The much needed ACC Grant of Rights deal has happened according to ESPN http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9200081/acc-media-rights-deal-lock-schools-okd-presidents and CBS http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/jeremy-fowler/22116192/acc-approving-grant-of-rights-deal. What great news for all of us who feared departures! Maybe this leads to adding UConn and Cincinnati?
Whenever Syracuse gets knocked out of the tournament I have trouble even watching the rest of the games and even wanting to talk about basketball so I’ve finally stopped feeling sorry for myself. It was a great NCAA run and great regional, but as expected they fell a bit short against Michigan. I thought Michigan was the better team going in but it was tough to watch with the opportunities they had to win. I don’t like to blame officials but that was tough to see so many block/charge calls go against the Orange. Can’t help but feel bad for Brandon Triche who had as solid of a four year career as anyone has had for the Orange.
As expected, Michael Carter-Williams quickly declared for the NBA Draft. I can’t blame anyone for taking the millions. He had a great season and should go, but still needs to significantly refine his game. I hope he gets on the right team with some time to develop and no early pressure on him. Syracuse has a great recruiting class coming in next year, and will have a new starting PG for the third season in a row as this was MCW’s first year starting. Tyler Ennis from famed St Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey will most likely take over and have some big shoes to fill.
Although its tough to say that Syracuse lacrosse is doing better than expected, I think its safe to say that so far for this season. A huge win over # 2 Cornell on Wednesday has the Orange feeling pretty good about themselves. They have some big wins against top ranked teams (Hopkins, St, John’s, and Princeton) already as they move into the latter part of their scheduled. A big game is coming up in the Big City Classic at MetLife (Giants) Stadium on April 27th against # 4 Notre Dame, which I expect to attend. The Orange have overcome some struggles at the x faceoff spot and will have to resolve this to have a strong finish to the season. Last year, their struggles at the faceoff spot cost them in the tournament. Now that Orange basketball is officially over, I”m looking forward to an exciting remainder of the lacrosse season.
According to syracuse.com Oklahoma transfer Drew Allen will attend Syracuse with one year remaining of eligibility remaining. Allen picked Syracuse over NC State. The Syracuse QB competition is wide open after the graduation of Ryan Nassib.
Ironically, Nassib got his first experience sharing time with Duke transfer Greg Paulus. Paulus essentially acted as the go-between from the Greg Robinson Error to keep things sane until the next QB (Nassib) was truly ready to take over. The question this time will be who is Allen keeping the seat warm for?
This is a real interesting transition year for Syracuse and not just because of the move to the ACC. They have continued the Doug Marrone tradition of adding JUCO players. Most of these players were originally recruitied by Doug Marrone but the new staff essentially closed the deal on them. Now adding Allen, they may have lineups this yearthat are only in place as starters for a year or two. In the long term they HAVE to get back to their recruiting base. However, at least in the short term, adding Drew Allen is a great addition with no other QB standing out in spring ball.
What a great run the past few days for the Orange. Boeheim always seems to do better when they are not supposed to win. Both wins were done in such impressive fashion the OrangeNation can truly celebrate this season. For all the Boeheim flaws, people have to respect how understated he is. When he said a week or so ago that this was his best defensive team he meant it.
As Lenville hinted to me in an earlier post it could be Louisville – Syracuse Game # 4 this season! I think this is Louisville’s tournament to lose as I thought going in Louisville was probably the best team and they certainly have done nothing to make me think otherwise. I hope MCW and company can lead them to at least the championship game. I attended the 1987 and 1996 Final Fours when Syracuse lost in the finals. I did not attend the 2003 Final Four when they won. As much as I would like to go to Atlanta, I will stay away to see if the 2003 history can repeat itself.
Three straight Final Fours without an ACC team but at least two newcomers help out. How hard do you think the Big East office in Providence was rooting for Marquette?
Trey Burke of Michigan vs Michael Carter-Williams on Saturday night – a great point guard matchup that should determine the winner.
What do you think – does a Syracuse championship get Boeheim to change his mind and retire? As much as he said he’s not done, its reasonable to think he would reconsider if the Orange wins the whole thing.
And then there were 4 (current or future ACC members) remaining.
The Big East showing in the tournament has been a disaster other than Louisville and Syracuse who have both looked very strong. The road does not get much easier for any of these four teams. Louisville and Miami both have legitimate chances to make it to the Elite 8 but it is possible that no current or future ACC member makes the Final Four. Louisville has the best chance against Oregon and Miami should be able to hold off a tough Marquette squad. However, Duke and Syracuse both have tough games against Michigan State and Indiana respectively. Having been at the 1987 championship game to watch Keith Smart’s shot sail over Howard Triche’s outstretched arm, the ball fall through the hoop, and then inexplicably NOBODY call timeout – there is nothing more I would enjoy seeing then Syracuse knocking Indiana out of the tournament. If Howard Triche’s nephew, Brandon, can hit the winning shot – that would be even better! It was a torturous ride home from New Orleans to Syracuse after that one.
One way to guarantee current/future ACC representation in the Final Four would be for all four teams to win this round, which would then guarantee two teams in the Final Four, and then we would have a Louisville-Duke matchup and a Syracuse-Miami matchup. Those would both be great games with some conference bragging rights on the line. Let’s hope it happens!
This is the round that most Syracuse fans cringe over. I’m sure the Syracuse haters will say it should be the first game by bringing up the 1991 #2 vs # 15 loss to Richmond – which a co-worker (and Richmond alum) of mine brings up every year at this time even though I didn’t know him until a decade later. However, several will remember a 1987 Championship game run surrounded by an early exit to Navy in 1986 and to URI in 1988. While there are several other early exits that stung these two were the harshest. Although Navy had David Robinson, the game was played at the DOME! The URI loss was even worse because the expectations were higher for that season, and hey, why not another run deep into the tournament. I was on vacation and recall desperately searching for an establishment with a TV in the afternoon running around frantically with a group of guys trying to get to see the game and the expected win. At some point near the search, for the younger readers please understand – no iphones – we knew the game was close to being over and had no updates. Suddenly, a group with URI on their shirts sees us with Syracuse shirts and blurts out, “Syracuse – ha, ha, we just beat you!” Talk about an awful way to find out and not even have a chance to live through the agony of watching the game.
For a program like Syracuse, The Sweet 16 is considered a must. Its easy to nit pick past that point, but getting the game 2 win is critical towards validation of at least a relatively successful season (and justification of the seed they got). The defense looked great last night and hopefully this was the offensive awakening they need, but Cal is playing basically a home game tomorrow so this could be a game for Orange fans to sweat out.
On another note, the Orange Lax team is off to a very good start especially with an impressive win over Johns Hopkins on Saturday. Looking forward to discussing lacrosse on here – I’m just holding out hope that the Orange will go deep into the tournament and the lax discussions can wait.
Welll, not really, but it might as well be. Nostalgia will flow through the week at Madison Square Garden. This tournament was essentially the heart and soul of the Big East. While it may live on in its new formation, most people, even Syracuse haters, have to admit, a Syracuse presence each year really took the tournament intensity to a higher level.
With Syracuse in a tailspin, its tough to tell how an early exit by the Orange will impact the rest of the tournament. A Syracuse run to at least the semifinals will really have it seem like old times. Ironically, the game I remember most was in 1986 when Pearl Washington had his last second shot swatted away by St. John’s – it was a long bus ride out of the city that night. I wish I had been there through GMac’s run a few years back or Kemba Walker’s heroics. If Syracuse can make it to the weekend games, I will find a way to be there for the last hurrah.
I hope Syracuse can have one last glorious run before moving on to what will be an even better ACC tournament next year.
Syracuse fans are thrilled to be going to the ACC next year. But one of the downsides is the end to a rivalry like this. Over the years this has been THE game for both Syracuse and Georgetown fans. Today at 4pm on CBS the last ever Big East game at the Carrier Dome between these two storied programs.
Football rules college athletic decision making – but don’t tell that to the 34,000 fans that will pack the Carrier Dome today. With the nation’s longest home winning streak on the line, what Syracuse fan doesn’t remember the last game at Manley Field House when John Thompson concluded with saying Manley Field House was officially closed? How about the Classic 1990 game where JT was ejected?
This ranks up there with NC-Duke. All Big East fans will miss this rivalry. Today will be college basketball at its best. I hope all the ACC fans get a chance to take a look at this game today and see the Carrier Dome experience as new rivalaries get set to begin next year.
Anyone with other great SU-Georgetown moments they remember?
When snowstorms hit the northeast and your team is down to seven scholarship players, panic sets in. When senior sharpshooter James Southerland returns in time for the St. John’s game, a huge sigh of relief is let out. This was an important week for the Orange to win both home games after stumbling the week before. After a great win against Notre Dame early in the week the Orange took care of business today by beating St. John’s.
Southerland was reinstated after sitting out due to an undisclosed reason. He provides both great depth and balance. Without him, the Orange became more predictable. With him, a deep postseason run becomes more viable as the Orange also hope for a speedy recovery from Freshman Dajuan Coleman.
This week for the Orange are two road games at UConn on Wednesday and Seton Hall on Saturday. No Big East road game is easy, but two wins here could propel them to where they want to be as the regular season starts to wind down. Also, the win today was the 37th home win in a row.
The rankings are not kind to this year’s SU recruiting class and rightfully so. However, Syracuse, even when good, has made a living out of developing the 3 star players. As I noted last week, the coaching change was creating havoc. On the negative side, Syracuse lost some verbal commits to Marrone and company such as Augustus Edwards RB/NYC (Miami), Malik Brown DE/Florida (Tennessee), Devan Carter LB/Rochester (Rutgers), and Zach Allen QB/Texas (TCU). These were all highly sought players and are losses that certainly hurt. However, kudos to the new staff, and especially new OC George McDonald who pulled in some fine players from various parts of the country all at the last minute. Notables added late thanks to the new staff are Mitch Kimble QB, Brisly Estime WR, Corey Cooper WR, and Corey Winfield WR.
It looks like Scott Shafer’s new staff avoided disaster, because had they not been so good with the late additions, it could have been worse. They get the benefit of the doubt here. Unfortunately, it looks like SU fans who were just starting to see recrutiing getting to another level, have to accept the pitfalls of the current HC leaving for the NFL.
I think the new staff’s success cherry picking these fine players late is a good sign. However, as noted in last week’s posting, the core of the recruiting area has to be the 250 mile radius around the school. This class only got one player from the coveted NYC metro area and SU still has not added a coach with ties to this area.
SU and Boston College at one time owned NYC and NJ and now neither program is getting players from the area. For either SU or BC to get back to their glory days they have to get their base area back.
New Jersey has several national powerhouse programs – Don Bosco Prep, Bergen Catholic, St. Peter’s Prep (Jersey City) and St. Joseph (Montvale) outside NYC that churn out Division 1 players. These players are going to Rutgers and to schools outside the area. BC and SU used to be in the running for these players. Ironically, Steve Addazzio has ties to the area from his days as a Syracuse assistant and now more recently at Temple so I wouldn’t be surprised to see BC make a comeback in NYC/NJ.
The ideal situation for Syracuse will be for them to take advantage of the “national” reputation of George McDonald to supplement their core base. The challenge is going to be getting back into the core northeast programs that Marrone had just started to accomplish.
The Confidential 