sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Scrabble Day!
The popular board game Scrabble is celebrated today, on the birthday of its creator, Alfred Butts. Butts lost his architectural job in 1931, during the Great Depression, and began brainstorming with the goal of creating a game. He organized board games into three categories: strategy games, numbers games, and word games. Realizing most games weren't word games, he set out to make one that everyone could enjoy. He wanted to combine chance and skill, and was influenced by crossword puzzles and anagrams. In his new game, which he called Lexico, words were built by drawing and discarding from letter tiles. Nine letter tiles were held at a time and there was no game board. Between 1934 and 1938, he made Lexiko sets by hand. He tried to license them to Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers but was rejected.
He then tweaked the game so that words could be built like a crossword puzzle, and began calling this version Criss-Cross Words. He included common letters more frequently, but made them worth fewer points than rare letters; he only put in four S's, though, as he didn't want easy points to be made by making words plural. He added two blank tiles and lowered the number of letters each person had from nine to seven. Butts sold Criss-Cross Words from his home for $2 a game and drew all the pieces by hand using his architectural draft equipment. He stopped producing the game sometime in the 1940s.
SU News
2021 ATH Jordan Moore, DE Tyson Watson have Syracuse in finalists with decisions looming (PS; Bailey)
Two Class of 2021 prospects have included Syracuse football in their finalists with decisions set to come in the next week.
Maryland athlete Jordan Moore will choose from the Orange and nine other schools on Saturday at 8 p.m. while Michigan defensive end Tyson Watson plans to cut his Top 9 to one on Friday.
Moore, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound junior at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Md., is rated three stars and the No. 81 athlete this cycle by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. He’s also considering UCLA, Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin, Duke, Boston College, Princeton, Yale and Harvard.
The Orange coaching staff is familiar with Moore, a versatile prospect who was offered as a wide receiver last June after camping in Central New York. He served as Loyola Blakefield’s starting quarterback last fall, completing 58.2 percent of his passes for 2,014 yards, 26 touchdowns and five interceptions, according to MaxPreps.com. Moore also ran for 606 yards and seven scores while catching five passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns.
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https://accsports.com/acc-news/duke-adds-prized-3-star-qb-ath-jordan-moore-to-2021-class/ (accsports.com; Geisinger)
Duke football’s 2021 recruiting class grew to seven on Saturday with the commitment of 3-star prospect Jordan Moore.
Moore, a 6-foot-2 athlete from just outside of Baltimore, is ranked by 247 Sports as one of the top 100 athletes in his class. However, Moore hopes to play quarterback at Duke for one of the best offensive minds in college football — David Cutcliffe. As of right now, Moore is the lone quarterback commit in Duke’s 2021 class.
COMMITTED TO DUKE UNIVERSITY
— Jordan Moore (@JMoore2021) April 12, 2020
Moore’s recruitment was led by Ben Albert, one of Duke’s co-defensive coordinators. Boston College and Army also offered Moore.
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article241952526.html (newsobserver.com; Connolly)
for gbo
The ACC Network is holding “takeover” days for its schools with no live college sports currently taking place, and Clemson’s day is coming up on Tuesday, April 14.
The programming will highlight some of the best games and greatest moments for each ACC school, and for Clemson that includes a pair of national title wins over Alabama to cap off the 2016 and 2018 seasons.
Here is Clemson’s full schedule:
TUESDAY, APRIL 12
Midnight: 2009 Duke vs. Clemson (men’s basketball)
1:30 a.m.: 2020 Duke vs. Clemson (men’s basketball)
3 a.m.: 2008 Clemson vs. Boston College (football)
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Looking Ahead: 5 Biggest games for Clemson Football in 2020 (SI; Hall)
for gbo
Clemson is the early front-runner to return to the College Football Playoff again and will likely be favored in each contest through the regular season. But the Tigers know all too well their recent success has quickly transformed Clemson from the hunter into the hunted, drawing every team’s full attention on game day.
In many cases, it simply won’t be enough against a talented, experienced and well-coached Tiger team. But as history as shown, any team is susceptible to being knocked off by a less talented opponent on any given Saturday. Head coach Dabo Swinney has preached for years the next game is always the biggest one, but here are five games (in chronological order) that stick out the most on Clemson’s 2020 journey to a sixth straight CFP appearance.
Louisville
First year Cardinal head coach Scott Satterfield made the biggest turn around last season taking the Cardinals from 2-10 in 2018 to 8-5 and Music City Bowl Champions in 2019. With a full year under his belt, Louisville could be primed to take another step toward challenging Clemson in the Atlantic Division this fall.
The Cardinals were quite the productive group on offense last season averaging 33.1 points per game while accumulating an average just shy of 450 yards of total offense under the direction of Dwayne Ledford who also enters in second season in Louisville as the offensive coordinator. Redshirt junior quarterback Micale Cunningham and redshirt sophomore running back Javian Hawkins highlight the offensive returners while senior defensive linemen Jared Goldwire has garnered praised from Defensive Coordinator Bryan Brown. Goldwire will look to be the team’s leader on the defensive side of the football.
Clemson will host Louisville in the home opener on Saturday, Sept. 12 in Death Valley. The Cardinals will look to be far more competitive than in their last trip to Memorial Stadium which saw the Tigers jump ahead early en route to a humbling 77-16 landslide.
Virginia
While the ACC Coastal Division continues to play a game of “Not It” when it comes to who battles Clemson in Charlotte the first weekend in December, Virginia and North Carolina have taken strides toward becoming the team to beat in the Coastal. The Cavaliers were left licking their chops in the ACC Championship following a 62-17 thumping in the school’s first ever appearance in the ACC title game in December, but the overall outlook is trending in the right direction under fifth-year head coach Bronco Mendenhall. The UVA coach has endured a slower transformation than Satterfield going from 2-10 in 2016 to last year’s 9-win total. Last season’s 9-5 record gave UVA its first nine-win season since 2007 and punched a postseason ticket to South Beach for the Orange Bowl, where the Cavs fell short to Florida, 36-28.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, Virginia must replace dual-threat superstar Bryce Perkins who accounted for nearly 80 percent of the offensive production in 2019. Redshirt freshman Brennan Armstrong is the likely replacement for Perkins and will lean on Terrell Jana to lead a wide out core that has holes to fill this season after losing Hasise Dubois and Joe Reed to graduation. On the bright side, UVA catches the Tigers in a time frame where Clemson could still be working through some early-season kinks due a limited spring and what likely will be a severely altered summer and fall camp schedule. The 2019 ACC Championship rematch is set for Sept. 26 and serves as the appetizer for back-to-back divisional road trips to Boston College and Florida State Oct. 2 (Friday) and Oct. 10, respectively.
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After expressing interest, ATH Jaxon Howard gets first ACC offer (247sports.com; OBrien)
Up until this weekend, Class of 2023 athlete Jaxon Howard had offers from schools in every Power 5 conference except the ACC. On Apr. 9, Howard posted this message on Twitter which expressed his interest in the ACC.
I would love to find out more about ACC Football. Please DM my Coach@WillieHoward77
If there is interest.@FSU_Recruiting @Commit2Cuse@ULFBRecruiting@MiamiRecruiting@WF_FBRecruiting@BCFootball @ClemsonFB @DukeFOOTBALL @GeorgiaTechFB @NCStateFootball@UVAFootball pic.twitter.com/E5M0mixhFU
— Jaxon Howard ? 2023 ? (@jaxonhoward11) April 10, 2020
Two days later, Pittsburgh became the first to offer Howard, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound prospect out of Minnesota.
Just received my first ACC offer today from @Pitt_FB. Great players have come out of PITT and I am excited to learn more. @WillieHoward77 @cooperhawksFB @AllenTrieu @CoachBorbs @CoachDuzzPittFB @JoshHelmholdt @HamiltonESPN @LarryFitzgerald @AaronDonald97 #h2p
— Jaxon Howard ? 2023 ? (@jaxonhoward11) April 11, 2020
Howard plays three positions on the football field: tight end, defensive end, and outside linebacker. With his size, talent, and versatility on the football field, it’s easy to see why Howard already has 15-plus offers after completing his freshman year of high school football. Penn State, Oregon, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Iowa are some of the other schools that also see Howard’s potential at the collegiate level.
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Hebbeler Finding Home on Offensive Side of the Ball - Wake Forest University Athletics (godeacs.com; Johns)
It seemed like a pretty standard spring break in Myrtle Beach for Wake Forest football players Connor Hebbeler, Zach Tom, Michael Jurgens and Allan Rappleyea — until it wasn't.
Sporting events started getting canceled and the players were seeing the threat of the Coronavirus pandemic play out by what they were seeing on social media.
"I didn't really have a firm grip on everything that was going on," Hebbeler said. "When we were there, it didn't seem like the craziest thing, but as the days went on it was apparent we needed to head home."
Then Wake Forest announced that spring break was going to be extended for a week and classes were going to move to an online format.
"Made a 12-hour drive home and have been stuck here ever since," Hebbeler said. "I've been working out in my basement as much as possible."
The remainder of the spring semester has been moved online and football spring camp was shut down 10 practices shy of the 15 allowed. There's no Spring Game this season. Hebbeler is hearing from tight end coach Wayne Lineburg nearly every other day.
"It's been so weird," Hebbeler said. "We're doing position meetings on Zoom. That allows us to get into film. In terms of the plan, they're constantly in contact with us. The staff has been meeting almost every day. They tell us we'll know first thing once a plan is set in motion."
The Hebbeler household is a little more crowded than usual this time of year. He has two sisters, one in high school and one in college, as well as his parents with him in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
"We didn't bring all of our clothes back from college, because it was so random," he said. "We don't get to see our family much during the year, so it's good to be with them now. There's five of us trapped in this little house.
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Why Did the ACC add Louisville instead of UConn? (RX; HM)
Why Did the ACC add Louisville instead of UConn?
I guess it's been long enough since we discussed this question that new fans have come along to ask it again - so if you're a long-time reader, much of what you're about to read is stuff you've read before (although I'd like to think this article takes a fresh look at the subject).
PROs and CONs
The University of Connecticut had a few things going for it to be sure:
- A men's basketball program just coming off a national championship (2011).
- An appearance in the 2010-11 Fiesta Bowl as the Big East co-champ.
- A state flagship program vs. a "city college".
- #30 TV market (Hartford/New Haven) vs. #48 for Louisville
- Strong relationship with SNY for access to the NYC television market
- Better academic reputation (#63 in US News vs. #160 for Louisville).
- The men's basketball program was banned from postseason play due to academic issues
- The football team was 5-6 in 2012 and coming off a 5-7 season in 2011.
- The Huskies averaged a mere 34,984 for football in a 40,000 seat stadium...
- ...and did not sell out a single game in 2012
- Even in the Fiesta Bowl, UConn only sold about 4,000 of its allotted 17,500 tickets.
- Basketball good enough to compete and win in the ACC (definitely NOT a liability)
- Football was 9-2 (although one loss was to UConn)
- The Cardinals had a 55,000-seat stadium and averaged 49,991 in 2012...
- ...and Cardinal fans had a reputation for selling-out bowl allotments.
- While Connecticut might be a bigger TV market, it was perceived as a professional sports market, while Louisville was seen as "collegiately-driven"
- While the ACC's basketball-first schools might have slightly preferred UConn, the football-first schools strongly insisted on Louisville (in fact, it was reported that Clemson and Florida State were ready to leave the ACC if it chose UConn over Louisville!)
- Finally, it was thought that if the ACC didn't take Louisville then the Big XII would, while UConn would still be available later if necessary.
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Ranked at the End, 1998-2019 (RX; HM)
Ranked at the End, 1998-2019
A user who goes by "bullet" on CSNBBS compiled and posted this list of "ranked teams BCS era to present". Here's how he explained his post:
Sounds like a reasonable system of analysis... so, without further ado, here's the list:
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1 | Ohio State | 395 |
| 2 | Alabama | 335 |
| 3 | Oklahoma | 332 |
| 4 | LSU | 290 |
| 5 | Georgia | 252.5 |
| 6 | Oregon | 239 |
| 7 | USC | 238 |
| 8 | Florida | 228.5 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | 220 |
| 10 | Texas | 217 |
| 11 | Florida State | 206 |
| 12 | Auburn | 184 |
| 13 | Clemson | 184 |
| 14 | Michigan | 182 |
| 15 | TCU | 181 |
| 16 | Boise State | 173 |
| 17 | Virginia Tech | 166 |
| 18 | Penn State | 157 |
| 19 | Stanford | 150 |
| 20 | Miami (FL) | 137 |
| 21 | Michigan State | 135 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | 132 |
| 23 | Tennessee | 111 |
| 24 | Iowa | 108 |
| 25 | Oklahoma St | 101 |
| 26 | Kansas State | 100 |
| 27 | Louisville | 87 |
| 28 | Utah | 86 |
| 29 | W Virginia | 85 |
| 30 | Missouri | 84 |
| 31 | Nebraska | 84 |
| 32 | Arkansas | 79 |
| 33 | S Carolina | 78 |
| 34 | Baylor | 71 |
| 35 | Texas AM | 70 |
| 36 | Washington St | 65 |
| 37 | UCF | 63 |
| 38 | Georgia Tech | 60 |
| 39 | Ole Miss | 60 |
| 40 | Mississippi St | 57 |
| 41 | UCLA | 54 |
| 42 | Washington | 53 |
| 43 | Cincinnati | 44 |
| 44 | Maryland | 43 |
| 45 | Boston College | 40 |
| 46 | Brigham Young | 38 |
| 47 | Texas Tech | 37 |
| 48 | Arizona State | 36 |
| 49 | Colorado | 32 |
| 50 | California | 30 |
| 51 | Minnesota | 30 |
| 52 | Nevada | 30 |
| 53 | Arizona | 29 |
| 54 | Houston | 26 |
| 55 | N Carolina | 26 |
| 56 | Northwestern | 26 |
| 57 | Syracuse | 24 |
ACCN School Takeover 4/13-19 (RX; HM)
ACCN School Takeover 4/13-19
@accnetwork presents @theACC School Takeovers Presented by Bojangles
Week 1
April 13 | @BCEagles
April 14 | @ClemsonTigers
April 15 | @DukeATHLETICS
April 16 | @Seminoles
April 17 | @GTAthletics
April 18 | GoCards
April 19 | @MiamiHurricanes Up Next: ACC Network School Takeovers Presented by Bojangles Starting April 13 - ESPN Press Room U.S. pic.twitter.com/Q1SCw0ya2E
ACC Network (ACCN), the 24/7 national platform dedicated to ACC sports, will present 15 days of programming highlighting some of the best games and greatest moments for each ACC institution with ACC Network School Takeovers Presented by Bojangles beginning Monday, April 13.
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Other
NY’s essential workers to get free masks from employers (PS; Weaver)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo today said he would sign a statewide order requiring employers to provide essential workers with cloth or surgical face masks when working with the public during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They should provide those masks cost-free,” Cuomo said. (Here’s the latest info from New York about who is an essential worker.)
He also plans to sign another order expanding the facilities that can conduct antibody tests, which indicate whether a person had the virus.
Scaling up testing is key to reopening businesses and schools, Cuomo said. “We have to get that test to scale,” he said.
Cuomo said he knows the state and nation wants to reopen as soon as possible.
“People want to get on with their lives,” he said. “We need the economy working. People need a paycheck.”
But he continued to caution that no one knows exactly when it will be safe enough to start going back to work and school.
“The caveat is we need to be smart in the way that we open,” he said.
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