; radio; The 315)
Brian Started today’s show going over SMBB’s loss to Duke last night. He went over the team’s performance, what he liked, didn’t like, and further expectations on the team as they continue the season. Brian then gave some Coach Autry sound bytes and went into further detail on the game and discussed what coach had to say. Finally, Brian went over the newest additions of the SUFB coaching staff.
Allen Griffin "The 315" 1-3-24 (ESPN; radio; The 315)
Assistant coach Allen Griffin joined Brian as he will every Wednesday to talk about ‘Cuse men’s hoops. Coach talked about last night’s loss to Duke, the production in the loss, what he expects from the team moving forward, the “Bomb Squad”, and more.
Syracuse Falls to Duke 86-66 behind the Blue Devils’ Second Half Explosion – CitrusTV (citrustv.com; video; Specter)
Syracuse Falls to Duke 86-66 behind the Blue Devils’ Second Half Explosion
In the first half of this matchup between Syracuse and Duke, it was a back-and-forth affair. A big reason why? Well, the Blue Devils on this end went 0 for 9 from beyond the arc. Duke still entered the halftime break with a two-point lead. Both teams went to the locker room, talked some things out, but then in the second half, the Blue Devils came out and went 8 for 8 from three-point land on this end. En route to an 86 to 66 victory over the Orange. A big reason why Duke caught fire? Well, Syracuse simply turned the ball over too much.
“I thought they did a good job of a, again, once they out and running, and making threes in the halfcourt, I thought they had some patience, they got the ball inside. I think they scored inside. So now you got threes and twos, so they scoring them both. Again, I think everything that happened today, especially in the second half, was a lot on us. We just didn’t, again, they’re a good defensive team, but I thought a lot of our turnovers were just us not making the right play, not making the right read or just not getting there.”
“The turnovers allowed them to get out and get easy transition threes. McCain hit a couple, Roach hit a couple obviously, which opened up for them. So just locking them, not turning the ball over and getting back on defense when we do turn the ball over.”
So 17 turnovers, not very good for the Orange, but you know what is good? Forward, Malik Brown had a career-high, 26 points off the bench in the 20-point loss. Syracuse has a bit of a break now and next takes on Boston College in the Dome on January 10th. Tip-off is at 9:00 PM. Reporting from Cameron Indoor Stadium, Ben Specter, Citrus TV.
Mark Mitchell breaks down career night in win over Syracuse (cbssports.com; video)
Duke Basketball Sophomore Forward Mark Mitchell scored a career high 21 points in win over Syracuse
A Winning Team: Sport Analytics Students Partnering With Syracuse Athletics to Prevent Injuries, Improve Performance (syr.edu; Michael)
As the associate athletic trainer for the Syracuse University men’s basketball team, Mike Mangano says he’d much rather spend his time preventing injuries than treating them.
That’s why Mangano has fully embraced the partnership between the University’s Athletics Department and the Department of Sport Management in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics that’s allowing nearly 50 students majoring in sport analytics to provide real-world data to assist the coaching and athletic performance staffs of 11 of Syracuse’s men’s and women’s athletic teams.
The specifics vary from sport to sport, but in general, most students are collecting performance data from the student-athletes’ wearable devices, analyzing that data from training, practices and games, and interpreting that data to provide insights to coaches and staff.
When Mangano was an assistant athletic trainer for the men’s soccer team, he says that kind of data helped coaches determine the optimum workload for each player. Once the players started maintaining that weekly goal, soft tissue injuries decreased. “So, for me, it’s great. I don’t have to do as much work,” Mangano says, laughing. “But at the same time, my philosophy is, do the work on the front end. If you can prevent injuries–and obviously you can’t prevent them all–but if you can prevent most of the injuries and add that kind of education for the student-athletes and coaches, then (the analytics) are working for us.”
The genesis of this partnership between athletics and analytics can be traced to Mangano’s interest in analytics and sport performance and conversations he had with Francesco Riverso, the program manager for the Sport Analytics program and a former soccer standout at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. Riverso encouraged Mangano to earn his Certificate of Advanced Study in sport analytics, which Mangano did last year, and they arranged for sport analytics students to start collecting, analyzing and interpreting data for the men’s soccer team in 2022.
Sport analytics students also started working with the women’s lacrosse team last season. The men’s soccer team won the 2022 Division I national championship, while the women’s lacrosse team reached the 2023 Division I Final Four.
“The role of our student analysts has been integral to our program’s success,” says Ian McIntyre, men’s soccer head coach. “The student analysts are responsible for collecting and interpreting all GPS data and providing detailed post-match and post-training reports. These reports are presented to the coaching staff with concise information that enables us to make objective decisions around training load and managing student-athletes’ minutes in games. “In addition to the GPS data, the student analysts provide half-time and post-match reports of pre-determined categories that allow us to see how we are playing, and how we can make the necessary adjustments,” says McIntyre.
The partnership expanded this academic year to include the following teams: women’s and men’s basketball, field hockey, football, ice hockey, women’s and men’s lacrosse, women’s and men’s soccer, softball and track and field.
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A Syracuse basketball podcast: Orange come back to earth after loss at Duke (TNIAAM; podcast; Disloyal Idiots)
The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team suffered a 20-point drubbing at Duke on Tuesday night. It was a game that was closer than the final score would suggest, but once again Syracuse wilted after facing a double-digit deficit against a ranked team in the second half.
In spite of Maliq Brown’s inspired play, Syracuse still faces some frontcourt challenges. Could a shakeup of the starting five be in the near future and does it even matter? Fresh off a trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium, Dom joined A Syracuse basketball podcast to breakdown the action.
Clemson Drops First ACC Contest at Miami, 95-82 (clemsontigers.com)
FIVE NET DOUBLE-FIGURES FOR TIGERS IN THE LOSS
Final Stats
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 16/17 Clemson University men’s basketball dropped its first league game of the year on the road at Miami, 95-82.
The Tigers (11-2, 1-1 ACC) led by six at the break, 41-35, but a 16-point swing in the second half pushed the Hurricanes into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Clemson boasted five double-digit scorers, led by Joseph Girard III’s (Glens Falls, N.Y./Glens Falls) 18 points, while PJ Hall (Spartanburg, S.C./Dorman) netted 17.
Ian Schieffelin (Loganville, Ga./Grayson) completed his fourth career double-double and third of the current campaign. Chase Hunter (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake) (16) and Chauncey Wiggins (Grayson, Ga./Grayson) (12) rounded out the double-digit Tiger scorers.
Miami was led by a trio of 20-point scorers, namely Nigel Pack’s game-high 25.
Clemson returns to the floor on Saturday, Jan. 6 when it hosts No. 8 North Carolina at noon on ESPN2.
Other
Dereck's Famous Reuben with French fries at Western Ranch Motor Inn, Syracuse, N.Y.
Western Ranch Motor Inn in Syracuse: Affordable, handcrafted meals where you least expect them (Dining Out Review) (PS; Paventi)
Friday evening is seafood night at the Western Ranch Motor Inn in Geddes, and it seemed only fitting to get the Lake Ontario-caught perch featured on the menu. Flaky and white, the perch ($22) was not as fishy-tasting as trout or other freshwater fish, but more so than its saltwater cousins like haddock or cod.
The perch, like most of the seafood, was available fried, broiled or Nantucket-style (finished with a Ritz cracker topping). We opted for the broiled, resulting in a generous portion of perch fillets served in lemon, garlic and melted butter, which provided a nice balance to the fish. The entree was served with two sides of our choice — a forgettable batch of coated French fries saved only by dunking them in the housemade tartar sauce and a spicy batch of Manhattan clam chowder, served as a starter.
The tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder punches with flavors of crushed red pepper but without being overwhelming. It was just enough to warm you through. Each spoonful was loaded with vegetables and chopped clams. Had we ordered the soup separately at $6, we would have gotten more than our money’s worth.
For years, my family would pass the Western Ranch Motor Inn in Geddes on our way from Liverpool to visit family in Solvay and Camillus. Towering red neon letters spelling MOTEL called out to drivers along Interstate 690 as they zipped east and west near John Glenn Boulevard.
Neon bar signs hung in the windows, but I never considered stopping at the bar as it was out of my way. The Western Ranch was a place I knew about but had no reason to visit. It wasn’t until Charlie Miller’s 2019 visit that I learned about their restaurant — I’m guessing I wasn’t alone in this discovery — and how it was more than just your average bar food menu.
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