We’re moving to CuseCountry.com

This is a photo of a sign blog contributor Josh made before a game against Georgetown in Washington. It became something of a running joke in our crew: Wherever we were, that was Cuse Country. When it came time to name this little project of ours, it seemed a natural fit. Holy crap, the Internet is Cuse Country!

Now, the time has come to move to nicer real estate. And with football season looming like an orange cloud of noxious gas, we’re moving to a new address that doesn’t have “hoops” in the URL.

So come visit us at CuseCountry.com. Same great stuff, new great home.

Gerry Back to Greece

Hot off the newswire — well, OK, a couple weeks old but just recently uncovered by our crack team of researchers — Gerry McNamara has decided to try his luck in Greece again. He has signed a contract to play for Panionios BC. Here is the news release on the team page — unfortunately it is in Greek. But they must be psyched to have him, because it’s a long, detailed release — in fact it appears to be a full summary of his career. For the non-Greek-literate, there are some good photos, and a few links (the first of which is OrangeRay’s player page at Orangehoops.org – you go Ray!) at the bottom of the page, including some Gerry YouTube love. Here is his team player page (also in Greek).

Panionios is in the same league as Gerry’s Greek squad from last year, Olympiakos BC. Last season Panionos finished 4th in the league while Olympiakos was third. So there is definitely a good chance for some revenge games this fall. Panionios is also an ULEB team this year (and if you don’t know what that means, check the latter bits of this post). One of G’s teammates is Levon Kendall, formerly of Pittsburgh. (The rest are random Greek guys, plus one Lithuanian and one Australian.)

One other item: Panionios’ commercial sponsor in Greece is a company called “Forthnet”; maybe Gerry can get his old pal Craiggers a role in their ad campaign or something.

he feels our pain

I’m excited for the day Mike Hopkins becomes our new coach, if for no other reason than the change of pace we’ll get from his press conferences. Somehow, I can’t see Boeheim making this analogy when discussing brutal 12 hour recruiting days:

“I am blurry-eyed but you love to watch games,” Hopkins said. “It’s like going to a Roto draft; it’s a long day, but it’s fun.”

Here’s hoping Hop is drafting better than I did last March.

Otis among the Twelve Tribes

Otis Hill is, in his own way, tracing the life journey of my great-aunt and great-uncle. He is going from Poland to Israel.

Within the last day or so, Otis signed a contract for next year to play for Ironi Nahariya. Here is the official news release from the team’s website. Nahariya finished in fifth place in the Israeli Basketball Super League last season, missing the playoffs. Otis is actually returning to Nahariya. He played for them in the 2005-06 season, a year in which they made the playoffs, so I expect that they are happy to have him back. They are not an ULEB team, though other members of their league are. So, Otis will not be facing off against Preston Shumpert this fall.

Under My Radar

July was a busy-ass month for me. I tried to keep up with all the SU-related summer action but missed some signings that went down a few weeks ago, including one major one:

Jason Hart is now a Jazzman.

Or, whatever you call an individual member of the Utah Jazz. A Jazz? Jazzer? Jazzerciser? (PS. I think an individual member of the Heat should be called a Calorie, or perhaps a Therm.)

His deal is 2 years, $5 mil. The Jazz were the first to offer him a deal and Jason, having experienced several seasons on the fringes of NBA employment, grabbed it without hesitation. They expect him to be the primary backup to emerging star Deron Williams, although they also signed guard Ronnie Price, Hart’s former Kings benchmate. The Jazz have not settled on a starting shooting guard yet either so it’s highly possible that Jason gets some time at that position during the season — he shouldn’t start at the 2, but there may be extra minutes available off the bench in that role. Salt Lake Tribune writer Steve Luhm, at the end of this piece, suggests that Hart could be the next John Crotty. Which is actually praise in Utah.

= ??

In news from Europe, Preston Shumpert will not be playing in the Italian League next year. He has signed with Besitkas Cola Turka in Turkey. Here’s the report, dated July 27, from the team’s official website. (OK, fine, here’s one in English. Babies.) This is the first non-Italian team he’s played for since the 02-03 season (his first year after leaving Syracuse) when he played in France.

Besitkas finished last season in fifth place, and was swept out of the playoffs in the first round by the fourth-place team. They also play in the ULEB Cup league, the second-level trans-European competition (one step down from the elite Euroleague — in a way, the Euroleague is like the BCS of European basketball, while the ULEB is the rest of the bowl games: Euroleague gets the top 24 teams from the Continent, while the ULEB gets 54 of the next-best teams from the same nation-based leagues [= conferences in this steadily weakening football analogy]). You may remember the ULEB being previously mentioned in this space because the teams that Elvir Ovcina and Otis Hill played for last year were both part of it (and are again this coming year).

Speaking of which, Elvir has re-upped for another season with Telindus Oostende, to try to help them three-peat(TM)* as Belgian League champs. No word yet on Otis’s status for 07-08, nor that of any of the other former Orangemen whose exploits are chronicled herein. But I’ll keep checking the news wires and let you know where folks end up for the fall.

* – Please don’t sue us Pat Riley!

One Crazy Summer

It’s been a busy few weeks for Gerry McNamara.

In addition to the official NBA Vegas Summer League, several teams host their own weeklong mini-leagues with a handful of other squads. Immediately after their stint in Vegas, Gerry McNamara and the 76ers went to Utah for the Jazz’s “Rocky Mountain Revue” along with five other teams. In the Sixers’ first game (July 13), Gerry scored 6 points in 19 minutes, but had 6 turnovers to one assist. It turns out that this was the last game he played with Philly in Utah — not because he got cut, but because his wedding was coming! (Scroll down that link for the news item.) Gerry and his high school sweetheart were married this past Saturday, July 21, in Scranton. Congratulations to the happy couple. No word on who from the SU organization was in attendance.

(UPDATE: TNIAAM had the wedding announcement link over the weekend, which I didn’t think to check before posting. Props to the fellas over there.)

SU fans can brag about anything

Remember a few years back when Donovan McNabb signed his megadeal and became the highest paid player in the history of the NFL? Even though it wasn’t a true athletic achievement and didn’t involve any authentic glory, I still managed to take some pride in it. Hey, when an SU guy does something notable it counts.

In that vein, Doc Freeney over in Indianapolis recently followed in Donovan’s shoes, and it’s worth a shout out. A few days ago he became the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. I’m not sure if Donnie still stands atop the overall board or not, but either way SU alums are proving their value at the highest echelons of the sport. Good on ya Dwight. Way to represent. Maybe you can top Carmelo’s $3 million gift for new facilities?

Summer League Wrapup

Being on tour with my band for the 2nd half of last week, I was unable to keep up with the NBA summer league action. So here’s a wrapup of the last half of the camp.

nothing says hung over like watching NBA summer league games on a Sunday afternoon

I got a chance to catch some of the Knicks summer league game this afternoon on MSG. I can confirm that the hype on D-Nic is true. Our boy has already grown well beyond the explosive but uncertain one-dimensional scorer we knew and loved last season. All of a sudden he’s taking it to the rack with authority, scoring from all over, creating his own offense, and displaying an almost cocky level of self-confidence on the court.

Not only that, but he’s playing impressively intense defense. I can’t say he looked like a lock-down player out there, but the fact that he’s holding his own is a pleasant surprise. I thought his man-to-man would be a liability in the Association, but he’s ratcheted up his desire, effort, and energy level on that end of the floor to make up for his lack of lateral speed. He was even getting back in transition when other Knicks were lagging. Granted, he wasn’t shutting anyone down, but the key at this stage is to not show any obvious weaknesses.

Summer League Update 7-10

All three SU alums in the NBA summer league were in action last night.