sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Cat Day!
Today is National Cat Day! “What greater gift than the love of a cat?” Charles Dickens once mused. Cats are one of the most beloved human companions of all time. They were first domesticated in the Middle East’s Fertile Crescent as early as 12,000 years ago. When humans relied on hunting as their main source of food, dogs were most useful – but when the first agricultural societies emerged, cats became invaluable. Domesticated cats became responsible for keeping grain stores free of mice and other rodents. Today, cats can be found in 34% of American households, making them the most popular house pet in the United States.
Pet lifestyle expert and animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige establishedNational Cat Day in 2005. In honor of the occasion, celebrate cats and the unconditional love and companionship they give to their owners. If you don't own a cat, volunteer at your local animal shelter or make a donation. It’s the purrrrfect way to show you care!
SU News
Four Hall of Fame Coaches Dealing with NCAA Troubles (AP)
Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Larry Brown and Roy Williams are dealing with stunning escort allegations, embarrassing academic fraud and multi-game suspensions.
And that's just when the season starts.
It's unclear just how big of an impact the NCAA troubles will have on the quartet's programs.
For Louisville's Pitino, the focus is allegations that an ex-staffer hired an escort and other dancers to strip and have sex with players and recruits from 2010-14.
Syracuse's Boeheim and SMU's Brown are both facing suspensions.
And Williams' North Carolina program is part of the school's academic fraud scandal involving athletes across numerous sports, a case currently crawling through the NCAA infractions process.
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For ACC Basketball Blue Bloods, Too Much Focus is Off the Court (washingtonpost.com; Wang)
For all the coaching royalty in attendance at ACC men’s basketball media day Wednesday morning, the annual event was notable for who wasn’t there.
Louisville’s Rick Pitino announced last week he would not be participating under advice from his legal counsel, so Cardinals players were left to address allegations that a former assistant paid exotic dancers to perform at parties in an athletics dormitory on campus.
The claims initially surfaced earlier this month in a book by Katina Powell, who said Andre McGee, then an assistant at Louisville, paid her $10,000 to provide strippers to dance for and have sex with players and recruits from 2010 through 2014.
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ACC Looking at Ways to Achieve More NCAA Bids (post-gazette.com; Zeise)
When the ACC expanded to 15 teams a couple of years ago, the hope was that it would become the best men’s basketball conference in Division I. A great measure of that is the number of teams that reach the NCAA tournament.
The Big East Conference, before it was broken up, had become that league when finishing in the top half almost assuredly meant a trip to the NCAA tournament. One year the Big East had 11 teams earn bids.
That hasn’t happened in the ACC, however, as the league has earned only six bids in the past two seasons. That has left some coaches wondering if it is going to be too difficult to climb from the bottom-half of the league into an NCAA contender.
One idea that has been floated around the league among coaches and administrators is changing the conference schedule to try to increase the chances of more teams making the NCAA tournament.
But with 15 teams and each having different agendas, the issue has become finding some sort of consensus as to what is the best course of action for the conference schedule. The answer more and more seems to be to go from 18 conference games to 20.
ACC commissioner John Swofford addressed this and many other subjects in his annual “state of the conference” address as a part of ACC Operation Basketball preseason media day at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
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UVA's Basketball Future As Good as Any in ACC in the Next 5-10 Years (dailypress.com; Teel)
Four of Virginia’s ACC rivals have combined to win seven of the last 15 NCAA basketball championships. The Cavaliers have never played for the national title, haven’t reached the Final Four since 1984 and last made the Elite Eight in 1995.
Yet for all the surrounding hoops heritage — four Hall of Fame coaches and six of the 25 winningest programs in history reside here — Virginia appears as well-positioned for the next five to 10 years as any ACC colleague, with the possible exception of Duke.
Mike Krzyzewski coached the Blue Devils to their fifth national championship in April, adds acclaimed freshmen Brandon Ingram and Luke Kennard to the fold this season and has a landmark 2016 class in the pipeline headlined by Jayson Tatum. In short, entering his 36th season, the 68-year-old Krzyzewski shows no signs of waning.
That said, will he be coaching in five years? And will the inevitable dip that follows his exit be subtle or severe?
Media attending the ACC’s preseason media function here Wednesday picked North Carolina, Virginia and Duke 1-2-3, mirroring my ballot. But the Tar Heels continue to play under the cloud of an academic scandal, the NCAA sanctions for which may not be known for months, an ordeal that clearly has aged their 65-year-old coach, Roy Williams.
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Other
Earthquake Shakes Upstate NY; No Damage or Injuries Reported (PS; Healy)
Some in a town near Albany felt the ground shaking on Wednesday afternoon.
A 2.5-magnitude earthquake was measured at 4:42 p.m. northwest of Gloversville, N.Y., the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
The Albany Times Union says the earthquake occurred in the town of Johnstown, located about 42 miles northwest of Albany.
The quake had a depth of about two miles and was felt in Broadalbin, Gloversville and Mayfield. Residents in Fulton, Montgomery and Saratoga counties also reported feeling it, WNYT says.
A Fulton County sheriff's department dispatcher tells the Times Union that there were no reports of damage or injury. Thirty-three people called in reports of "shaking," with strength ranging from "light" to "weak."
The U.S. Geological Survey says the Adirondack region is one of the most seismically active parts of the northeastern U.S., the Times Union notes. The most recent earthquake to occur in New York State was on Sept. 27 recorded east northeast of Stamford in Delaware County, registering a 3.0 magnitude.
