As is traditional around this time of year, the Big East has rolled out opponents for each team. Before I get to the breakdown, I want to point out how odd I think it is that they chose NBA Draft day to put out this release. I completely understand that once the players graduate or otherwise leave the member schools, the stake of the Big East has in their success becomes largely minimized, if not completely eliminated.

But wouldn’t you want to keep the attention on the draft when you have a top-five player (perhaps top-three) in Wesley Johnson, another projected to go in the top 10 in Greg Monroe and two other first-rounder candidates in Dominique Jones and Stanley Robinson? Maybe only die-hards like me care about this sort of thing, and while it’s not worth making a huge deal out of, the timing is a little strange. Read the rest of this entry »

Many a pair of eyes are fixated on Wesley Johnson this week, and why shouldn’t they? He was a megastar from the second he stepped on the court for SU and helped power the team to a surprise top-five ranking all season and earned first-team All America honors.

As draft projections become more refined, and with mock drafts changing by the second leading up to the big night on Thursday, Wes has pulled a top-five ranking of his own, currently projecting to be picked third by the New Jersey Nets, just after John Wall and Evan Turner. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go again. The brilliant Jonathan Givony at DraftExpress has reported that the New Jersey Nets are looking to select Wes Johnson with the third pick in Thursday night’s draft, a move which would take the rug out from under the Minnesota Timberwolves, who hold pick #4 and by most accounts, were planning to use it on SU fans’ favorite transfer.

It’s been widely accepted that John Wall and Evan Turner will go 1-2, and nothing has happened to change that, but while the players connected with the three next best players (Johnson, Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins) also appear firmly set, the destinations aren’t quite as clear-cut. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like just yesterday that Wes Johnson was wowing us with his high-flying dunks and long-range accuracy three times a week, but the draft has crept up on us and is now just three days away. While it’s still far from official, it hasn’t been the best-kept secret that for the second straight year, Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn is taking a long, hard look at a former Orange with a lottery pick. Read the rest of this entry »

The BCS game of musical chairs has officially begun with Colorado accepting an invitation to join the Pac-10.   Today we may hear word of Nebraska bolting to the Big 10.  Clearly the music has started.  What we don’t know yet is how many chairs are out there, 64, 65 or some number much smaller.

From a Syracuse tinted lens, it appears fortuitous that the first moves have been made against the Big XII conference and not the Big East.  This gives some hope that the when the music does stop, that Syracuse will be in the location that gives them the best fit.

Still that is not the plan of the BE right now.  Just ask our own AD Darryl Gross who had this to say about the Pac-10′s realignment salvo:

“In the Big East, we’re working to position ourselves in a way that makes us better today than we were yesterday,” Gross said. “We have a lot of assets. We’re in a lot of media markets.”

I’m curious if the BE does have a plan, will they look to poach any Big 12 leftovers and would it lead to a split of the basketball only vs BCS schools.

Overall, I am holding out hope for a merging of the northern ACC teams with the BCS football parts of the Big East forming a new East Coast Conference (an even split in naming).

It’s fascinating theater being played out across the country.  No use in speculating at this point.  The music has just started.

The next team on docket for our way too early look-in is the Washington Huskies.  This program has pretty much mirrored our situation, enduring a run of 7 straight non-winning seasons.  Now imagine having potentially the top rated QB prospect on the roster that has started the last 3 seasons.  This is the hell that Husky Nation has endured.  Now let’s take a deeper dive.

2009 Review

The Huskies made huge strides coming off of a win-less 2008 campaign that brought in USC guru Steve Sarkisian.  QB Jake Locker definitely benefited from the tutelage of Sarkisian, becoming a better passer to complement his already noteworthy running skills.  Washington posted a 5-7 record that included a win over Sarkisian’s ex employer.  For the record, the wins were to Idaho, USC, Arizona, Washington St and Cal.   The losses were to LSU, Stanford, Notre Dame, Arizona St, Oregon, UCLA, and Oregon St.

This game with Washington completes the home and home series that started in 2007 with Washington coming to the Carrier Dome and winning easily 42-12.  I know most Cuse fans won’t forget that game for it was the contest that we wore those hideous all Orange unis.  No need to link a photo as the image is already burned into our skulls.  If it’s not, I’m not going to be responsible for scarring you now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Any reason to fear the roo?

Time to take a deep dive into our opponents for the upcoming 2010 season.  Our opener is against a team we fans should be plenty aware of as we have played them the last two years.  So let’s get to it!

2009 Review

To say it wasn’t the type of season that Zip fans had hoped for would be an understatement.  The season started rough with the dismissal of QB Chris Jacquemain, nose dived with a six game losing streak and ultimately crash landed to the tune of 3-9 ending with the firing of coach JD Brookhart.  The Zips did open their new stadium with a win over Morgan St. and their two remaining wins to Kent St and Eastern Michigan were at home as well.  The losses were to Penn St, Indiana, Central Michigan, Ohio, Buffalo, Syracuse, Northern Illinois, Temple and Bowling Green.  This marks the fourth straight losing season for the Zips.

The Orange was able to avenge 2008′s disappointing loss with a 28-14 win last season.  That was the first game without Mike Williams and Delone Carter had a huge day with 30 carries for 170 yards.

Spring Developments

Now the rebuilding job falls on former ND assistant Rob Ianello.  Ianello, who has never had a coordinator gig, pretty much decided to retool both sides of ball.  The offense is scrapping the spread (gasp!) in favor of a pro-style offense.  The defense is abandoning the funky 3-3-5 alignment and returning to a more natural 4-3 defensive scheme.  Former Cuse assistants Mitch Browning and Derrick Jackson are tasked with developing the Oline and Dline; so there will be some familiarity for Cuse fans on the Akron sidelines.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Previews are coming

Paging Paul Revere…

Like a bear in hibernation, its time to come out of the woodwork and fill up the dreary summer months between the Syracuse sports seasons.

I’ll be back with the third year (hard to believe) of previews and strange musings to tie over all of the intrepid readers with unquenchable thirst for Cuse news.  So be sure to pop in over the course of the summer and get a look at how are foes stack up.

I’ll put the beacons up.  One if by land and two if by…

You get the idea.

Of Mice and Men. 1984. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Yertle The Turtle.

And now, thanks to Sean Keeley of Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, How To Grow An Orange becomes the latest in a long line of summer reading classics. The theme of the book is implicit from the title – essentially, how to raise your child as an SU fan, with all sorts of history of the school and its major athletic programs in an entertaining collection. The book is just $10 and can be purchased here in any of several digital formats.

Tuesday night, a piece of the Wes Johnson draft selection puzzle revealed itself when the draft lottery was held in Secaucus. The Washington Wizards came into the place guns-ablazin’ and won the thing despite odds that had them pegged at 10%. The Wizards will take John Wall from Kentucky with the top pick, barring something catastrophic (which you can’t always rule out, considering the way that team operated the last couple years). Depending on where you look, Evan Turner and Derrick Favors are positioned as the next two picks, but in which order remains a little more foggy.

That brings us to the fourth pick and the Minnesota Timberwolves, which is the highest position associated with Wes Johnson. Minnesota could use some help just about everywhere, including Head Coach, but the SU faithful are understandably licking their chops, hoping to get a glimpse of what could have been with Wes and Jonny Flynn. Remember that Flynn was one of several on the ’08-’09 team hyping Johnson before he played a game in an SU uniform, and it’s easy to imagine the excitement of them playing together.

Around draft time, it’s always fun to imagine former college teammates reuniting, players from rival teams having to share the ball, and similar storylines, but Flynn and Johnson together in Minneapolis actually has some legs to it. The Timberwolves have Corey Brewer at the swingman spot. His numbers from last year aren’t awful (13 PPG, 34.6% on threes in 30 minutes per game), but a fourth year of his services would require an $800K raise to $3.7 million, rendering his performance much more replaceable. According to Hoopsworld’s 2010-11 rookie salary scale, the T’Wolves could save about $700K by drafting Johnson and letting Brewer go.

In any case, SU is poised to have a former player picked in the lottery portion of the draft for the second straight year, and in the first round for the third straight year. Along with the Melo Center and the team’s recent performance, this trend continues to make SU an appealing choice for recruits.