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.
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?
I’d love to be able to take credit for noticing this, especially since the end of the semester has kept me away from the blog. But I got it via Josh who got it from friend-of-Cuse Country Mike W., who’s holding it down in Chicago. So, giving all props to those two, here’s an interesting intersection between SU hoops and The Sopranos (major spoilers follow the jump, so don’t click through if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing):
I don’t know about you people, but I hadn’t checked one iota of SU football information since sometime last December. Being that April is just now ending, I’m still in no way ready to transition to football mode. I have a feeling that a lot of our readers are in that same boat, and I’m quite sure all our lazy basketball-centric writers are as well. However, I couldn’t help notice that Tanard Jackson and Kelvin Smith managed to get themselves drafted over the weekend, so I decided to check the Post-Standard SU football coverage for some reporting on those guys.
Big mistake.
Here’s what I found: two weeks ago Delone Carter — Syracuse’s standout rookie from last year, starting tailback, and highest profile recruit of the Greg Robinson era — improbably dislocated his hip during spring practice and will be out for the entire season. Not only that, but it’s the same injury that ended Bo Jackson’s career, and no one is sure if Delone will ever play again.
Meanwhile, the other starting tailback, Curtis Brinkley — A.K.A. our only other good offensive player for most of last year — had offseason surgery on his left knee to deal with the torn meniscus that kept him out of chunks of certain games towards the end of last season. He’s wearing a brace this spring and has reported consistent pain in the knee so far.
But wait, there’s more! Just this week, Brinkley had more surgery, this time on his right knee, after getting hurt in practice just before the spring game. Grand!
To sum it up, I’d say that unless Andrew Robinson and Taj Smith (also coming off a massive injury from last season) turn into McNabb and Harrison over night, we’re in for a season the likes of which we haven’t seen since…last season.
Sigh…why did I check this stuff? I was perfectly happy not knowing. Oh yeah, Tanard Jackson went to the Bucs in the 4th round and Kelvin Smith went to the Dolphins in the 7th. Donnie Webb also thinks A-Rob looked good in the spring game, but I’m not in the mood to report good news.
The day before Black Sunday, I flew down to Tampa to spend some time with papa Syracusan during my week off. I realized there was an ill wind in the air when I got off the plane and saw a giant digital events billboard in Tampa airport exclaiming Welcome ACC Tournament 2007! (It also read Welcome Scientologists, Ron’s Birthday 2007! But that’s another story). Unbeknownst to me, I had dropped right into the midst of ACC mania, despite traveling to a city where no ACC team resides. How exactly Tampa turned into enemy territory I do not know; the only DI team in the area is the Big East’s USF. It’s typical ACC arrogance I suppose, to hold their tournament in our zone of influence.
The ACC’s posters and paraphernalia were all over town, and coverage in the local newspapers and TV was heavy, but I was able to drown it all out lying in the sun on the beach. What I wasn’t able to drown out was a growing sense of unease about the approaching NCAA draw. I haven’t chimed in about last weekend’s debacle yet, though I’ve enjoyed everyone else’s tortured rantings, both on this forum and on other blog sites. Everyone has made a lot of good points, and it’s almost served to convince me that we were in fact robbed. Almost.
G’Town fans are crying. HoyaSaxa.com offers an excellent rundown of the game, which, interestingly, is written in a way that kind of makes it hard to tell which team was more responsible for the Hoyas’ defeat. You could look at this as a natural reaction — when you lose, you blame your team for not being good enough. I choose to interpret it as an existential denial of Syracuse basketball. You can decide for yourself.
Dick Vitale thinks Georgetown is the best college hoops team in the MD-DC-VA area. Pretty sure this was before yesterday’s game. Doh!
On a separate note, you gotta love the exuberance of youth. I’m pretty sure this is the best of Syracuse student reaction from the wide world of the Web:
Exhibit 1: “…about six inches below my nose hung a throbbing, palpable funk, the hot, wet, sticky stench of sweat, beer and Dome Dogs, my own personal trip into Drew Carey’s hamper. It assaulted my senses; it was vile and it was shocking. It was the smell of victory.
Exhibit 2: “Paul Harris is from Niagara Falls. He’s my facebook friend! We see him in Schine all the time. He makes me happy. Sometimes Eric Devendorf is in Schine too when we’re eating brunch. I saw him in Kimmel. He and I go waaaaaay back. yo. I saw Arinze Onuwaku in Kimmel once! WHAT A GREAT DAY IN MY LIFE. I love Arinze Onuwaku. I’m naming my first born child after him. Devin Brennen-McBride walked into Augies today and we didn’t know what to do and we all panicked and just as he was leaving I smiled and gave him the double thumbs up and he laughed and everyone at my table started laughing. We’re best friends. I friended him on facebook. I’ll be crushed if he says no after a lovefest like that. Utterly crushed.”
I’m sure a lot of our readers peruse the official SU basketball blog over at the Post-Standard, but I didn’t want to risk anyone missing this amazing clip, so I’m ripping off Kim Baxter to make sure everyone gets to experience it. This video is so great in so many ways, it’s almost hard to count. From the crazy 80’s style SportsCenter, to watching Rony Seikaly attempt to kick someone’s ass, to the ridiculous fact that the brawl was against Cornell, it really has it all.
Well said by the Hartford Courant: “[Jerome] Dyson had 20 in the second half Wednesday against Seton Hall, 18 in the first half against Syracuse and the Huskies found a horse to ride. Then they fell off.” Jeff DiVeronica at the Rochester Democart and Chronicle credits the switch from the zone to man-to-man defense.
UConn blogger Ian Bethune is mad the Huskies couldn’t execute from the line. Isn’t it great to hear someone else complain about this? (SU took care of business at the charity stripe, hitting 26 of 31, by the way. Woot!)
Next, check out Jeff Goodman’s take on why Jim Calhoun was sweating before last night’s game. Interestingly, this is now the position SU finds itself in, minus the possible redemption game against a team like Georgia Tech.
Here’s what else is buzzing on in the blogosphere:
Random Thoughts is a sports blog about UConn basketball and the Boston Red Sox, which does not particularly endear them to the Cuse Country crew. Nonetheless, whoever’s running the show over there does a good job of running down the Huskies’ highlights (and, therefore, SU’s lowlights).
Some wiseguy says, “Remember when Syracus-UConn games mattered? Like last year.”
Okay, I’m already winded. Bad losses can have that effect on a guy. As I’ve been saying all season, we can scarcely afford losses like this. We’re developing a nasty habit of stalling and/or collapsing at the end of games, which bodes poorly for the prospects of a turn-around.
Here’s a question for those in the know: Why are we crapping out at the end of every game? Has anyone seen a pattern in the way our play changes? I guess I’ve been too busy averting my eyes to put the puzzle together.
