sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to International Stand Up to Bullying Day!
International STAND UP to Bullying Day is a special semi-annual event in which participants sign and wear a pink “pledge shirt” to take a visible, public stance against bullying. The event takes place in schools, workplaces, and organizations in 25 countries around the globe on the third Friday of November to coincide with Anti-bullying week, and then again on the last Friday of February.
SU News
After 2 Games, Anything is Possible for Syracuse Basketball (thejuice; Goodman)
The journey of writing a column is an interesting one, to say the least. Take this one, for example. I sat down wanting to write about this year’s team looking mediocre, at best, as it put up some fairly humdrum numbers against some pedestrian competition.
I wanted to parlay that into a column discussing why lackluster performances in these early games can be an indicator of season-long success, or lack thereof. Basically I wanted to spell doom for the 2016-2016 Syracuse Orange.
Only one problem, though: the facts tell a different story.
The 23 combined points that this year’s team has outscored its opponents by in the first two games is the 4th lowest total in the past 15 years. The average combined margin of victory over that time span is 38.1 points per game. Take out the four lowest totals and the average is 48 points per game. Syracuse is expected to dominate these games. Anything less than blow outs is cause for panic right?
Not exactly. The 2002-03 team outscored its opponents by a total of 8 points through its first two games, including a close loss on opening night to Memphis. That Syracuse team, as you may have heard, finished 30-5 and won the National Championship.
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Orange Should Get First Easy Win Against Elon (TNIAAM; Burke)
Against St. Bonaventure on Tuesday night, Syracuse needed to overcome an eight-point second half deficit to avoid an upset. Four days earlier against Lehigh, the Orange had to fend off a late Mountain Hawks' rally to secure a win.
In both instances, teams from mid-major conferences came closer to leaving the Carrier Dome with a victory than opposing teams typically do in November. Last season, for example, SU topped Kennesaw State and Hampton in its first two games by an average margin of 32.5 points.
After the St. Bonaventure game, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was asked whether being challenged so early in the season will ultimately benefit the Orange.
"I'd rather have a couple of easier games to start out, to be honest with you, especially with these young guys," he said. "We've had to overcome some stuff in both these games, really."
Fortunately for Boeheim, Saturday's date at the Dome with Elonshould serve as SU's first easy game this season. And that's not simply because the Phoenix finished eighth out of 10 teams in the Colonial Athletic Association last season. Arguably Elon's biggest weakness — its 3-point defense — plays right into Syracuse's hands. Additionally, the Orange's rebounding woes should be less obvious against an Elon team that itself has struggled this season on the boards.
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Is It Time for Trevor Cooney to Evolve? (TNIAAM; Cassillo)
Trevor Cooney is a senior and a leader for theSyracuse Orange basketball team. This we know. What we don't know -- at least not yet -- is what type of leader he'll need to be for this squad as the year goes on.
Through two games, one place may NOT (surprisingly) be three-point shooting.
We've known for a little while now that Syracuse plans to shoot more threes this year. And you can't be blamed for thinking Cooney would be a big part of that surge. But from what we've seen in our small sample thus far, the contributions of others (Malachi Richardson, Michael Gbinije -- even Kaleb Joseph, to an extent) have overshadowed Cooney's once-vaunted range. We can chalk it up to early jitters, but consider:
- Cooney's three-point percentage (if this year's holds) has now dropped year-over-year for three straight seasons. When he started as a regular contributor in 2013-14, he hit over 37 percent of threes. That number dipped to nearly 31 percent last season. And so far this year? he's at a little over 29 percent.
- But his attempts per game have gone up each year too. From 9.8 per game in 2013-14, it's now at 12.5 per game.
- Since hitting 40 percent or more threes (six attempts minimum) in 15 of his first 22 games of 2013-14, Cooney has accomplished the feat just 11 times in the 45 games since.
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The Evolution of Chinanu Onuaku (courier-journal.com; Greer)
Chinanu Onuaku ended his freshman season with a bit of a thud. After starting 26 regular-season games, Louisville's promising young center played 44 minutes off the bench in four NCAA tournament contests and recorded more fouls than rebounds or points. He was the clear backup to Mangok Mathiang.
At his end-of-season press conference, U of L coach Rick Pitino said Onuaku, a Maryland native, had "a long way to go" and didn't even mention his name when discussing the returning players about which he was excited.
Onuaku has indeed come "a long way" since then, working over the past seven months on his issues with maturity and conditioning. The result is a 6-foot-10, 245-pound big man who is now on the radar of NBA scouts and who stands out as the most improved - and perhaps even the best overall - player on Louisville's 2015-16 roster.
"I think a lot of it has to do with confidence, but the confidence has to do with hard work," said U of L assistant Ralph Willard, who has closely worked with Onuaku since joining Pitino's staff in June.
"That's how you get your confidence and that's what he's done since the summer, right on through the fall, right on through the start of the season."
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Charlotte 49ers Give Mark Price His First Win as Coach (charlotteobserver.com; Kiser)
The date of Nov. 19, 2015, will be now an important one for Mark Price.
That’s when Charlotte’s men’s basketball team gave Price his first win as a collegiate head coach, a 77-68 49ers victory over Furman on Thursday at Halton Arena.
“It’s nice – it’s a win,” Price said. “I’ve played this game a long time, played in some really big games, so I’m more happy for our guys. I’m not worried about me as much – it’s about us getting better.
“I want our players to enjoy this one. They did a great job, and they earned it tonight.”
Freshman guard Curran Scott scored a career-high 21 points for Charlotte (1-2), with four other players finishing in double figures in handing the Paladins their first loss.
Andrien White had his first double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, Joseph Uchebo added 12 points, and Benas Griciunas and Bernard Sullivan had 10 each.
Stephen Croone had 17 points to lead Furman. Matt Rafferty added 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Devin Sibley and Geoff Beans had 10 points each.
The Paladins led 34-29 at the halftime break, but Scott led a second-half comeback that saw the 49ers tie the score five times, the last at 48-48 with less than 9 minutes remaining.
But Charlotte followed that with an 11-3 run, capped by Scott’s 3-pointer with 4:33 left, to take command. The 49ers took their biggest lead, 77-66, with 16 seconds remaining on Sullivan’s layup.
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MCW Takes Step in New Direction, Releases Dress Shoe (si.com; Newcomb)
Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams wasn’t all that accustomed to designing shoes with shark skin and broguing (that’s fancy talk for the perforations that stylize a pair of Oxfords or Balmorals. But he adopted the process quite quickly while working with Allen Edmonds to create a special edition MCW5 dress shoe.
“Yeah, this was my first time (designing dress shoes),” Carter-Williams tells SI.com. “I thought it was really interesting, all the different types of leathers, skins that go into the shoe.”
The collaboration started when the 2014 Rookie of the Year needed to improve his dress shoe options. After a connection with Allen Edmonds, he started wearing their shoes and liked the feel. “I got to build relationships with the people down there and they asked me if I wanted to make a shoe and I was interested,” he says. “I didn’t know what would come of it. I thought I would make something little and see where it goes and it ended up being a really nice shoe that a lot of people really like.”
Carter-Williams paired black leather with a sharkskin upper and grey stitching. Flat laces create a lower profile, a green eyelet provides a nod to his Milwaukee jersey color and an all-weather Dainite rubber sole adds an all-purpose dynamic to the shoe.
Carter-Williams says he started with a “pretty straightforward” style. “They are great at what they do,” he says about the process. “It came from something really simple.”
As Allen Edmonds sells the shoe—it retails online for $295—through the end of December, 10% of all sales will benefit Special Olympics Wisconsin. “I’ve been dealing with the Special Olympics since I was young,” Carter-Williams says. “On Sundays I used to go help monitor little soccer practices.”
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