VAGUE SPACE

Syracuse 23-1

Well Fab is back.  And all is right with the world.  After 3 games without the sophomore center in which the previously undefeated Syracuse Orange lost to Notre Dame and struggled to beat Cincinnati and West Virginia, Fab Melo's academic situation was resolved and he returned to the lineup on Saturday in Madison Square Garden against St. John's (not "at" St. John's as the majority of fans in the sold-out arena were rooting for the Orange).  Fab's presence was pretty immediate and an early blocked shot led to a fast-break like we hadn't seen since he'd been gone and the Cuse took control to win, running away, 95-70, dominating like they had for nearly the whole season -- the previous 3 games excepted.  Admittedly St. John's is small and they do not match up with Syracuse well at all and their "home" game wasn't exactly any kind of advantage but it was really great to see the team back to its soul-crushing ways, cruising to the victory against the talented (but freshman-laded) Johnnies.  We're getting into the meat of the schedule, though, starting tonight against Georgetown, a stretch of late-season challenges including 2 against Louisville and 2 against UConn after tonight's battle royale with our hated rivals.  So I have a feeling that close games are going to be the norm again, and hopefully the experience of struggling without Fab helped to train these boys how to win the tight ones for when it really matters.  And it really matters starting tonight.  A season-record crowd of 33,000+ is expected.  Georgetown is really, really good, as usual.  And they're not really afraid of the Dome.  We need everyone to play and play big.  Especially Mr. Melo.

Syracuse 19-0

I've been watching Syracuse regularly since 1987 and religiously since at least the mid-90s and I do not remember ever watching a Syracuse team this completely dominant, game in and game out.  Now I know the Big East is down this year and we've maybe not had the toughest schedule so far but in nearly every single one of the last dozen or so games, the Syracuse Orange have flat-out destroyed their opponent, leading each game by close to 20 at some point of the contest.  And this isn't like Colgate or Cornell or other early season patsies.  This is Seton Hall (4-2 in the Big East) and Florida and NC State and Villanova and Tulane and #24 Marquette and Providence twice now, sandwiching the Friars' blow out win against Louisville.  It's shocking really the way none of these games have been close.  Even in our best years -- hell, even in the 2003 championship season -- not only would the Orange lose the occasional game but they'd have a number of barn burners down to the wire, poor performances or great shooting nights by their opponents.  But this year, so far, nothing like that.  Just look at the stats.  #1 in RPI, obviously, and #1 in all the polls but #4 Strength of Schedule among all teams in the country (and nary a close game among them since the season opening pre-season NIT).  They are 12th in the nation in points scored, 10th in assists, 14th in FG%, 19th in FG% against, 1st in steals (1st!), 3rd in the nation in blocks, and 5th in assist to turnover ratio.  They take care of the ball, they shoot extremely well, they feed assists to the right players to get the right shots, their defense forces turnovers like crazy, particularly on the perimeter and if an opponent happens to sneak into the lane, Fab Melo and the front line will swat that shit away.  And I didn't even mention their depth yet.  Their bench is scoring around 36 points per game, which is the most for any bench in the past 15 years for one of the BCS conference teams.  Hell, Scoop Jardine, 5th year starting senior who has started for us for 3 straight years, is actually 6th on the team in minutes and 5th in points.  Scoop was about 90% of the reason we lost close games the last 2 seasons, with the ball in his hands making a "Scoop-id" play at the end because we didn't have anyone else to go to.  Now the go-to guy is budding superstar Dion Waiters (who, if he keeps playing like this might be heading to the NBA in June), along with senior stud Kris Joseph.  Or 3rd year starter Brandon Triche, who might be the best pure shooter on the team.  Until you mention 3-point specialist and all around improvement James Southerland.  Or CJ Fair, whose midrange game fits perfectly as a 4th option.  Or you could dump inside to Melo, whose offensive game isn't near the defensive one yet but he still has a few good moves around the basket and I think in a year or two will be absolutely dominant in the Big East.  But for now he's about the 5th best player on the Orange.  Melo's game does bring up the one potential chink in the as-yet invincible armour, though.  In a few of these Big East games, Fab has gotten into foul trouble early and this team is not quite the same without his defensive presence.  His backup Baye Keita does not have near the bulk or shot-blocking ability to dominate the center of the zone and Keita's backup Rakeem Christmas remains a raw freshman, particularly when he's forced to play center due to Fab's foul issues.  The first game against Providence - one of the more egregiously refereed games in the notoriously badly refereed Big East -- saw Fab with 4 fouls early in the 2nd half and Keita on the bench with a bad hip.  Christmas eventually fouled out himself and CJ Fair had to slide over to center, the first time he's ever played there at any level I'm sure.  The Orange still won handily but it is a disconcerting proposition to think what might have happened if they were playing a better team and Fab was forced to the sideline.  But for now, it's all good.  The game tonight against a struggling Pittsburgh team (winless so far in the Big East) will not be a gimme (Pitt always beats us) but if we play well, we will win.  And Syracuse will set all-time school record for most wins to start a season (20).  Way to go, guys.  Keep playing great!

Syracuse 15-0

And #1 in the country.  Happy New Year!

(this team is really, really, really good.  Definitely deserving to be ranked the best team in the country.  They haven't really even been challenged much, which could be a problem when the Big East schedule toughens up but they are just so much better than the teams they have been playing... I'm really really impressed.  High hopes for them this March.  New Orleans or bust.  And maybe, just maybe, a 2nd national championship for Coach Boeheim.)

Cuse Cruise to 10-0 and #1 Rank

#3 Syracuse saw #2 Ohio State go down to Kansas early in the day on Saturday and #1 Kentucky go down to Indiana on a last second 3-pointer after the start of their game against George Washington, which turned into an 85-50 blowout for the Orange, who are 10-0 to start the season for the third straight year and are about to be #1 during the season for just the 2nd time in history (following a 1-week stay in 2010).  And you know what?  They are that good.  With all the off-the-court distractions surrounding an assistant coach (which has nothing to do with the current players on the team) and the shaky end to last season (round of 32 loss to Marquette) and the loss of the best player on the team to graduation (Rick Jackson), I wasn't quite sure this would turn into something special.  But they really are that good.  This version of Syracuse Orange basketball, for the 2nd time in 3 years, is good enough to win it all.  And this year's team has something that the 2010 squad did not have, a something that killed it in the postseason after Arinze Onuaku went down with a knee injury and we had freshman center DaShonte Riley playing significant minutes for the first time in his career in a loss to Butler (who went on to the NCAA Finals).  Onuaku graduated, Riley redshirted the following year and then transferred because the team that currently wears the Orange is too good for him to even sniff a shot at playing time.  For the first time in Jim Boeheim's career (or at least the first time I can remember), this Orange team has depth.  Amazingly talented depth.  And they are poised to go a long way.

Boeheim

So I've been a fan of Syracuse Orange basketball since 1988 or so, which in my estimation is well over 20 years.  There have been ups (Final Four in 1996, Big East Championships in 2005 and 2006, NCAA Championship in 2003) and there have been downs (NCAA sanctions in 1993, the overtime loss to Arkansas in the tournament in 1994, losing to Vermont in the first round more recently, losing to Marquette in the 2nd round last year).  I've rooted for college superstars (Carmelo Anthony, Billy Owens, John Wallace, Lawrence Moten, Gerry McNamara).  I've rooted for role players (Kueth Duany, Josh Pace, Otis Hill, current assistant coach Mike Hopkins).  I've rooted for big men who sucked but came up big in championship seasons (Craig Forth) and big men who excelled but could never really lead their club to much postseason success (Etan Thomas).  But all along there's been a single person associated with the Syracuse basketball program, its loveable curmudgeon of a coach, Jim Boeheim.  And seated alongside him, just to the right of him on the bench in every season and every game I've ever watched was Bernie Fine, Boeheim's college friend and future assistant who he has known for 50 years.  And of course, in the last month, allegations that Fine committed sexual offenses against minors have come to light with questionable ESPN reports and shaky sources and a sordid possibly doctored videotape featuring his wife.  And the whole thing makes me -- like everyone I think -- rather sick.  Fine has been fired and is under criminal investigation but he hasn't yet been charged with a crime (the statute of limitations has passed for two of the accusers, supposedly).  The University is complying with the investigation, some 6 years after they investigated on their own the same charges and found the sources wanting.  It's all a horrible sordid affair and one I sure as hell don't want to be writing about, not while the Orange basketball team -- a team that I have rooted for over 20 years for -- is undefeated and #3 in the country, with one of their most talented teams ever.  But I felt I needed to write this to defend Boeheim, who is now the target of a public outcry calling for his head, calling for blood, for reasons that are quite clear but still make little sense.  I don't know Mr. Boeheim.  I certainly don't know Mr. Fine.  And I don't pretend to know what's in anyone's heart or mind but my own.  But if the coach gets fired for something his associate did, it will be an even sadder state of affairs that it already is.

Just Win Baby

I've been a Raiders fan since 1981.  Sort of.  I was 9 years old and didn't really care for football yet.  But the local team -- the Philadelphia Eagles -- were in the Super Bowl that year and everyone and anyone I knew or heard was on board the Eagles bandwagon.  I didn't care necessarily, I just didn't like that this football team had stolen the thunder of the Phillies, who had just won their first ever World Series a few months earlier.  And at the time I was already a Phillies fan and a baseball fan.  So out of spite I rooted for the Eagles' opponent in the Super Bowl -- the Oakland Raiders -- and they won.  And my lifetime of rejection of anything popular or mainstream began.  As well as many years of misery as a Raiders fan.

A couple years later, football became talked about more among my friends and everyone seemed to be a fan of a different team, none of them the Eagles that all our fathers rooted for.  Why we all rooted for the Phillies but not the Eagles I'm not sure, but I know my cousin was a Redskins fan, my other friends were Chargers and Steelers and maybe Packers fans, I'm not sure.  But even though I still didn't really watch or follow football (I played in organized soccer, baseball, and basketball, not football), I told everyone I was a Raiders fan.  So that's what I was.  I do remember the 1984 Super Bowl-winning team (mainly Marcus Allen and Jim Plunkett), but only just barely.  I don't think I paid much attention during the season but yeah, I was pretty happy with the championship, although it didn't make up for the Phillies World Series loss to Baltimore a few months earlier.  Little did I know at the time that it would be 20 years before a team I was a fan of won a league championship again (Syracuse, 2003) and 25 years before a pro team did (Phillies, 2008).  But things were pretty good for Raiders fans in the early '80s. 

Syracuse to ACC

It's official.  To paraphrase Anchorman, that escalated fast.

ACC Extends Formal Invitations for Membership to Pittsburgh and Syracuse

The Atlantic Coast Conference will become a 14-member conference.

 Sept. 18, 2011

 GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University as new members. The invitation followed the submission of letters of application from both universities.

“The ACC is a strong united conference that is only going to get better with the addition of the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University,” said Duke University President Richard Broadhead, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents. “Both schools are committed to competing at the highest level of academics and athletics. We welcome them as full partners in the ACC.”

"We are very excited to be joining the ACC. This is a tremendous opportunity for Syracuse, and with its outstanding academic quality and athletic excellence, the ACC is a perfect fit for us," said Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and President of Syracuse University. "The ACC is home to excellent national research universities with very strong academic quality, and is a group that Syracuse will contribute to significantly and benefit from considerably. As a comprehensive, all-sports conference, the ACC provides Syracuse tremendous opportunities for quality competition and growth in all sports, while also renewing some of our historic rivalries. This move will also bolster our continued efforts to look outward, engage, and extend Syracuse’s reach to key areas of the country, including the southeast, as we grow and expand our national connections to alumni, partners and the students of the future. We are pleased that Syracuse adds a New York City dimension to the ACC, a region in which we have built strong identity and affinity, and we look forward to bringing ACC games to the Big Apple. Overall, for Syracuse, this opportunity provides long-term conference stability in what is an uncertain, evolving, and rapidly shifting national landscape."

Daryl Gross, Syracuse University Director of Athletics said, "Today is a day that we will remember for years to come. We are truly excited that academically and athletically we will be a member of the ACC, one of the nation's premier collegiate athletic conferences. As New York's College Team, we plan to compete at the highest level across all of our sports and help to enhance this great conference."

Birth Control. Seriously. They're Angry over Birth Control.

Obama may have capitulated on the economy 100% to far-right tea party Republican ideas which have collapsed the stock market, our credit rating, our economy for the first 6 months of 2011, and soon to be our future, but at least he has the sense not to listen to their nonsense on social issues.  Because as idiotic, immoral, and foolishly reckless the know-nothings in the GOP tea party base are on economics, science, and basic common sense, you throw a little god in there and they get far, far worse.  Some hatred for women on top of it and wow, it's a bonanza of stupidity.  And from a woman no less.  Just like the poorly educated fools in the tea party base voting for policies to enrich the richest and keep themselves jobless and broke.  You really can't make this stuff up.  Colbert of course has a field day.

 

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2011 Tour de France Summary

Many commentators are calling this the best Tour de France in years, maybe since the dramatic Tours of the '80s that I didn't watch, when unpredictability was the king and so many riders were riding to win, not just not to lose.  This century's Armstrong domination years followed by the drug-riddled suspension years and Contador's similar domination that left everyone else afraid to attack seemed to have killed the Tour a bit, and I will admit that I've  ended up a little disappointed in the race, or the results in recent years, particularly in yellow jersey battles that never truly materialized.  This year was different, though.  We had Phillippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd animating the first week.  Jonny Hoogerland's frightening crash and will to ride on.  JJ Rojas and Gilbert trying to outfox dominant sprinter Mark Cavendish for the green jersey.  Cavendish winning another 5 stages, giving him 20 overall.  Hushovd and Edvald Boassan Hagan combining for 4 Norweigian stage victories with only 2 riders in the Tour, some small solace for a country devastated by a terrorist attack on Friday.  Pierre Rolland lighting up French hopes by winning the Alpe d'Huez as a Frenchman for the first time since the great Bernard Hinault and winning the white jersey as well for best young rider -- a Frenchman who can actually climb in the Tour de France!  And then there was Tommy, little Tommy Voeckler whose breakaway attack on an intermediate stage gave him the overall lead that he held right through the Pyrenees, right through the Alps, all the way up part of the final mountain of the Tour - the Alpe d'Huez, when he finally cracked, but ended in 4th place overall, igniting French hopes again in their long-time hero.  But of course, all of that paled in comparison to the final week battle between Cadel Evans and the Schleck brothers, as Andy took off on Stage 18 by himself, singlehandedly taking over the race to win and when Cadel realized that Contador was cooked and no one was going to save the race for himself, he went after Andy, limiting his losses on the Galibier, where Andy finally cracked a bit, and Cadel won his long-awaited first Tour de France -- the first ever for Australia -- and the oldest winner of the Tour since World War II.  Andy ended in 2nd and his dream of he and his brother Frank both on the podium came true, although 2nd and 3rd this year instead of 1st and 2nd.  But it was still an amazing accomplishment and Andy says he has no regrets -- he attacked, and he attacked big, but Cadel was just better this year.  At age 26, he has plenty of time to finally win one after three straight runners-up in the Tour.  There's always next year.

Congrats Cadel

Cadel Evans put on an amazing performance in today's time trial around Grenoble, coming 2nd on the stage by just 7 seconds to HTC's Tony Martin but winning the Tour de France by decimating the times of everyone else in the field, including yellow jersey holder Andy Schleck.  Andy did a decent ride today, finishing in 17th place in a discipline that is not a strength, but he really needed to do a great ride to hold onto the overall lead, and he wasn't able to manage -- in fact, only Tony Martin had a time within the 57 second lead that Andy had over Cadel coming in... that's how impressive Evans was today.  Andy would have had to come in 3rd place overall on a time trial and that wasn't going to happen.  In the end, it wasn't all that close, and Evans rode a masterful Tour throughout, basically winning by limiting his losses to 2 1/2 minutes on Thursday's great Schleck Alps victory.  So congrats to Cadel, the first Australian ever to win the Tour de France.  And sorry for Andy, this is 3 straight years now in second place.

Stage Results

1. Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad)
2. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) :07
3. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) 1:06
4. Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) 1:29
5. Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) 1:30

General Classification

1. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
2. Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) 1:34
3. Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek) 2:30
4. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) 3:20
5. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) 3:57
6. Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) 4:55
7. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) 6:05
8. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) 7:23
9. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) 8:15
10. Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) 10:11

 

 

Results

Stage Results

1. Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad)
2. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) :07
3. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) 1:06
4. Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) 1:29
5. Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) 1:30

General Classification

1. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
2. Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) 1:34
3. Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek) 2:30
4. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) 3:20
5. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) 3:57
6. Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) 4:55
7. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) 6:05
8. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) 7:23
9. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) 8:15
10. Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) 10:11