sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Eat a Cranberry Day!
Eat a Cranberry Day is today. Cranberries are good for you. How many cranberries will you eat today?
Native to North America, cranberries are grown in bogs, and are primarily grown in New England. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, they found Native Americans harvesting them, and eating them. Native Americans also used them as dyes for clothing, and for medicinal purposes.
SU News
JB Tinkers with Lineups as Syracuse Edges Elon (thejuice; Zych)
After yet another second half rally Saturday night catapulted SU to its third win of the season, the upcoming trip to the Bahamas may help shape the Orange’s course for the remainder of the season.
Following his squad’s 66-55 victory over Elon University from the Colonial Athletic Alliance, Coach Jim Boeheim intends on working his guys into a team that will compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year.
The first-ever matchup between the Orange and the Phoenix from Elon, North Carolina was a mainland game in the Battle 4 Atlantis. SU will play Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon in the first day on the Paradise Island tournament. Elon defeated Charlotte Nov. 13.
“The tournament will help us,” Boeheim reasoned. “We’re getting away from home and the new surroundings will kind of help us a little bit.”
The Orange, through the highs and lows against Elon, was led by a strong performance by Tyler Roberson, who had 20 points and 16 rebounds. Michael Gbinije, who picked up three fouls in the game’s first 12 minutes, stayed on the court only six minutes. He finished with 16 points and played the entire second half.
While Gbinije spent the majority of the first half on the bench and starting center DaJuan Coleman playing sparingly, Boeheim tinkered with different lineups. Tyler Lydon was the beneficiary of Coleman’s ineffectiveness by manning the middle. He grabbed seven defensive rebounds, five in the first half, to highlight his stat sheet.
Malachi Richardson, the freshman guard who netted 14 points in each of the wins over Lehigh and St. Bonaventure, had 13 points with 10 coming from the charity stripe.
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Three Takeaways From Orange Win Over Phoenix (TNIAAM; Burke)
SU had another not-so-pretty win. Here's what we learned.
As has been the case throughout this young season, Syracuse needed a late spark to put a mid-major away on Saturday night at the Carrier Dome.
Earlier this week, it was St. Bonaventure who momentarily put the Orange on upset alert. Days before that, it was Lehigh, to a lesser degree. And on Saturday, it was Elon. Syracuse (3-0) trailed early in the second half before ultimately topping the Phoenix (2-2), 66-55.
Here are three takeaways from the Orange's win:
1. At least for now, Syracuse has found its best lineup
For a second consecutive game, Syracuse used the same lineup — consisting of Michael Gbinije, Trevor Cooney, Malachi Richardson, Tyler Roberson and Tyler Lydon — to pull away. That lineup was plus-14 in the second half on Tuesday, and it was almost as effective against Elon.
Up 31-25 early in the second half, SU head coach Jim Boeheim substituted Lydon into the game for Dajuan Coleman. Immediately following that change, it didn't take long for Elon to erase the deficit it faced, as the Phoenix quickly went on an 11-3 run to grab a 36-34 lead. After that, though, Syracuse showed why it can be so effective with that lineup on the floor, finishing the half on a 32-19 run.
With Lydon at center, Syracuse was able to spread the floor offensively in ways it couldn't when Coleman or Chino Obokoh were on the floor alongside Roberson. More importantly, the Orange were able to take advantage of that space by attacking the basket and creating scoring opportunities at the rim.
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SU vs Elon: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (insidetheloudhouse.com; Stone)
The game was a low-scoring, sloppy affair that finished 66-55. Although ugly at times, Syracuse was able to pull out a victory and move to 3-0 on the season. Elon fell to 2-2.
The game itself was tough to watch, as neither team was able to do all that much offensively and the pace was incredibly slow. I was on hand to watch the game at the Carrier Dome and it was silent for most of the game. It wasn’t a bad crowd, it’s just that there wasn’t a lot to cheer for.
The first half was ugly, with Syracuse managing to score only 29 points and take a six point lead into the half. Every time it looked like SU was about to pull away, they’d either turn it over or give up an uncontested three or drive into the middle. Even early in the second half Syracuse couldn’t pull away, and actually trailed with as little as 13 minutes to go.
Although it wasn’t a pretty game for both teams, there were some definite bright spots. Let’s take a look at who played well and what worked for Syracuse and see how that might translate for the team going forward.
The Good
Tyler flippin Roberson.
He’s finally here. Let’s hope he’s here to stay. After a ghost-like performance in the first game of the season, and a mediocre performance against the Bonnies, Roberson came out on fire.
He had a double-double by halftime with 16 points and 10 rebounds. He consistently elevated for big rebounds on both ends of the court. He also finally showed off a very nice post game. He made several baskets out of the low block, and several more when catching around the foul line and driving to the hoop.
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Jim Christian Has BC at 3-0 To Start the Season
ACC News
BC Rights Ship; Upsets Harvard (bostonherald.com; McCluskey)
All you need to know about the first half of yesterday’s Harvard-Boston College tilt came during a timeout.
With the game tied at 13 a little more than halfway through the period, the modest crowd managed its biggest cheer of the half when a student in a Boston College sweatshirt hit a half-court heave on his third and final attempt to pocket $300.
And why not cheer for him? He made as many shots in that 30-second contest (three) as Harvard’s Zena Edosomwan, the leading scorer with six points, did in the entire half. And Sweatshirt Guy shot a higher percentage (3-for-5, 60 percent) than everyone but BC’s Matt Milon (2-for-3, 66 percent).
“In the first half, I thought we just weren’t playing the right way,” BC coach Jim Christian said. “The ball wasn’t moving as well. They were kind of not guarding a couple guys on our team, and we weren’t finding the open guys.”
Thankfully for the fans, there was more to cheer in the second half of the eventual 69-56 BC win.
Trailing 20-16 at the half, the Eagles went on a 12-4 run as graduate student Eli Carter heated up. Carter scored eight points in the spree — two free throws, a pull-up 3-pointer, and then another 3 after he picked off a lazy Harvard pass and pushed the ball hard upcourt.
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ACC Roundup - UNC Sucker Punched by Northern Iowa (duekbasketballreport.com; King)
This wasn't supposed to happen: Northern Iowa was down 16 with 17:10 left in the second half and charged back to beat UNC, 71-67. No one gave them a chance to pull this off.
Well, except for us. As we said yesterday, UNI is a basketball school and expected to win.
Ol' Roy Williams surely knew how dangerous this game was, but his team may not have fully appreciated it.
Afterwards he kindly blamed himself, saying "I’m very disappointed in me, more so than my team. We acted like a team that had not been coached very well out there."
UNC hit a few threes (5-18), but you can cast some of the blame on Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson.
Meeks scored UNC's first four baskets, the last at 17:40, then didn't score again until 2:00 left in the game and UNC down 68-65.
Brice Johnson had 10. UNC was outscored 24-22 in the lane.
In the last :30 seconds, with UNI up 3, Joel Berry missed a three. UNC recovered, then Berry lost the ball to Jeremy Morgan, who was fouled by Justin Jackson. Morgan split on his free throws. Berry got one more try and launched another three, but even if it had gone in it was too late.
It was a magnificent win for UNI and in particular point guard Wes Washpun, who was terrific. He finished with 21 points and eight assists.
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