sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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SU News
Glicko Ratings: 177 College Basketball Teams Since 2002 Are Better Than SU's 2003 NC Team (TNIAAM; Burke)
Syracuse's lone national championship team is also its fourth-worst team since 2002, according to Glicko Ratings.
The 2003 Syracuse Orange might be SU's lone national championship squad in program history, but that group isn't even among the top 150 college basketball teams since 2002.
At least, that's according to rankings compiled yesterday by Ustreet of The Daily Gopher, Minnesota's SB Nation site. Ustreet used Glicko Ratings (similar to the Elo Ratings FiveThirtyEight uses) to rank every college basketball team since 2002, and the team that topped Kansas in the 2003 national championship game comes in at 178th-best.
Three Syracuse teams are ranked in the top 26, with SU's 2014 team leading the way as the 18th-best. The 2012 team immediately follows at 19th and the 2013 Orange is ranked 26th. Those rankings seem deserved; both the 2014 and 2012 teams were ranked No. 1 in the country for several weeks, while the 2013 team reached the Final Four.
But the actual validity of the Glicko Rankings is difficult to gauge, and it's not just because the 2003 NCAA champions are ranked 178th and 11th out of 14 SU teams. The 2015 Orange, which won only nine games in conference play, is ranked as the program's fourth-best team. Meanwhile, the 2009 team, at one point ranked No. 8 in the nation, is rated third-worst.
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Nottingham Basketball PG Malik Zachery to Transfer to NJ Prep School (PS; Weidner)
Malik Zachery, who as a sophomore helped lead Nottingham High School to a 17-4 record and a spot in the Class AA sectional semifinals, plans to transfer to basketball powerhouse St. Benedict Prep in Newark, N.J.
Zachery's father, Michael, confirmed a report that appeared this morning on USA Today's High School Sports website, that the 6-foot-1 point guard will transfer.
The New Jersey prep school has turned out a number of NBA and college players over the years, including former Syracuse guard Tyler Ennis and Kentucky-bound guard Isaiah Briscoe.
Zachery, who averaged just under 17 points per game for the Bulldogs last season,visited the school in May.
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College Basketball News
ACC Teams to Watch Out For in 2015-16 (isportsweb.com; Balladares)
It has been five long years since the Duke Blue Devils ruled atop the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular season standings. Although the Duke Basketball program has had success in the postseason NCAA Tournament, most recently with their miraculous come-from-behind victory against Wisconsin to win the National Championship this past April, the one accolade that continues to allude them is the title of ACC regular season champions.
Meanwhile, Virginia has supplanted themselves as the top dog of the conference the past two seasons. The Miami Hurricanes even had their own fifteen minutes of fame when they were led by the likes of Shane Larkin and Kenny Kadji in the 2012-2013 season. Duke’s number one rival, North Carolina, also eclipsed them as both kings of the conference and Tobacco Road during their two season reign as regular season champions from 2010-2012.
Ending that half-decade drought will be very difficult to accomplish next year, however. Next season for the Blue Devils will be center around replacing the early departures of likely 2015 NBA Draft lottery picks Jahlil Okafor, Justice Winslow and Tyus Jones. The team will also be without a fourth member from last year’s starting unit after losing point guard Quinn Cook to graduation. What does work in Duke’s favor, though, is that they will not be the only team in the conference dealing with key personnel losses.
Early projections from NBC Sports have Duke slotted to be the third best team in the ACC next year behind North Carolina and Virginia. Both of Duke’s ACC foes will feature returning stars — Marcus Paige, Malcolm Brogdon — as well as a supporting cast that will have both teams in position to make a run at dethroning Duke as champions of the college basketball world.
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Other
Former Syracuse Train Station 'A Remarkable World War II Memorial' (Your Letters; PS)
To the Editor:
For a number of years when traveling on Erie Boulevard East and passing the former New York Central train station, I pondered how this historic building could have served as a remarkable World War II memorial. Finally someone else recognized the significance of this building during that era. (Sean Kirst column, "From Syracuse, for the WW II generation, with love and thanks: Why not one last parade?'')
Tens of thousands of young men and their loved ones wept or struggled to contain emotions at the boarding gate while waiting for the "All Aboard" and their last embrace before boarding. The young men turned to begin what for some would be their last-ever vision of parents, siblings and other loved ones. The scene would be repeated far too many times during the next three long years.
Yes, there would be other wars, but air travel for the most part would replace the trains in the future wars.
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