Syracuse

Farewell post

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:41:39 -0500

Well, to say the least, I've been the worst blogger in America the last few weeks. Between finishing up covering the Syracuse football season and the hoopla of finals and traveling and personal business matters, I just haven't been able to keep up with the Slog. There's definitely plenty of great Orange athletics coming up in the next few months, though, and I don't want it to go uncovered here. Unfortunately, while next semester will be much easier for me, I will also be spending it abroad. So, I'd just like to let you all know now that I'm actively looking for a successor to my spot blogging here and that he or she will be doing a much better job keeping this updated. This may very well be my goodbye from the CSTV Slog, but don't worry, somebody will be back to keep you updated on everything SU before you know it. Enjoy the holidays!

Correction

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 18:38:19 -0500

Hey, thanks to reader Pat who e-mailed me saying he still has his "Real Men Wear Orange" shirt from his freshman year at SU in 1999. In my entry about the "Real Teams Aren't Fruit" t-shirts, I said they were introduced in the 2003 season. That was just the first time I had ever heard of or seen them. Sorry for the mistake and thank you Pat.

Funny shirts

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:40:37 -0500

The long, heated argument over "Orange" vs. "Orangemen" may never end, but this one group of guys has added a new twist to the drama.
If you're from the SU campus or surrounding areas, you know about the "Real men wear Orange" t-shirts floating around and all the spin-offs like "Real kids wear Orange," "Real grandparents wear Orange," etc. They came out in the 2003 basketball championship season and have grown wildly popular since.
Well check out these new shirts:

I think you can tell which side of the debate these guys are on. The shirts are for sale and so far the group has sold 200 shirts. I've personally seen them around campus and it's a pretty cool idea and execution. If you're interested, visit http://realteamsarentfruit.com. They're for sale at $15 each.

Syracuse CSTV programming

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:54:15 -0500

Hey everybody, here's some of the shows that'll be featuring Syracuse teams coming up on CSTV. Make sure if you get CSTV you watch. And if you don't get CSTV, well find a TV that does. Enjoy!

November 12th
9-9:30am Syracuse Sidelines
11:30am-12pm Inside the Big East

November 14th
3-4 pm Big East/MAAC/Ivy League Cross Country Championship
(tape delayed from 10/28)

November 19th
9-9:30am Syracuse Sidelines
11:30am-12pm Inside the Big East

November 20th
3-5pm NCAA Volleyball on CSTV: AVCA Match of the Week
Big East Women's Volleyball Championship
(SU could very well be in this match, so stay tuned)
LIVE
Re-Airs: 11/23 1:30-3:30pm

November 26th
9-9:30am Syracuse Sidelines
11:30am-12pm Inside the Big East

A distraction from football

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 19:11:54 -0500

Finally, SU basketball season is on its way. After a pitiful football season (which, unfortunately still has three games to go), the kids on The Hill need something to cheer for. As has been the case for about five or six years now, Syracuse is a basketball school -- no doubt about it. A national championship and multiple runs in the NCAA tournament, excluding last year's first-round exit, will do that for a program. Plus, Jim Boeheim is coaching as well as ever, getting some great recruits for the future also.
I was lucky enough to check out Big East men's basketball Media Day down in New York City this week. All the talk is about the new teams coming into the conference, but this is a Syracuse blog after all, so let's talk Orange.
Gerry McNamara was named co-preseason player of the year for the conference with UConn's Rudy Gay.

It'll be interesting to see if McNamara lives up to the hype. He's a great shooter and one tough player, for sure, but he's been the second banana his entire career. As a freshman he enjoyed open looks based on Carmelo Anthony. The last two seasons, he's had Hakim Warrick as a running mate to take pressure off him. This year, it's just him. Sure, the talented junior class will now start to emerge, but there are no Carmelos or Hakims on this team. If you ask me, McNamara won't be player of the year when this season's over. But he'll definitely be more fun to watch than Perry Patterson, Joe Fields and Co. on the football field, I'll tell you that much.

Some other observations from Media Day:
-I think every team had its players dress up in suits except Syracuse, who sent McNamara in his basketball warmups. SU did the same thing last year; don't know if that's them trying to distinguish themselves but in my opinion, there's nothing like a sharp suit when you're in public like that.

-There's just something about Rick Pitino, whose Louisville team is in the conference right now. He commands a room, has that Italian charm that just has everyone gravtitating to him. Plus he wore a pink tie with sky blue ponies patterned on it. Any man with the gaul to pull that off is OK in my book.

-Some players were just completely shell-shocked. These country kids coming from Cincinnati and Marquette and South Florida were hilarious to talk to since most of them had never been somewhere like New York before. http://www.dailyorange.com/media/paper522/news/2005/10/27/Sports/Big-East.Basketball.Midwestern.Additions.To.Big.East.Marvel.At.New.York.City.Ex-1035580.shtml That's the notebook I wrote for The Daily Orange about Media Day, check it out to see what some of these guys had to say. It was really a good time. Anyway, as the season progresses we'll talk some more basketball. For now, keep cringing at football and counting down the days.

-Mike

*Photo courtesy BigEast.org

An apology

Sat, 29 Oct 2005 19:03:13 -0500

Sorry about that Pittsburgh entry from last week. They rushed us out of the press box after the game and my reporter and I had to get out of the city as quick as we could to get back to campus. Things got crazy then during the week (including a trip to Big East basketball media day, read about that in the blog, too) and I could never get back about the second half. Anyway, there wasn't much to talk about. Syracuse is playing its worst football in quite a while, if not ever. So don't worry, you didn't miss much from the rest of the Pitt game -- SU got outplayed again, couldn't take advantage of golden chances, and that was that.

Hey from Pittsburgh

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 13:43:00 -0500

Greetings from the Steel (and rainy) City. SU is at Pitt this week and it's a good game so far; we're at halftime and it's 17-17. The game's at Heinz Field, home of the Steelers, so it's a beautiful venue. Unfortunately there's nobody here. It's cold and drizzly and windy and these two teams aren't exactly the cream of the national crop. Still, SU is creating great opportunities on defense and special teams but is still turning the ball over on offense. Pitt has a lot of turnovers as well but they made a late second-half surge to tie it up. Anthony Smith is having a great game for SU with a big interception return and a blocked punt; we'll see if he can single-handedly carry them in the secondary and special teams. An interesting fact: if SU loses today, it'll be the first tiime it drops five games in a row since 1982. I wasn't even born yet.

Back with more after the game-
Mike

Upcoming SU shows on CSTV

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:30:59 -0500

Here's a list of all the Syracuse-related programming to come on CSTV in the next few weeks. If you get CSTV on your cable package, check these shows out. If you don't, well call that cable operator and get moving.

October 15th
9-9:30am
Syracuse Sidelines

11:30am -12pm
Inside the Big East

October 22nd
9-9:30am
Syracuse Sidelines

9:30-10am
Inside the Big East

October 26th
11:30am-1:30pm
Big East Basketball Media Slam
Re-Airing: October 26th 11am-1pm

October 29th
9-9:30am
Syracuse Sidelines

11:30am-12pm
Inside the Big East

New sports on their way

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:29:03 -0500

Just to let you guys know, we'll hopefully be getting some coverage on other sports up very soon. We had to take care of some administrative issues before we could do so, but soon we'll hopefully have some stuff on all the Syracuse fall sports teams for you to check out. So keep an eye for that sometime soon.

So maybe I was wrong

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:14:25 -0500

I predicted in the column you can check out in the last entry that Syracuse would win five games in a row, starting with UConn. Well....saying I was wrong would be an understatement. SU looked absolutely horrible against the Huskies Friday night and now I'm more inclined to say they won't win another game at all this season. Of course, the law of probability says the Orange will win at least one game the rest of the year, but then again who knows. The offense looked stale -- it took more than three quarters to score a touchdown and by then it was only 26-7. The defense looked porous -- it allowed 342 yards, 297 of them on the ground! Astonishing. Check out The Daily Orange's coverage of it online at http://dailyorange.com. Go to the 'archives' tab on the left side and select Monday, Oct. 10's issue for all the details.

Hey from UConn

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:41:57 -0500

Syracuse is in Hartford for the night to take on the Huskies, just thought I'd drop everyone a pre-game line. This is arguably the biggest game of the year for SU. If they win this, they're back on track for the Big East championship they want so badly plus maybe they get some momentum for the next four conference games after this. If they lose, well then it's a 1-4 record and a season that continues to be just one giant anticlimax. I have some personal interest vested here also: I predicted in a column for The Daily Orange at SU that the Orange would win its next five games. You can visit the column and read me try to validate my madness at http://www.dailyorange.com/media/paper522/news/2005/10/06/Sports/Janela.Syracuse.Will.Start.5Game.Win.Streak.At.Uconn-1011522.shtml I'll be checking back in after the game. Enjoy.

Greetings from Florida

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 11:27:59 -0500

Hey there! I'm down in Tallahassee for the Syracuse-Florida State game and let me tell you, it is HOT. 90 degrees in October is something to be proud of, and girls in bathing suits on the Quad this late in the year definitely makes a guy think about transferring. Alas, I head back up to lovely Central New York later today.

Anyway, about the game -- Syracuse was severely outplayed by Florida State. The 'Noles are just plain better; more talent, better execution, more athleticism and it seemed like better coaching. The 'Noles know exactly when and where to blitz, when to go vertical or stay underneath on offense and they were by far more disciplined -- SU committed four turnovers and five penalties. FSU did commit 10 penalties but they weren't that consequential. In the end, I think just chalk it up to Syracuse being a 1-3 Big East team and Florida State being the undefeated number-6 team in America. It's like a high schooler playing in the pee-wee leagues.

I'd love to stay longer but unfortunately I have a hotel to check out of and a flight to catch. Let's hope it's not snowing when I get back to campus.

State of the Orange

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 13:33:33 -0500

With the SU football team off this weekend, it's a good time to take a step back and look around the athletics program. It's been about three weeks into the season for all sports, so I think it's a solid barometer to check things out now -- habits die hard and the way teams have performed so far usually indicates how they'll be the rest of the year. Without further ado, a sport-by-sport checkup in the State of the Orange:

FOOTBALL
Record: 1-2 (0-1 Big East)
Every Syracuse fan was ridiculously pumped up for this season with a new head coach, new uniforms, new FieldTurf and -- most importantly -- promises that the team would turn around after a good three or four years of mediocrity. Well, SU stands at 1-2 after three games. Looks pretty mediocre to me, especially considering the one win came against a talent-depleted Buffalo team.
But this team plays hard, especially the defense. The D has kept the Orange in each of its games, with six sacks, six picks, four fumble recoveries and just 14 points per game allowed. But the lackluster offense has got to catch up if Syracuse has any hopes of postseason life. The team is based too much on the run and it's trying to play a West Coast offensive style with players that were recruited to play in the old option offense. It's players with square-peg talents trying to get into a circle-hole system.
My prediction for the rest of the year: SU splits its difficult schedule with a 4-4 record, finishes the year 5-6 and fails to make a bowl game.

MEN'S SOCCER
Record: 4-2-1 (0-2-1 Big East)
SU soccer had the best start to a season since 1986 by starting out 4-0. But the Orange has gone 0-2-1 in its last three games, games against stiffer Big East competition. SU tied conference newcomer Marquette, then lost to Notre Dame and Providence. This team is hurting physically right now and it's tired. They've played a lot of games in a short amount of time and still have three road games in the next week. That's brutal. But then the Orange play six of its last eight games at home. If SU can get healthy, look out. They'll have a chance to potentially make some noise in Big East play, which they haven't been able to do in a few years, as shown by a 7-19-5 record in Big East games the last three season.

WOMEN'S SOCCER
Record: 2-5-2 (1-0-1 Big East)
This team cannot score. Plain and simple. And that's a problem because, obviously, you can't win if you can't score. Syracuse has seven goals in nine games, a pretty paltry .77 goals per game. Not even a goal per game! SU has also been shut out five times, which does not bode well for the young Orange. Nine of the team's final 10 games come against Big East teams, one of the most competitive women's soccer conferences in America. This is another team that's been hit hard by injuries and SU relies very heavily on freshmen and other young players. They miss players like Shana Thomas and Helen Fox, seniors last year who sparked the Orange offense that are is now nonexistent. It's year of growing pains for the women's team, don't expect it to get better this season.

Football festivities

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:40:59 -0500

More pictures, again courtesy of Marnie:

The top picture is of the SU marching band; it's one of the best around. And I actually live with two trombone players in it, they are some crazy, awesome, insane people, too. Band kids in college turn out to be pretty cool.

In this second photo, I guess there's no age minimum on being an Orange fan. Since SU is really the only team people in the Central New York area can follow, folks around here take SU very, very seriously -- right from childhood. This is really a cool pic.

Down below you see the new shirts going around campus. Shirts around here used to read "Real men wear Orange." I guess we've upgraded from clothing to blood haha.

Some great new football pictures

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 18:31:47 -0500

Here's a few pictures from our first couple of home games, all from Marnie Fish, our other Syracuse rep. She did an awesome job. Enjoy!

They put in new FieldTurf and some new Orange banners at the Carrier Dome this year. The place was starting to look a little old and the AstroTurf was way out of date. If you ask me, it really spruces up the place.

Check out the SU student section in the second photo. The students usually get to football games about two hours before everybody else. These kids were waiting, no matter how empty the rest of the stadium was.

As you can see at the bottom, the crowd finally filled up for the game against West Virginia. SU lost, but it was still the biggest season-opening crowd since 1999.