The Confidential

The ACC Sports Blog

12 Apr 2013

SU Hoops ends as Lax heats up

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.

Posted by tjcuseacc in Uncategorized
12 Apr 2013
2 Comments

Drew Allen to transfer to Syracuse!

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.

Posted by tjcuseacc in Uncategorized
12 Apr 2013
11 Comments

N-C-A-Absurdity

The college basketball season just ended.  You knew that from your bracket.  Heck, even Ned Flanders would think a bracket is too much fun to be immoral.  But the season just ended two days ago.  And guess when the deadline is for college underclassmen to decide whether to turn pro?  Next freakin’ Tuesday, according to Syracuse.com, who laid this all out for Syracuse fans wondering what CJ Fair is going to do.

This is the timeline:

  • April 8, 2013: Championship Game
  • April 10, 2013: The deadline to apply for an assessment from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee
  • April 15, 2013: The deadline to receive assessment from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee
  • April 16, 2013: NCAA Early Entry Withdrawal Deadline

That’s right.  The underclassmen in the Final Four have exactly one week to decide that they are not going to make themselves eligible for the draft.  The most important decision of their respective lives, and the NCAA gives kids as little as one week to decide.  Even worse, a kid like CJ Fair can receive his “assessment” on April 15 and get a whole 24 hours to decide.  24 hours.

An NCAA apologist might say that a kid could still decide to go pro between April 16 and April 28.  However, anyone choosing to go pro during that period would give up their NCAA eligibility.  There is no chance to return to college at that point.

It gets better.  The purpose of moving up the dates to crunch this timeline was…. get ready for this… to benefit the student-athlete.  That’s right, the NCAA is actually telling the world, with a straight face presumably, that they tightened the deadlines to help kids.  The Syracuse.com article stated as follows: “The NCAA moved this date up in 2012 ‘to help keep student-athletes focused on academics in the spring term and to give coaches a better idea of their roster for the coming year before the recruiting period is closed,’ according to the organization.”  Right.  The latter part of the sentence is true, but not the former.  This has nothing to do with helping kids.

If the NCAA cared about the players, it would allow them to go all the way through the draft, see where they are drafted, and then decide whether to come back to college.  Indeed, as long as the player did not sign a contract, why should they be deemed to have lost their amateur status?  Larry Bird was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1978.  He played for Indiana State in the 1978-1979 season.  He then went pro for the 1979-1980 season, and the rest is history.  Despite the Boston Celtics holding his rights, amateur athletics did not come to a halt.  Things worked out quite well, actually.

Surely, you say, it would be improper for any current college athlete to be drafted and stay in college, right?  Well, not if you are a baseball player.  The MLB draft is set up to allow the drafting of three categories of players:

  • High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;
  • College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old; and
  • Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed

A high school player that is drafted, but chooses not to sign gets to go play college baseball.  The NCAA will let him play.  For a while, as the college baseball player will not be eligible again for the MLB draft until he turns 21 or completes his junior season.  So, somehow, the NCAA allows drafted, but unsigned, baseball players to compete.  It works the same way in hockey.

So, why is there one set of rules for baseball and hockey, but a much more onerous set of rules for basketball and football?  If you are an optimist, you think it is because the NCAA makes so much money with football and basketball, that they care a lot more about keeping the amateur ranks clean.  But, if you think about it, that cannot be.  If it was only about ratings and attendance, keeping the best basketball and football players around would be even more profitable.  If you are a pessimist, you might suspect racism.  Right?  The more “white” the sport, the more likely the NCAA is to allow you to be drafted and return to college nonetheless.  At the very least, with a largely African-American sport such as basketball, the NCAA is more than willing to force kids to make a decision, one that will either be smart or terrible, in one week.  Every time a basketball player leaves early, is not drafted, and is never heard from again… it is a warning sign to others that might consider leaving early.  The NCAA will gladly ruin someone’s life to protect their cash cow.  Especially when they are ruining a young African-American male’s life.  Yes, this is a pessimistic view, all right.

Hey… if you can find a rationale for having different rules for the different sports, feel free to share it.  The Confidential would love to hear why it must be different.

Whatever the reason, it is just one more example of just how absurd the NCAA is.  But you knew that already…

 

 

Posted by acaffrey in Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Opinion and tagged , , , , , , , ,
11 Apr 2013
10 Comments

When Will We Get Refbots?

What a great weekend of basketball!  Three great games that were in doubt throughout.  All is great, right?  Heck no!

First, Wichita State remains peeved that the referees called that jump ball with less than 10 seconds to go.  All across the web people were perplexed, including this seemingly-neutral publication, the Business Insider Journal.  Well, what does a business publication know about sports?  True, only the those other than the most diehard of Louisville fans had to think… “hmmm, that was a bit quick.” Second, Syracuse fans remain utterly-perturbed with the series of calls that led to starting guards Michael Carter-Williams and Brandon Triche fouling out, with the most-severe ire addressed to the latter.   Of course, the talking heads commenting after the game noted that the call was blown.   Third, regardless of who you were rooting for, the block called against Trey Burke was simply absurd.  The best anyone can do is argue that it did not “cost” Michigan the game.  Or “tarnish” what was a great basketball game.

Now, the Confidential is going to say this slowly.  And in bold.  Wichita State, Syracuse, and Michigan have nothing to complain about.  Play as if you are going to have a few bad calls go against you.  Assume it.  That first half turnover cost you as much as that late game blown call.  Those missed free throws.  That ill advised shot.  You lost.  

But let’s not pretend that the officiating is not a problem.  We have inconsistencies within games now.  It used to be that “they are calling a tight game” meant something.  Now you get games where they call nothing for 30 minutes and get foul happy down the stretch.  And, of course, vice-versa.  Nobody can dispute that charges are called too often now.  We still see fouls called on the expectation that there would be contact, rather than the reality.  And so on.

And it’s not just basketball.  Did you see this call in baseball the other night?  Wow.

This is not to say that the referees aren’t doing the best job that they can.  They work hard, perhaps too hard.  Some are out-of-shape, but most are fit enough to keep up with the athletes.  We have had few scandals to question integrity.  The best officials seem to be the ones that everybody hates.  That means something–usually the toughness to make a call that the 5 to 110 thousand people in the building might not like.

But is this the best that sports can do?  Of course not.  We can do better than people.  They are called robots.  Let’s call them refbots.

Sure, refbots have not been invented yet.   To our knowledge.  But we have computers that can win at Jeopardy.  We have had line calls made automatically in tennis for years.  Isn’t this the solution?  Take it out of the hands of flawed humans, and put it into a programmable robot.  The program can be changed to reflect rule changes.  You can have many robots calling a basketball game–all working various angles together to ensure that the right call is made.  Instead of wondering whether one of the three guys will get there, technology will make sure someone is in position.  In fact, isn’t it more surprising we do not have this technology yet???  Even so, the technology has to be inevitable.

What do you think?  Assuming we could design robots to call games with far more accuracy and consistency, would you want that?  Or do you prefer the human error component?

Posted by acaffrey in Opinion and tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
10 Apr 2013
2 Comments

Correspondent Openings…at the Confidential!

As the college basketball season closes, and with college football a few months off in the distance, this is the Confidential’s slow period.  But that will not stop us for looking for more correspondents.  If you are a fan of one of the schools for which we need a correspondent, please let us know if you are interested.  Right now, we have the following schools covered: North Carolina, North Carolina State, Clemson, and Syracuse.

That leaves openings for the majority of schools, in no particular order:

  • Boston College
  • Duke
  • Pitt
  • Wake Forest
  • Florida State
  • Georgia Tech
  • Louisville
  • Notre Dame
  • Virginia
  • Virginia Tech
  • Maryland
  • Miami

There is a lot going on at those schools, even in the offseason.  In a nutshell, we only ask that you contribute a weekly (or so) article letting fans and non-fans of a school know what is new.  When college football and basketball seasons roll around, it should be hard to limit yourself to just one.  But that’s all we ask.  You can do as many as you want.

Of course, it is a volunteer position, but it is great experience.   Writing seems easy, until you have to do it!  And it is a very useful skill to have.

We would also consider taking on someone as a correspondent for a non-revenue sport, such as lacrosse or baseball.

If you are interested, send an email to ezdozen@yahoo.com expressing that interest.

Posted by acaffrey in Uncategorized
09 Apr 2013
11 Comments

Update on ACC Revenue

CBS is reporting that the future addition of Notre Dame will have an immediate impact on revenue.  Even with just a 5-game football schedule and basketball games, Notre Dame will contribute in excess of $1M additional to the television revenue for each school.  While this is not “catching up to the Big 10” money, the gap between the conferences is not as wide as reported.  This may be why there are lots of rumors regarding schools leaving, but few actually doing so.

That same article also reports as follows regarding an ACC Network:

The ACC is currently considering a 24-hour sports channel with ESPN, which is gathering information and will return to the league with an assessment. If ESPN makes an offer the ACC likes, plans for a channel might commence. The league is evaluating whether a channel makes the most business sense.

Look, who knows if an ACC Network would be successful?  What is clear, however, is that the Big 10 Network is successful. This is where things are headed.  If there is not going to be an ACC Network, then ACC teams might very well end up on the Big 10 Network, to ESPN’s loss.

Perhaps ESPN would benefit from some sort of joint network between the SEC and the ACC, where both channels are a package that is available from the Northeast down to Florida and West to Texas.  That’s a lot of territory to bundle the packages together.  The price could be determined by media market.  The SEC channel could be 90 cents a month in Texas, while the ACC channel could be 10 cents a month there.  But in North Carolina, it could be the inverse.  The extra revenue provided by the bundling would help get both channels more market saturation.

Then again, the Confidential is hardly a financial or television tycoon.  Perhaps ESPN is moving towards jai alai, as that will be the sport of the 22nd century.

What do you think?  ACC Network have ANY potential?

Posted by acaffrey in ACC Network, ACC only, Basketball, Conference News, Conference Realignment, Football and tagged , , , , ,
09 Apr 2013
4 Comments

Confidential Bracket: Final!

Well, it’s over.  Louisville represented the future ACC well by defeating Michigan of the imperialist Big 10.  So that’s a double victory for ACC fans.

Winners bracket proved prophetic by, well, winning.  So that individual wins the prize.

If you liked participating in this, please leave a comment below.  We’ll try to do more of them…

Rank
Bracket
1
2
3
4
Semis
Finals
Bonus Pts
Total Pts
1
WinnersBracket
 48 39 25 8 13 21 (Louisville) 30 184
2
TheEssentialsOfCool.com
 48 30 15 16 13 21 (Louisville) 23 166
3
Cards 80 86 13?
 44 21 15 16 26 21 (Louisville) 17 160
4
Florida State
 50 30 20 16 13 0 (Kansas) 29 158
5
LenVILLE
 48 30 15 8 13 21 (Louisville) 18 153
6
Cuse Stormin the ACC
 48 30 25 16 13 0 (Syracuse) 21 153
7
KC’s Bracket
 46 33 10 8 13 21 (Louisville) 16 147
8
Maverick
 44 30 20 8 13 21 (Louisville) 8 144
9
Allen’s Bracket
 40 27 15 16 13 21 (Louisville) 11 143
10
Da Cuseman Cometh
 42 30 25 16 13 0 (Syracuse) 17 143
11
Otto the Great and Powerful
 42 33 15 8 13 21 (Louisville) 0 132
12
My Legit Bracket
 42 33 15 8 13 21 (Louisville) 0 132
13
Boeheimian Rhapsody
 50 27 20 8 0 0 (Syracuse) 23 128
14
Boeheims possible farewell
 44 30 20 16 0 0 (Syracuse) 17 127
15
QBcuse
 36 27 10 8 13 21 (Louisville) 4 119
16
Will Bonn’s Bracket
 42 27 25 0 0 0 (Indiana) 18 112
17
win prizes
 40 30 20 0 0 0 (Gonzaga) 20 110
18
Bye Bye Big East
 46 33 15 0 0 0 (Georgetown) 12 106
19
KAOS
 36 30 20 8 0 0 (Georgetown) 12 106
20
*Commander Caffrey
 38 27 10 8 13 0 (Indiana) 8 104
21
Rebecca’s Dandy Bracket
 40 30 15 0 0 0 (Duke) 18 103
22
Goop’s Bracket
 40 33 10 0 0 0 (Miami (FL)) 20 103
23
BracketBuster.
 46 24 15 0 0 0 (Kansas) 16 101
24
mikemab wolf
 42 27 20 0 0 0 (Ohio St.) 6 95
25
BeerThirty
 40 27 15 0 0 0 (Miami (FL)) 8 90
Posted by acaffrey in Basketball, Bracket Contest and tagged , ,
08 Apr 2013

What’s New in Conference Expansion

The Confidential is going to take a quick look around the conferences to see what is going on in conference expansion news:

The Big 10–the commentators over at Frank the Tank are busy arguing over whether the Big 10 will be taking some of the ACC or all of the ACC.  The blog author, himself, is focused on the division realignments with Rutgers and Maryland coming aboard soon enough:

It appears that the Big Ten office is heeding the calls for the “Keep It Simple Stupid” approach of dividing the soon-to-be 14-team conference into East and West divisions, with Michigan State heading East with Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers and Maryland, the West having Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota and the only debate being where Indiana and Purdue will be placed.  IU-PU will then be the only protected cross-division rivalry.

It’s a pretty Big 10 centric place.  They are trying to decide whether 14, 16, 20, 80, or 200 teams is best.

The SEC–Mr. SEC has quoted the Missouri athletic director Mike Alden as essentially saying that the SEC will stay at 14 teams unless it decides not to.  Sounds like they are not doing anything.  Unless they do.

The Pac-12–This conference is in Monopoly jail.  Nowhere to go expansion-wise.  Unless Texas decides to come west, who would they add?  Boise State is not academically suited, nor is UNLV.  San Diego State and New Mexico are not worth expanding.  BYU is too religious.  So much for that.

The Big XII–nothing new to report on this front.

The ACC–nothing new to report on this front, other than the expectations of future pillaging.

The Big East–is now a basketball conference, having added Butler, Creighton, and Xavier.  They also have the name The Big East, having taken that from the Big East leftovers.  With Marquette and DePaul joining those three in the West, and Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova, St. Johns, and Providence in the East, that is not too shabby of a hoops conference.

The Big East leftovers now have a new name– the American Athletic Conference.  Tulsa is the latest addition to this group.

Conference USA– is thinking about going to 16 teams.  Heck, the Confidential did not even know that they had 14, especially after the American Athletic Conference has taken so many.  Western Kentucky will be taking Tulsa’s spot.

Beyond that it just gets way too confusing.  Too many moving parts.

 

Posted by acaffrey in Basketball, Conference News, Conference Realignment and tagged , ,
07 Apr 2013
2 Comments

Plenty to Criticize–Here is Something to Praise

Not going to waste words here.  This is one of the cooler things you can possibly see.  This would be incredibly awesome for any young fan, and it is great that this young fan got a brief respite from his day-to-day struggles to be a hero for a moment.  As someone on Youtube commented: “Faith in humanity, restored.”

See it for yourself:

Posted by acaffrey in Football, Something Positive and tagged , , , , , , ,
06 Apr 2013

State of the Pack: QBs and more

There was an interesting email in my box yesterday from our own administrator Anthony Caffery (aka Commander Caffrey). It referenced the possibility of Drew Allen, Oklahoma backup, transferring to State. Unfortunately the article he directed me to seemed to indicate that Allen is leaning toward Syracuse.  Here’s the link:

Since as the article states he will be eligible immediately following any transfer that makes him a player in the mix for us if he decides to come to State.  Which begs the question: what does the QB situation look like for the Pack in 2013?
The two leading candidates to start are Colorado transfer Pete Thomas and soph Manny Stocker.  Thomas seems to have a slight edge right now and is getting more first-team snaps. Coach Doeren told the Charlotte Observer that he wanted to go with the guy who makes the fewest mistakes. Link is here:
Of course we will continue to look at the QB and other positions on the Wolfpack roster as the spring and summer progress.  New coaches and coordinators, new season coming…I am starting to yearn for fall.  At least the part after the less-than-ambitious non-conference schedule.
Here are a few items about other Pack teams:
Basketball:
The 2013-14 edition of the Wolfpack will not look much like this season’s, and perhaps that is a good thing.  But TJ Warren says he will stay, and he was one of the brighter spots on the Cardiac DOA Pack.
On the women’s side, former Pack assistant Wes Moore was hired as the new HC.  Moore comes from UT Chattanooga with an impressive career winning percentage of .767 and 16 trips to the Big Dance, so it seems the ladies are in good hands.
Baseball:  Finally, a quick baseball update. I admit to not really following college baseball until CWS time, but now that we are “in-between” the two attention-grabbing sports, why not take a peek?
Happy to report that the Pack is fine, ranked #25 and coming off a 14-inning win over #30 Virginia Tech.  As a matter of fact, the ACC is fine with the following Top 30 teams:  UNC #1, Virginia #6, Florida State #7, Georgia Tech #16, and as stated already, the Wolfpack at #25 and the Hokies at #30. As for the Futures, we have Louisville at #14 and Notre Dame at #24.
Posted by mikemab2000 in ACC only, Baseball, Basketball, Football, NC State Correspondent, Rankings, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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