sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to Cat Herders Day!
A day for those of us who feel like we’re tasked with the impossible, Cat Herders Day recognises the frustration of trying to manage the unmanageable. Whether it’s work, home, school or other areas of life, if it feels like herding cats, today’s your day.
SU News
5 Star Shooting Guard Hamidou Diallo Considering Unofficial Visit with Orange (TNIAAM; Cassillo)
More recruiting news today, this time related to basketball. The Syracuse Orange appear to be on the short list for 2017 5-star shooting guard Hamidou Diallo. The Connecticut standout told SNY today that he's considering unofficial visits with Syracuse, Maryland, NC State, Kansas and Indiana, respectively.
When the Orange first showed strong interest back in August, it seemed like more local (to him) options like St. John's or UConn (plus others like Louisville or Kentucky) could have the inside track. Based on the list he gave SNY, however, that seems far from the case. Of course, remarks about unofficial visits are far from set in stone. And Diallo could conceivably swing by the aforementioned local schools any time given his proximity.
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Syracuse currently has no one inked for the class of 2017, but with an extra scholarship in hand now and the 2016 cycle wound down, that could change in the coming months. The Orange have shown interest in a lot of the top names from the class of 2017, from Trevon Duval and Michael Porter, to Mohamed Bamba, Jordan Tucker and of course, Diallo. Diallo is ranked 15th overall by Scout, and is the second-ranked shooting guard in the class.
Given the current state of Orange shooting... we could obviously use as many scoring options as possible.
Orange Watch: One Third Complete, SU Season Has Been an Up and Down Ride (thejuice; Bierman)
Item: Besides the reliance on three point shooting, which will define the now Top 50 ranked Orange’s offensive productivity as the team has averaged 68.1 points per game through the 10 games so far – essentially right at last year’s 67.6 ppg mark (which was 155th nationally out of 351 Div. I teams), a tightened, more active zone defense with accompanying better rebounding, will be just as critical in determining how successful this upcoming season plays out, continuing Saturday against longtime upstate rival Cornell (5-4) at the Dome (12:00 p.m. ET / ACCRSNs-ESPN3).
Sure, Syracuse (7-3) doesn’t usually lose as many as three non-conference games before the start of the past Big East or now current ACC league matchups (it’s only happened three times since the ’03 title season), but then again the non conference schedules have gotten a tad tougher over the last 11 years under Jim Boeheim, diverging away from the onetime stigma attached to ‘Cuse hoops that SU didn’t leave the state of New York until the New Year.
Since 2004, there’s been an annual Syracuse appearance in a preseason, multi-day tournament in multiple locales, including early season games in the New York City metro area nine of the last 12 seasons, and now with the inclusion of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge game, and the continuation of old rivalries from the Big East days, it guarantees a couple of true road games each December against quality opponents.
And, besides, despite the losses to Wisconsin, Georgetown and most recently against St. John’s this past Sunday at the Garden, this team did win the Battle 4 Atlantis against tough competition in Connecticut and Texas A&M (both hovering at the bottom end of the Top 25 this week), and now has three more opportunities to hone its game against less talented teams before a tough test to start the ACC portion of the season at Pitt’s Petersen Events Center on Dec. 30, the originally thought of start date to Mike Hopkins turn in the spotlight.
With almost a week off between games while navigating around final exams and the end of an academic semester, the players can only hope the shots go down consistently from a variety of sources, as they hope to avoid falling behind early, and pick up their play defensively to trigger an occasional faster pace of play.
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Other
Dolph Schayes' Funeral, a Mix of Tears and Laughter, Amounted to a Nice Ode for a Nice Man (PS; Poliquin)
They gathered on Monday with memories that could have been so many jelly beans in a tall jar, taking their places in the Temple Concord pews, knowing full well that they were likely to nod, cry and laugh over the next hour or so.
Dolph Schayes, that gentle basketball giant and the latest of our cancer victims, had died back on Thursday and now it was time to say goodbye. And so, some 300 family members and friends and admirers — perhaps even a stranger or two — had arrived on our 60-degree December morning to do just that.
Stan Laurel once said that if anybody dared to weep at his funeral, he'd never speak to him or her again. Of course, Dolph being Dolph, he'd have made a similar vow … not that it would have discouraged anybody in Monday's seats, where red eyes could be seen all around and tissues dabbed at noses.
If a line of folks more beloved in this town than Dolph Schayes ever materialized, the result would be the world's shortest parade. And now, at the age of 87, he was gone. So, yeah, there were sniffles and there were tears.
His four children (Carrie, Danny, David and Debbie) made their way to the Bimah, but only after his nine grandchildren (Abbi, Bengie, Carla, Hannah, Julia, Kevin, Logan, Mickey and Rachel) had done so before them. And so many of the spoken words by those prides of Dolph's life — they, along with Naomi, his bride of six decades — were beautiful ones about a beautiful man.
But Dolph, the most popular of those old Syracuse Nationals, was all about stories … the kinds, as teller and as subject, that drew smiles. And just as he would've preferred, some of them were told on Monday.
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