Finally Fired

The Oakland Raiders have just fired coach Lane Kiffin after a 1-3 start to the 2008 season. Syracuse football fans have been monitoring that situation closely after this post by The Post-Standard's Donnie Webb.

Gesundheit!

We're at the dome covering SU football again.  It's not quite as unbearable as one (or many) may have predicted.  Frosh wideout Van Chew (pictured playing high school football in New Hampshire) has just made a terrific catch over a Pitt defender in the end zone to give the 'Cuse a 24-13 with 12:30 left in the third quarter.

Ryan Maloney

NCAA Football: Syracuse 30 Northeastern 21

The Orange held on for the victory as Doug Hogue and Curtis Brinkley both rushed for over 100 yards.  Aftet the game, Greg Robinson gave a short lecture to the media about giving the other team credit.  Click below to hear it.

Boomp3.com

NCAA Football: Uh Oh

Don't look now, but Northeastern has cut the Syracuse lead to 27-21 after a touchdown run by Alex Broomfield.  The Orange are about to receive the kickoff with 6:41 left in regulation.

NCAA Football: Syracuse 24 Northeastern 14 4th Quarter

The Syracuse Orange have taken a 24-7 lead after Curtis Brinkley found the end zone (pictured) for the first time today.  Seconds after I began writing this post, Northeastern struck back on 54-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Orio to Chris Plum.  The Orange lead now stands at 24-14.

Ryan Maloney

NCAA Football: Syracuse 7 Northeastern 0 1st Q

Sophomore Doug Hogue went ten yards for his first score of the season to give the 'Cuse a 7-0 lead with 7:14 remining in the first quarter.  The Orange drive nearly stalled when Curtis Brinkley fumbled the ball at the Northeastern 20 (pictured), but Syracuse recovered.

Not A Great Start

We're live at the Carrier Dome for Syracuse football where an SU cheerleader was just taken off the field on a stretcher following the pre-game festivities.

Also, an annoucement was just made that there will be no cheering in the press box.  This announcement should be made at the Campus Center.

Ryan Maloney

Could It Get Any Worse?

Jared Crast is one of our new contributors at WNYOsport.com. He is senior at SUNY Oswego majoring in Adolescence Education. He is also a regular contributor to "The Oswegonian" campus newspaper.

Well folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Syracuse Orange just lost to the Akron Zips, 42-28. Now let that sentence sink in. Now take a deep breath, and now exhale. Yes, you read that right, the Orange lost their home opener to the MAC's cellar dweller. The Orange are now 0-2 on the season, and can look ahead to facing off against Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions next week. It will be the first matchup between the two schools since the late '80's.

The only bright spots in this game were the performances by running back Curtis Brinkley, and quarterback Cameron Dantley (the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley). The pourous defense that prevented any success last year is back, and will likely not get any better. It looks like Orange fans are going to be in for a long season.

Jared Crast

Meet Kige East

Good Riddance

The shmozzle that was the 2007-08 Syracuse University men's basketball season has come to a conclusion. The 'Cuse lost to UMass on their home court for the second time this season. The Minutemen advanced to the NIT semifinals with an 81-77 victory despite trailing by 22 AFTER the first television timeout of the SECOND half. Orange coach Jim Boeheim opted for a conservative, clock-eating offense in the home stretch; not unlike the one employed against Pittsburgh earlier this year. The end result was not unlike that of the Pittsburgh game earlier this year. Highlights to come...

UPDATE: About those highlights - they ain't comin'. I accidentally erased the game from my DVR before I could transfer it to my laptop. Here is what you would have seen: Syracuse nearly makes it to the game's first TV timeout without scoring a point. Syracuse opens the game up with a good inside-outside game and leads by 19 at the half. Syracuse continues strong play into the second and leads by 22 five minutes in. Syracuse forgets how to guard the perimeter and UMass starts to hit the outside shot. Syracus forgets how to make layups. Syracuse forgets how to break the press. Perhaps Daryl Gross forgets how to renew Jim Boeheim's contract and we see how these kids play for Mike Hopkins. We have it on good authority that Hopkins is displeased with some of the things the players get away with and plans an attitude overhaul when he takes over. We also have it on good authority that Donte Green forgets how to return rental cars, but we're not one for whistle-blowing.

Ryan Maloney

Johnny Flynn to Donte Greene

This may be a bit late, but well worth posting.  I attended the Syracuse-Martland NIT game Thursday night and witnessed the following in person:

Cuse Draws a #1 Seed

Duel in The Dome Tonight

Geno Auriemma and his top-ranked, undefeated Connecticut Huskies pay a visit to the Carrier Dome tonight. The Orange haven't beat the Huskies since Jan. 2, 1996, a 62-59 thriller at Manley Field House. That ended a 40-game conference winning streak for then-second-ranked UConn and they finished the season with a 17-1 Big East record. The Post-Standard's Bud Poliquin previews the game in his blog.

Freshman lead Orange to much-needed win

The Syracuse men's basketball team needed a big road win. They got it. The Orangemen held on to beat the University of Virginia 70-68 in Charlottesville, VA Wednesday night.

Freshman Donte Greene led the Syracuse attack with 21 points, including 5-of-8 from behind the arc as the Orange (6-2) put four players in double figures. Johnny Flynn added 18 points for Syracuse, including two key free throws with 5.3 seconds left. Eric Devendorf scored 16 and Paul Harris had 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Virginia (6-2) was lead by senior Adrian Joseph's 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Orange gave Virginia only its second loss in 22 games at its new arena.

Sean Singletary, Virginia's leading scorer, was slowed by strep throat and had an off night shooting 3-of-14 and 2-of-8 from the charity stripe. He entered the game shooting 93 percent from the line. Singletary had 10 points and nine assists and Mamadi Diane scored 10.

The Orange, who gave up 107 points last week in a loss to UMass, held its second opponent in less then a week under 70 points. Virginia came in averaging 83 points a game.

Nick Vecchio

Joe Paterno's Salary Released

Joe Paterno's long-secretive salary was revealed Thursday. The Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System revealed that Paterno earns $512,664 a year. Pennsylvania paper The Patriot-News had sought the coach's compensation information for upwards of five years. The state supreme court rules last week that Paterno's salary is a matter of public record because he participates in the state's retirement system.

Like many division 1A head football coaches, Paterno's base salary pales in comparison to his overall income. The coach is paid for his radio show and has a contract with Nike. Still, Paterno's base salary is lower than many of his counterparts. Last year, USA Today reported that more than 40 coaches earned more than a million dollars a year.

Ryan Maloney

Idle Bullz

The Syracuse Raging Bullz will not play host to the Strong Island Sound at the War Memorial tonight. The team's schedule lists the game as cancelled, the third game in a string of four that will not be played. Bullz team owner Nicholas Fitts tells WTVH 5 that one cancellation was a result of a cancellation by another franchise which caused a domino effect throughout the league. He says the other cancellations are a matter of scheduling conflict.

Rumors are already surfacing on ABA message boards that the Bullz are in financial trouble. Fitts says the team will return to action Dec. 7 when they're scheduled to host Quebec City.

The Bullz roster is comprised of a few former Syracuse-area ballers. Former Liverpool Warrior Jon Ferris is listed on the roster. So is former Syracuse Orange forward Dayshawn Wright. Joining them are Latavio Esco (Monroe CC) and Matt Patterson (Brockport).

Thus far, the Bullz are 3-2 and have scored 100 points or more in all five games. The team has not posted any box scores or season statistics online.

Ryan Maloney

'Cuse Advances to the Garden

The Syracuse Orange beat St. Joseph's 72-69 Tuesday night at the Carrer Dome.
Some observations:

• This was a pre-season NIT tournament game, therefore no alcohol was sold.
• No alcohol was sold, therefore I was in a foul mood the entire game.
• Syracuse fans like to pretend they don't sit until the team scores their first field goal of the half. Going into the game's first TV timeout, the Orange had yet to score. I remained standing for the T.O. Ninety-five percent of the Dome did not.
• The school charges $19 for a seat in the upper-bowl.
• I paid a scalper $20 for a seat in the sixth row.
• Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris will clash this season.
• Flynn seems to know where Donte Greene is at all times. They teamed up for the #5 play on SportsCenter's top 10. Shockingly, the long-range alley-oop they combined for was not the play.
• Flynn was horrible: 1-6 from the field, 5 points...but he made the big shot in the clutch.
• UPDATE: Mike Waters says Flynn was borderline brilliant.
• OPINION: Waters is borderline retarded.
  
• The 'Cuse players now do the "diamond" symbol with their hands a-la Jay-Z.
• Any team that stops the Orange transition game can beat them. Take care of the ball.
  
• Hungry Charley's makes some mean cheddar fries.
• Prediction: Seven members of this team will wear an NBA uniform.
  

Dome Night

I'll be taking a little trip down 481 tonight to see the 2007-08 edition of the Syracuse Orange basketball squad. The Orange host St. Joseph's tonight.

More after the game....

Ryan Maloney

TWO TEAMS, TWO DIFFERENT STORIES (ONE HASN'T BEEN WRITTEN YET)

WARNING: THIS IS A BERRIOS ENTRY. EXPECT POOR GRAMMAR AND LITTLE SENSE. YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY KILL BRAIN CELLS BY READING THIS. FOR MORE ON BERRIOS READ THIS.

You know what a shocker that SU won against Louisville Cardinals, but the true question is can they hold there own against Miami (OH). I mean SU is scrappy at best and there defense could pull off a miracle is an understatement. But when you look at Miami (OH) and how’d they got beaten so badly against Cincinnati that their fans actually left the stadium in protest (just joking). Seriously SU and Miami (OH) on paper look very similar to that they both utterly stink, they’re GARBAGE!

And in other sports news, WTF were the Mets thinking when they’ve slipped five games won 2 out of the last what 6 games they’ve played. They have relatively a weak schedule towards the end of the season. And they’re losing to teams like the Marlins, Nationals and of course the Phillies. It’s like you guys have had first place for months and now you decided to bail out and start slumping. I mean I know our bullpen is beaten up and Billy Wagner is injured but c’mon we have the depth in our hitters to score but we’re not doing it. It’s like WTF you guys are garbage this is why we get no respect from our fellow New Yorkers at times because we got the payroll but the attitude isn’t there.

Ben Berrios

Introducing Your 1st-Place Syracuse Orange

The Syracuse Orange pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Big East Conference history Saturday when they went into Louisville and beat the Cardinals 38-35.

Of course, 'Cuse could not just pulverize the Cardinals and come away with a multiple possession victory. Instead, Andrew Robinson fumbled twice late in the game and the Cardinals converted the turnovers into TDs to make it a game.

Despite that, the Orange made many of their fans eat crow.

The forums have been chalk-full of messages calling for Greg Robinson's firing. 'Cuse fans have been impatient with the third installment of the G-Rob Orange. Syracuse started 0-3 for the first time since 1986, as opponents outscored them 128-32. The offensive line had allowed 18 sacks. Attendance for the last home game against Illinois was reported at a generous 34,000. AD Daryl Gross was reportedly upset with the lack of progress shown. All signs pointed to 0-12, and yes, that would include a loss to Buffalo.

The Orange came into Papa John's Stadium as 37-point underdogs. Thirty-seven points! According to Donnie Webb of the Post-Standard, the largest underdogs on record to win an NCAA football game were the 1985 Oregon State Beavers (+36, beat Washington 21-20) and the '85 UTEP Miners (+36, beat BYU 23-16). Now, keep in mind the Appalachian State-Michigan game had no line as odds makers just couldn't figure out how badly the Wolverines were going to crush the Mountaineers. Despite that, Syracuse's win over the Cardinals will probably go down as one of the biggest upsets in NCAA football history.

Now for the fun part...a look at one Louisville fan's pre-game blog:

I stray away from disparaging Syracuse too viciously. My best friend is a longsuffering Syracuse alum, with whom I have a yearly bet of a bottle of wine on the outcome of the football and basketball game. (The latter is usually a more heated affair -- which drained his senses after the Cards' unbelievable comeback victory at Freedom Hall last year.) The football game generally requires a hefty sum of points put up on my end in order to reap any oenophilic reward. He's shied away from the 37 points laid down by the pros; so if I want a dry Italian red Saturday night I'm going to have to put up 40 points. And so I did -- owing much to the Cards' need for vendetta after the loss to Kentucky...

Card fans have to deal with the Kentucky loss and future, if any, losses. Saturday's game against Syracuse won't be one of them. Jody Demling's weekly column The Book wasted no time in drawing a 70-7 analogy to hapless Murray State. I'm banking on a 63-14 win -- and a bottle of Sangiovese.