Art now a Raven

It took a little longer than most of us expected, but Art Jones has made it to the NFL.  Jones, SU’s best defender the last several years, was drafted in the fifth round by Baltimore.

Art’s brother Jon Jones of MMA fame, gave us this quick interview with Art.

I suppose the NFL teams could have been scared off of Art due to his injury filled senior year.  But in going to the Ravens, he got a team dedicated to defense and gets to reunite with former SU DE Jameel McClain.

The playerpress was a little harsh on Jones but overall like his future prospects:

Art Jones has just average athleticism but a good combination of size and strength. He is a solid run stopper with decent power at the point of attack. He needs to be more creative as a pass rusher as he is mostly a bull rusher. He will most likely contribute in a backup role as a rookie but has the size and talent to develop into a starter along the defensive line.

We wish Art the best in his future NFL endeavors.

M-Will a Buc

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the risk we were all wondering who would make, by selecting enigmatic WR Mike Williams in the fourth round, the number 101 pick overall.

What may be the most interesting tidbit comes from the Bucs GM Mark Dominik.  Apparently, it may have been HCDM who helped convince the Bucs on the player they may have spent the most time evaluating.

“I believe as a scouting staff we put the most time into this player – more than anybody – because it was that important,” Dominik said. “He was one of the 30 visits to this organization so we could spend a full day with him.

“I’ve had multiple conversations with Doug Marrone, the head coach at Syracuse University, and at the end of the day, I feel very good about our selection and about the talent he brings. I wouldn’t bring somebody in here if I didn’t feel comfortable about it. I don’t think anybody spent more time with him than the Buccaneers did and I think we’re going to reap the rewards for it.”

Kind of surprising that Marrone put in a good word or two on Mike’s behalf.  Of course the Bucs didn’t put all their WR eggs in one basket.  Illinois’ talented Arrelious Benn was drafted in the second round.  At least with Williams on a roster, it will be now on his shoulders to see if he can really become “the steal of the draft.”

The National Football post called Williams:

National Football Post: He might very well be the most talented wideout in the entire draft. He runs well and possesses explosive leaping ability. However, there is a list of character concerns a mile long that caused him to fall.

At the end of the day the potential of Mike Williams was worth the risk at this spot in the draft.  The NFL won’t tolerate any more of his character issues, so hopefully he has learned from his mistakes and is ready to make his mark in the NFL.

As we roll through day two of the SOB’s, we come to the category of Worst Game Of The Year. Unlike the last few seasons, this year there weren’t many choices because the Orange lost just five games all year, so there’s something to be thankful for. No surprising losses to the likes of UMass, Rhode Island, South Florida, Wichita State or Drexel to worry about here.

On to the nominations. Steve and I both went with the Louisville losses. Sure, while they were two separate games, there’s two of us blogging on the basketball side of things on this site, so nyeah.

The thing that aggravated me the most about those games was how SU lost, and how old it’s getting for SU to lose to Rick Pitino all the time. It’s one thing to get beaten by guys like Gordon Hayward or going back to the recent past, DeJuan Blair, Blake Griffin, Jeff Green, and a host of other NBA players, but Kyle Kuric? Mike Marra? Boeheim got flat-out owned by Pitino this year, pure and simple. Steve had similar thoughts:

Both Louisville games.  How did we lose to that team twice?  Two no name bench players have career games and we go down.  Maybe if I didn’t live in the Ville these games would be easier to take.

Touche, Steve. At least the rest of us didn’t have to hear about it the next day from sports talk personalities and coworkers. I feel your pain. Our fellow bloggers felt differently, however:

Sean - Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician – Butler, 59-63.  The Orange picked the worst possible time of the year to play their worst game of the season.  Just a soul-crushing loss for a team that should have gone farther.

The Glaude – Hoya Suxa – Georgetown-Syracuse in the Big East Tournament.  Fucking Greg Monroe.  I want to murder that guy with a pitchfork.

Dan Lyons – Bleacher Report – Georgetown-Syracuse in the Big East Tournament.  The loss itself sucked, but losing AO was the straw that broke the camel’s back for this game, and crippled our chances at a title run when we met Butler.

Brian Harrison – Orange::44 – The Butler game. Seeing turnover after turnover after turnover a total of 18 times was about as awful as a game could go. Then to come back and actually take a lead, only to watch it evaporate again. Also, seeing as the stakes were raised as it was the NCAA Tournament made it all the worst.

Orange Chuck – Big Orange Bloggers – The Butler loss.  Yes, losing to Georgetown was like a kick in the nuts but Butler was like a kick with there with pointed shoes.  That game was ugly and whether it was Butler or Syracuse’s fault, they almost got Paulie, Pam and I kicked out of Hooters for good.*

This is CuseOrange’s second go-round with the SOBs and we’re very excited to be taking part again, especially after a season filled with so many nice surprises. The herd of SU bloggers is one we’re ecstatic to be a part of and props go out to Sean at Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician for organizing this year’s festivities and to our fellow bloggers for their participation, humor, insight, and in the case of the Glaude, thirst for Hoya Blood. Now onto the award.

SU brought in three scholarship freshmen last season, and while we got a brief look at him in 2008-09, Mookie Jones was granted a medical redshirt year, so he qualified as a freshman as well. There was also a pair of walk-ons in Griffin Hoffmann and Matt Lyde-Cajuste, so all told, the freshman class was the largest on the team last year, with six players.

Eat your heart out, Kentucky.

However, the sheer volume didn’t make it difficult for us to find our man. This year’s SOB for Best Freshman goes to Brandon Triche. He came into the program a little under-the-radar nationally, but before the season started, you couldn’t find a bigger Triche cheerleader than Jim Boeheim, who didn’t leave the successor of Jonny Flynn at point guard up for much debate. He wasted as little time naming him the starter as he did recruiting him.

We at CuseOrange were impressed by Triche more and more as the season went along. He was a little erratic times, but there was never any doubt that he could be a weapon in Boeheim’s system. Not only did he get a full season under his belt in a starting role, something rare for a freshman at SU without immediate NBA aspirations, but he also got some solid postseason experience. The race wasn’t close among the bloggers, but here’s what they had to say:

Sean Keely – Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician – The only freshman to log any meaningful minutes, Triche proved himself a capable and worthy successor to Jonny Flynn.  He’s still got some learning to do, but the game will come to him.

Dan Lyons – Bleacher Report – Brandon Triche: He was the only Freshman among the vaunted “seven starters”, and while he struggled in Big East play for the most part, he had some big performances against West Virginia, and Vermont in the Big Dance, and was a vital member of the team.

Jameson Fleming – Bleacher Report – Brandon Triche: He had the second highest three-point percentage of any freshman in Syracuse history and had the eighth most assists of any freshman in Orange history. Triche could develop into all Big East performer someday and a potential first round pick by the time he’s done in Syracuse.

Andrew – Three Idiots On Sports – Since Mookie was technically a freshman….I’m just kidding.  It’s got to be Brandon Triche.  He had an up and down freshman year, but overall it was a success, expect big thing to come from this kid.  As long as he doesn’t go all Cody Catalina and lift himself right out of a position.  Dude is jacked.

Orange Chuck – Big Orange Bloggers – Brandon Triche: I almost voted for Mookie but Coach B is a hater didn’t give the man enough playing time.  So what if he didn’t earn it, he will be more than happy to tell you that he did. I think Triche will have a great 4 years in a Syracuse uniform and make his uncle (and SU fans) proud.

Brian Harrison – Orange:44 – Brandon Triche: He was the only freshman that really played significant minutes and for the most part handled it like a pro. While he did play like a frosh on occasion, he mostly handled being a starting point guard in the Big East like a seasoned veteran.

The Glaude - Hoya Suxa – Brandon Triche: Although I wish that he’d wear short-shorts to honor his uncle Howard (It’s true!  Howard Triche played for Syracuse!), Triche acquitted himself quite nicely in his first tour of duty on the S.S. Boeheim.  Triche’s offense was streaky at times, which is to be expected from a true freshman, but overall he did a nice job.

Josh over at Cuse Country went a different route, nominating Mookie Jones for wearing his heart on his sleeve:

We all loved to see him in the game, and we never knew what would happen when he did show up. A barrage of three-point attempts, usually, and sloppy defense. Meanwhile his off-court drama kept us riveted and entertained. And I think going into next season he is the most intriguing returning player. If his head is on straight and he dedicates himself in the off-season, he could break out big time.

Syracusan, Josh’s co-blogger, was tempted by the small sample size posted by James Southerland, but eventually sided with the prevailing nominations:

Assuming we’re basing this category entirely on the exhibition game against Cal State-LA in October, I’m going with James Southerland.  He dropped 19 points!  5-5 from 3 point range!  Clearly he’s going to be the stud outside shooter this team needs to replace Eric Devendorf.  He’ll probably be getting 15-20 minutes of PT for the rest of the year, and potentially emerge as the 6-man. (Wait, what?  We’re basing this award on the whole season?  Oh, OK, then probably it should go to Brandon Triche. Honorable mention to Matt Lyde-Cajuste for representin’ hard with that hyphen)

We’ll know kick it to Dan Lyons to give the SOB for Most Surprising Player

XLR8 working for Big 10?

It was finally time to come out of hibernation.  Not even the Spring game or Delone Carter’s fist of fury could get me interested in blogging.  I was really trying to wait for that elusive 12th game on the schedule.  But who has time for that?  The Big 10 has sprung into action.

The Big 10 has decided to escalate their time table for exploring expansion from the 12 to 18 month initial window to the June timeframe.   Apparently the Big 10 has gained control of Ben Tennyson’s Omnitrix and selected XLR8 as the alien to get the job done.

For those of you without young boys, Ben 10 is a cartoon whose main character Ben Tennyson, happens to have a watch fall out of the sky and affix on him, allowing Ben to morph into any one of 10 super aliens.  Pretty cool for him, but in the wrong hands, aka the Big 10, the earth as we know would be in dire straits.

And so it appears that is true.  The Big 10 is going to be the Bigger 10 soon.  The question is can the Big East survive?  Interesting quote from our former AD on that:

Jake Crouthamel, Syracuse’s former athletic director, articulated in a telephone interview Sunday night a dire future for the Big East. Crouthamel, who helped form the Big East as Syracuse’s athletic director from 1978 to 2005, said he did not see the conference’s surviving.

He predicted that Syracuse would be in a different conference within five years and that there would be “utter turmoil” in college sports.

“I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while,” Crouthamel said. “I don’t see a whole lot of alternatives for anyone. You only control what your conference has. You don’t control what the Big Ten or the Pac-10 or the SEC does. What do you do? I don’t know what you do.”

The best chance for the Big East to survive, he said, would be if the Big Ten, with 11 teams, adds only Notre Dame.

Well it seems that the BE has decided to not really control what it has.  It has been a forgone conclusion that the BE will allow itself to get poached again.  Our uber blogger agrees.  And if we are really relying on ND to save us, we can all forget it.

So it seems that playing the waiting game is all the BE has in store.  Ben 10 did not wait for Vilgax to strike before taking action.  Sadly there isn’t an ultimatrix available for BE Commish John Marrinatto.

Monday afternoon, Wes Johnson affirmed what many SU fans have felt going back to December, opting to skip his last year of NCAA eligibility and declare himself eligible for June’s NBA draft. And, for a change, the SU fanbase is generally ok with it. Ever since Carmelo Anthony led SU to the 2003 title, the team has been scattered with a handful of players who jumped into the draft waters despite rationale suggesting they shouldn’t have, whether the perceived underlying issues were play on the court, maturity off of it, or a combination of the two.

With Johnson, there’s no rational reason for him to stay at SU any longer, no aspect of his game that can’t be fine-tuned at the next level, not with guaranteed millions waiting for him in the lottery. We know Wes had a terrific year, but let’s do the list one last time: Read the rest of this entry »