After quickly jumping out to a 4-0 lead over Yale, the Big East/ACC Tweener Syracuse Orange lacrosse team either fell asleep or decided to do their best impression of Bryant, and would go virtually the entire rest of the game without scoring again. Read more…
Few questioned the decision by Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams to forego his last two years of college basketball and enter the NBA draft. After all, NBA draftniks had been drooling and fawning over MCW for the entire season. The phrase “certain lottery pick” is enough to convince the Confidential that any player should turn pro. But this one is getting ugly.
The good news for MCW is that Chad Ford has stated to Syracuse.com that scouts either “love” or “hate” MCW. So some scouts still love him. But others hate him? That seems harsh… presumably they just dislike his game. But that is bad news.
Even worse is this quote from Ford:
“I know his agent thinks that I’m insane to have him, I think right now, I have him projected outside the lottery,” Ford said. “I think Dallas is a very good possibility for him at 13 and Sacramento is a good possibility for him if Anthony Bennett is off the board. Other than that, I just haven’t identified the other teams where I think he is a fit and they’re high on him.”
The good news for MCW is that he is still likely to be a first-round pick and get guaranteed money. If so, the decision to go pro was unquestionably a sound move. If the flaws in his game were not corrected next year, that extra year of college would be wasted.
But it is still a shame to see someone leave school when the “potential” outweighs the “actual.” If only the NBA and college basketball could work together to allow kids a chance to continue to develop their game in college, without making that a risky proposition from a business sense.
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?
There is never a good time for a good college football coach to leave. Just when Orange fans see the program turning the corner with Doug Marrone, next thing you know he is the HC of the Buffalo Bills.
New Head Coach Scott Shafer has been quite busy building a new staff and trying to keep recruits. The Orange lost top QB recruit Zach Allen to TCU just two days before he was supposed to enroll at Syracuse. The Orange also lost a few other players in transition. Long time SU fans remember Ray Rice decommitted when Paul Pasqualoni was let go – think both teams fortunes changed for a decade after that one? However, the new staff has already attracted a few new recruits with the recently patched together staff including dual threat QB Mitch KImble from Illinois and WR Corey Cooper out of Raleigh, NC. The latter was being recruited by new OC George McDonald who is being counted on to not just lead the offense but to recruit in ACC territory having been with Miami last season.
As part of the move to the ACC the Orange was hoping to go into some new recruiting territoy and now has someone with ties in the conference’s footprint. However, Syracuse has to still recruit the 250 mile radius around its campus successfully. In the 80’s and 90’s they owned the NJ/NYC area – then Greg Schiano and Randy Edsall came along and the Orange have struggled regularly since. Doug Marrone was just making some inroads into the NYC area and had a few asst. coaches who new the area well, but they went with him to the Bills. I’m very encouraged with how the new staff has held things together. The staff isn’t completely filled yet, but as of yet, they don’t have anyone with ties to the metropolitan area and only two verbal commits so far are from NYC and none from NJ. If the ‘Cuse is going to continue the recent upswing as they enter the ACC, they will have to somehow get back into their base recruiting area. Otherwise, it could be a rough start in the ACC next year.
The Confidential 