sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Pet Day!
National Pet Day was founded by Colleen Paige, who also founded other holidays such as National Dog Day and National Cat Day. Although National Pet Day is about celebrating our own pets and the joy they bring to our lives, it is also about creating public awareness about animals that currently live in shelters and rescues and are in need of a forever home.
How to Observe National Pet Day
Here are a few ways you could celebrate National Pet Day:- Spend extra time playing with your pet today.
- Buy some new toys or treats for your pet.
- Have a National Pet Day party with your pets and all your friends' pets.
- Take photos of your pets and share them online.
- Adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue organization.
- Volunteer to care for animals at a shelter.
- Donate food, toys, and other supplies to an animal welfare organization.
With all the transfers, how does a fan stay loyal to SU basketball? (Mike’s Mailbox) (PS; $; Waters)
The one comment I’m hearing from fans lately is that they don’t like the impact that the wide-open transfer portal combined with the lure of NIL money is having on college sports.
They don’t like the free agency that’s become part of college basketball. They liked it better when they could follow the progress of a player from their freshman year to their senior season.
I decided to address the issue after receiving one particular email from a fan who says they have been a Syracuse basketball season-ticket holder for 42 years. I thought this fan’s letter summed up the sentiments that I’ve been hearing from many of you.
Here it is:
(If you have a question; follow-up or otherwise, for the Mailbox, email it to mwaters@syracuse.com).
Q: I need your help to try to keep my loyalty to Syracuse basketball. I have been a season-ticket holder for 42 years and I am seriously thinking of not renewing.
My two favorite players; Maliq Brown and Justin Taylor, are leaving. Please tell me how I can be excited about a team who lets players like those two go? I need to have someone tell me why players are transferring? I need to understand this to stay loyal.
J.L.
Mike: J.L., I feel your pain. I really do. It’s not easy for fans to support their favorite college basketball teams these days.
The transfer portal and the increase in NIL money have increased the number of players who transfer in and out schools. It makes the old adage that we’re all just cheering for laundry all the more appropriate.
The first thing I would say is that if you’re a Syracuse fan, especially one that’s been going to games for 42 years, I think you’ll find a player or two on next year’s team who will become your new favorite. It could be JJ Starling or Chris Bell. Maybe it’ll be Eddie Lampkin.
What really needs to happen is for Syracuse to have a good year next season.
The fans at NC State wound up loving this year’s Wolfpack despite the fact that Kevin Keatts’ starting lineup consisted entirely of transfers. And who didn’t love DJ Burns?
But there’s a larger issue, I’d like to address here.
I think private schools risk losing more to the rising number of transfers than state schools do.
Why? It goes back to J.L.’s use of the word loyalty. Players from all schools are going to transfer.
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Report: Autry fills assistant coach opening, hires Mount St. Mary’s coach (PS; $; Waters)
Syracuse coach Adrian Autry is set to hire Mount St. Mary’s head coach Dan Engelstad as an assistant coach, according to a report from Pete Thamel of ESPN.
Engelstad would fill the opening on the Syracuse staff created when former associate head coach Gerry McNamara left to take the head coaching job at Siena last week.
Engelstad has been the head coach at Mount St. Mary’s, which is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, for the past six seasons. He guided Mount St. Mary’s during a time when the school left the Northeast Conference for the MAAC.
In 2021, Engelstad guided Mount St. Mary’s to an appearance in the NCAA tournament. In six years at The Mount, Engelstad had a record of 72-109.
He previously coached at Southern Vermont where his teams compiled a 104-34 record over five seasons.
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More experience, portal point guard highlight Syracuse’s off-season needs (DO; Schiff)
In the ever-evolving world of modern college basketball, Syracuse’s 2024-25 roster — like most Power Five teams today — will look drastically different.
The Orange have lost six players to the transfer portal but gained a high-profile center: 6-foot-11 Eddie Lampkin Jr. from Colorado. Rumors continue to swirl around point guard Judah Mintz and whether he’ll stay for a third season. Yet, most signs — including a report from syracuse.com’s Mike Waters on April 4 — indicate Mintz will declare for the NBA Draft.
To grade SU’s offseason so far is tough. This exercise is based on Syracuse’s early action in the portal and what sorts of transfers it should aggressively shop based on the program’s shortcomings in 2023-24.
Here’s a look at what SU needs to do in the seven months before tip-off beckons in November:
Projected Starters: Judah Mintz/Portal Player TBD, J.J. Starling, Chris Bell, Donovan Freeman (freshman, No. 23 nationally on 247Sports), Eddie Lampkin Jr.
Other Notable Pieces: Naheem McLeod, Chance Westry, Kyle Cuffe Jr., Elijah Moore (freshman, No. 54 nationally on 247Sports)
What Syracuse needs
On paper, Syracuse has seemingly fixed its most glaring issue from last season: frontcourt depth. The arrivals of Lampkin Jr., McDonald’s All-American Donovan Freeman and 7-foot-2 redshirt freshman William Patterson give head coach Adrian Autry at least four frontcourt options to utilize.Compare this to 2023-24, where Autry was forced to play Maliq Brown as an out-of-position center for most of the year. Naheem McLeod suffered a season-ending lower leg injury on Jan. 10 and 6-foot-11 backup Peter Carey offered sparse help.
Undersized sophomore guards Justin Taylor and Quadir Copeland split minutes as pseudo-power forwards. While Copeland experienced occasional offensive success, he and Taylor struggled immensely containing taller defensive assignments. Brown played upward of 30 minutes nearly every game. Rebounding battles were lost. Second-chance opportunities for opposing teams ran rampant.
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Syracuse Basketball: 5-star shooting guard Jordan Smith Jr. will visit 'Cuse 'soon' (itlh; Adler)
Jordan Smith Jr., one of the top high school players in the talent-rich Washington, D.C., market, says that Syracuse basketball is recruiting him hard, and the five-star shooting guard will visit the Orange "soon."
The 6-foot-3 Smith, a top-10 national prospect in the 2026 class, just wrapped up a terrific sophomore year at the powerhouse St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, Va.
Earlier this month, St. Paul VI finished as the runner-up at the 2024 Chipotle Nationals, an eight-team event that annually crowns a high school national champion and was held in Brownsburg, Ind., near Indianapolis.
Numerous national analysts and scouts, including ESPN recruiting director Paul Biancardi, dished out high praise to Smith for his performances at this season's Chipotle Nationals.
As I noted in another recent column, Smith has also been named to The Washington Post's All-Met third team as well as the All-WCAC ("Washington Catholic Athletic Conference") second squad for the recently completed 2023-24 stanza.
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Should Syracuse Target Former 5-Star Aden Holloway? (orangefizz.net; Gotkin)
It seems like every day there’s another player who enters the transfer portal that makes SU fans excited. Yesterday afternoon, former five-star from Auburn Aden Holloway announced he was entering the portal. The point guard is initially from California and was ranked 16th in his senior class by 247Sports. Out of high school, the 6’0 guard was thought of as an elite shooter who can also create for his teammates and himself.
Would Holloway Be A Good Fit?
First off, Holloway played his senior year of high school at Prolific Prep but the year before that, he was at La Lumiere where he started alongside JJ Starling. Right now, the one starting spot that SU needs to fill in the portal is Holloway’s positon, point guard. With the Tigers this year, Holloway averaged 7.3 points, 2.7 assists and 1.5 rebounds per game in 20 minutes per contest with 26 starts. He had 3.1 assists/turnovers which is an incredible margin for a freshman guard.
The one concerning thing about how he played this season was he surprisingly struggled to shoot from deep. In high school that was his best feature but in his freshman season, Holloway shot just 30% from beyond the arc. He struggled especially in SEC play but early in the season, had a couple really good games from three, going 4-8 vs Baylor, 5-8 vs Indiana, and 4-7 vs USC.
Would Holloway Come to Syracuse?
Getting a former five star to commit to the Orange for a second year in a row would be a massive deal. While Holloway may not have the same connection to Syracuse as JJ Starling did, he does have the connection to SU’s starting two guard which could be a factor. In addition, the ‘Cuse offered him in high school so the past interest is there. The Orange were actually Holloways first division one offer so maybe there is even some nostalgia there.
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Syracuse basketball 5-star commit would love to play with 5-star transfer Malik Mack (itlh; Adler)
With sophomore Judah Mintz likely not returning to Syracuse basketball for the 2024-25 season, Orange coaches are on the hunt for a talented point guard for next term, whether securing one through the transfer portal or at the high school level.
Since the transfer portal opened on Monday, March 18, running for 45 days, a lot of 'Cuse fans have expressed that they'd like to see the Orange potentially land one of the top point guards in the portal, five-star transfer prospect Malik Mack.
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Mack had a terrific freshman year at Harvard, scoring Ivy League rookie of the year honors. In the 2023-24 stanza, he averaged 33.3 minutes, 17.2 points, 4.8 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per affair, while connecting on 41.0 percent from the field, 34.1 percent from beyond the arc, and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line, according to ESPN data.
Mack is from Oxon Hill, Md., in the loaded Washington, D.C., market, and that's a region where Syracuse basketball coaches have deep recruiting ties. He's also a former teammate in D.C. of 'Cuse 2024 commit Donnie Freeman, a five-star power forward who discussed Mack a little bit in a recent podcast interview.
Syracuse 2024 signee Donnie Freeman says he talks with five-star PG transfer Malik Mack.
Freeman has spent his senior year at the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and I noted in another column on Wednesday that he has proven brilliant in 2023-24.
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TideIllustrated - Syracuse Basketball: Transfer portal targets (r1vals.com; McGlynn)
Syracuse made its first foray into the transfer portal for 2024, adding Colorado big man Eddie Lampkin. Unless Adrian Autry has a lot more faith in the players he had on his bench this past year, he will be the first of at least a few additions.
Between the transfer portal (Quadir Copeland, Malik Brown, Justin Taylor, Mounir Hima and Peter Carey), likely the NBA Draft (Judah Mintz) and a dismissal (Benny Williams), the 2023-24 roster has been decimated. The only starter currently slated to return is J.J. Starling. Kyle Cuffe is the only other returning player who averaged more than 10 minutes per game.
Now, the Orange should get some reinforcements in the form of injured players getting healthy. Chance Westry missed the whole season after transferring from Auburn. Florida State transfer Naheem McCloud struggled at times, but provided good size on the interior before suffering a season-ending injury in January.
Point being, the cupboard is not quite as bare as it might appear. Keep in mind that McDonald’s All-American recruit Donnie Freeman and recent winner of a national three-point shooting contest Elijah Moore will be arriving as freshman as well. Still, the portal is going to be an important part of Autry’s team building this offseason. Point guard is a high priority and another wing feels necessary as well.
Let’s take a look at some potential targets for the Orange.
Syracuse has had success in recent years with players from Canada.
Oshae Brissett and Quincey Guerrier were two of the best performers for SU over the past decade. Perhaps, returning to that well one more time would work.
Allette was a productive player for Old Dominion in his true freshman season. He was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.
However, he was dismissed for “conduct unbecoming of a Monarch.”
It is unclear exactly what went down between Allette and the coaching staff. Perhaps Autry will steer clear because of what the team just went through with Benny Williams, but his talent is undeniable.
A solid shooter with room to grow as a distributor is worth pursuing. Rivals has him ranked in their top 25 players in the transfer portal. This would be a really good addition as long as Syracuse feels comfortable with the off-the-court stuff.
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Keeping Up With The 315 4-10-24 (ESPN; radio; The 315)
On Today’s #The315 Brian starts the show of with Portal Watch Day 24. He also goes over what the “Dead Period” is in terms of recruiting. Next, Brian discusses Fran Brown and some more info on ‘Cuse Football. Finally, Brian wraps the podcast up with BREAKING NEWS! It was released mid show today that Mount St. Mary’s head coach Daniel Engelstad will be joining Coach Autry’s lineup as his newest assistant coach!
(youtube; podcast; Locked on Syracuse)
Syracuse Basketball fans shouldn't panic about the transfer portal despite the Orange losing Maliq Brown, Quadir Copeland, Benny Williams, Justin Taylor, and Peter Carey. Adrian Autry's squad has added Colorado Center Eddie Lampkin, and are publicly pursuing Malik Mack, Jyare Davis, Roddy Gail, and others.Jackson Holzer says everyone needs to calm down on this edition of the Locked On Syracuse Podcast.
Dakota Leffew & Jyare Davis Visit + Syracuse Basketball Hires Dan Engelstad as Assistant Head Coach (youtube; podcast; Locked on Syracuse; scheduled at 9 am)
Adrian Autry is on the recruiting trail for Syracuse Basketball. Autry has secured visits from Four-Star Transfers Dakota Leffew (Mount Saint Mary's) and Jyare Davis (Delaware). Plus, the Cuse hired Dan Engelstad as Assistant Head Coach.
Marv Huffman (34) was named most outstanding player for 1940. The Hoosiers defeated Kansas, 60-42, for the NCAA title in Kansas City, Missouri.
NCAA photo archives
What March Madness looked like the year you were born (ncaa.com; photo gallery)
What March Madness looked like the year you were born
https://www.axios.com/local/raleigh/2024/04/11/unc-tar-heels-considering-new-basketall-arena (axios.com; Eanes)
Chapel Hill's Dean E. Smith Center could be slated for a significant overhaul — or it could be moved to a new site entirely, according to plans from university officials.
Why it matters: The Smith Center, colloquially known as the Dean Dome, has been the home of University of North Carolina basketball and one of the biggest college basketball arenas in the country since it opened in 1986.
Yes, but: What was state-of-the-art in 1986 could be considered out of date in 2024, when luxury boxes and expansive concourses are considered must-have amenities.
- Nationwide, facilities housing college and pro teams — including Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte — have reduced their overall capacity but added premium seating, WRAL reported.
- The request asks for consults to look at the potential of three to five different sites for a stadium, both on and off campus in Chapel Hill.
- It notes a desire to bring additional development around the stadium that could generate revenue as well.
- The school is also considering renovating the existing stadium.
- PNC Arena is No. 8, with 19,722 seats. The Raleigh facility, home to the Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State basketball, is also getting hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades.
- The spokesperson did not address what the project would mean for the women's basketball team, which currently plays at Carmichael Arena.
MBB: TV Ratings and Big Stars (RX; HM)
MBB: TV Ratings and Big Stars
The Bald-faced Truth
Ready for some Bald-faced Truth from John Canzano? From Wednesday's email...
Yes, I'm sure you've heard by now - the Iowa/S.Carolina women's championship outdrew the all-ACC Elite Eight matchup between Duke and NC State, which outdrew the UConn/Purdue men's championship game. Was it because of Caitlin Clark Fever? Maybe, which shouldn't really surprise us. One player (or coach) can make a huge difference.
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Other
Jordan Cook, 13, caught this lovely rainbow in Ithaca inlet with his grandfather, Mugga Cook.Rocky Criss
Upstate NY anglers are enjoying a terrific trout fishing season (photos) (PS; Featherstone)
The first week of the 2024 regular trout fishing season is in the books. Judging by the creekside photos anglers have been sending us, ya’ll are having a terrific season so far.
However, the pictures also reveal an alarming trend: trout fever seems to be spreading, particularly among children, causing many kids to miss school. Symptoms include smiling, feelings of accomplishment, and a temporary lack of interest in electronic devices.
If you think your child or grandchild might have trout fever, promptly transport them to the nearest creek and put a fishing pole in their hands. It’s the best-known cure.
Jordan Cook’s bout with trout fever caused him to miss baseball practice. The 13-year-old from Horseheads left his baseball glove at home and instead went fishing in Ithaca inlet with his grandfather, Mugga Cook, who says Jordan is a superb catch and release fisherman.
Madden Lathers, 12, from Fort Plain, was one of many boys who came down with a case of trout fever on opening day. He felt a whole lot better after landing this 13½-inch rainbow trout on Otsquago Creek near Starkville. He was using a red worm on a small hook.
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MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA - JULY 23: Lil Yachty performs on stage during Rolling Loud at Hard Rock Stadium on July 23, 2021 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)
Lil Yachty, Teezo Touchdown and ISOxo set to ignite Syracuse University’s Block Party (cnycentral.com; Miniaszek)
Some big names are coming to the JMA Wireless Dome for Syracuse University's annual Block Party.
University Union will host Lil Yachty, Teezo Touchdown and ISOxo on April 26 at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Tickets are $15 for SU and ESF students and $25 for everyone else.
Lil Yachty is an American rapper who first gained recognition in August 2015 for his viral hit "One Night" from his debut EP "Summer Songs." He has released five studio albums and his fifth album, "Let's Start Here" marked a departure from his previous style, experimenting with psychedelic rock. Four of his albums have charted within the top 20 of the Billboard 200.
Lil Yachty was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work on "Broccoli" by DRAM.
Teezo Touchdown is a rapper from Texas. He released his debut studio album, "How Do You Sleep at Night?" on Sept. 8, 2023. He is widely known for his features on the songs "RunItUp" by Tyler, the Creator, "Modern Jam" by Travis Scott and "Amen" by Drake.
DJ/producer ISOxo launched into 2021 with his massive collaboration, “Stinger,” with RL Grime. The song quickly became one of the most DJ-supported tracks of the year and racked up millions of plays online. Shortly after, ISOxo released his freshman EP, “Nightrealm,” which was met with critical acclaim.
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