Where Şaşırtıcı Happens (Pro Update 5-6-08)

Preston Shumpert’s Besiktas Cola Turka has begun their quest to win the Turkish League playoffs. Besiktas was the league’s regular-season champion and is facing Banvitspor in the first round. Besiktas won the first game, so they lead the series 2-0. And no, that is not a typo. In case you missed this space last week, Shumpert’s team was granted a 1-0 lead before the best-of-five series even began by virtue of having swept the season series from Banvitspor. Shumpert had 12 points in this first game; I’m a little disappointed that, even for the playoffs, the only reported individual stat from each game is points scored. Game 2 is Thursday.

While Besiktas takes care of business in the first round, you should go to the league homepage and vote for Preston Shumpert for MVP in the lower right corner of the page. I’m pretty sure this is just a fan poll and not actual MVP voting, but you never know. He’s in the lead right now — but you never know when some jerk UConn fans will start flooding the server with votes for Khalid El-Amin. So do your patriotic duty and Vote Shumpert in ‘08!

Stuff is less rosy for Gerry McNamara’s Latvian team. They are down 2-0 in their 2nd round playoff series, which is also a best-of-five. They got crushed in game 1, last Friday. Gerry had 5 points on 1-8 shooting from the field. Game 2 was a heartbreaking (I presume) 2-point loss in which Gerry had 3 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds. Game 3 will be tomorrow, and could be the end of G-Mac’s season.

Also tough news from Japan. Ryan Blackwell’s Sendai 89ers fell short in their quest for the BJ-League championship. The playoff format was single-elimination, and the top-seeded 89ers lost to the 2nd seed Tokyo Apache by two points in Saturday’s semifinal matchup, in a tight battle that went down to the last minute. Ryan had 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists in the loss, but shot just 5-12 from the floor. No time for pity, though, as the consolation and championship games were held the very next day. The 89ers saved face by winning the 3rd-place game by 4 points; Blackwell had 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Thus ends the BJ-League season. Who knows if Ryan will be back next year…?

In the Netherlands, Damone Brown’s 2nd-ranked Den Bosch squad is locked in a tight semifinal battle. Having dispatched their first-round opponent Zwolle with relative ease, the boys from ’s-Hergotenbosch find themselves neck-and-neck with the team from Bergen op Zoom. The best-of-five series is tied one game apiece. Den Bosch took the first game on Thursday; Damone had five points in 18 minutes. But Bergen op Zoom came back to win Game 2 on Saturday; Damone had 5 points and 3 boards in 12 minutes. Game 3 is Thursday night.

Elsewhere, some regular seasons are still going on. In Belgium, Elvir Ovcina had 10 points and 3 rebounds Wednesday, followed by 11 points and 6 boards Saturday, as Telindus Oostende went 1-1 for the week. They have slipped to third place but with only two regular-season games remaining, their spot in the playoffs is secure. At this point it’s a question of seeding. In Israel, Otis Hill and Nahariya are still fighting for their postseason lives. They’re in 4th place and have opened up a one-game lead on the fifth-place team with 3 games remaining in the regular season. They accomplished this by beating (handily) the #2 team in the league last weekend. Otis had 13 points and 3 rebounds in that game. Of their three remaining games, one is against the top team in the league and the other two are against the 6th- and 7th-place teams who are not that far out of the playoff chase themselves. So it’s shaping up to be a wild ending to the Israeli hoops season.

Finally, let’s check in on Dayshawn Wright at his latest stop with the Hudson Valley Hawks. According to the game summary on the hvhawks.com front page, Dayshawn contributed 10 rebounds in their win over Delaware on Saturday. His point total was not mentioned. You may note an inconsistency in the date of the game as mentioned in the report — it says Saturday April 26. But if you read a little further down to find the report from the actual april 26 game, you will see that the author used the same lead sentence in both reports — he swapped out the name of the team, but he forgot to change the date. Classy. By the way, feel free to check out the Hawks’ MySpace page if you are feeling it. There isn’t much there, except that the team is apparently “Single”. And among their Top 20 friends is Dayshawn’s former club the Albany Patroons. (And also Tom.) If you’re a MySpacer, drop them a line and see if they can’t get some stats up on their website.

That’s all for now. Until next time:

BERGEN OP ZOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!

Bombs Away (Pro Update 4-29-08)

Last night the Nuggets were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Lakers in a 4-game sweep. Carmelo scored 21 and grabbed 11 rebounds but fouled out of the game and could only watch as the Lakers held on in the last couple minutes. Melo had a very good season but it ends on an exceedingly bad note — not just getting swept in the playoffs, but more importantly the DWI arrest — and with more questions than answers. Some pundits are starting to posit that the Nuggets would be better off without Anthony. This is nonsense, of course — without Melo, the Nugs are at best a .500 club and well out of the playoffs in the West — but just the fact that it is being mentioned shows what a tough situation he’s gotten himself into. I wouldn’t mind if they traded him East where he would singlehandedly turn any of those second-tier teams like the Sixers or the Hawks into viable championship contenders. But even if they wanted to trade him (and Nuggets management is not as stupid as that columnist) it would be nearly impossible to move his mammoth contract.

Anyway, thus effectively ends the SU presence in the NBA playoffs. Jason Hart is on the Jazz but not likely to see any minutes beyond blowout mop-up duty. He even missed the last game with stomach flu, not that he would have gotten in to play. And Etan Thomas is technically still around too but has even less chance of playing than Hart does — and anyway, the Wizards are one game from being tossed as well.

So we start to look towards next season. Donte Greene will end up somewhere in the teens of the draft (unless he has a sudden dramatic change of heart before signing with an agent). As reported by Mike Waters, Josh Pace has been rewarded for his general domination of the CBA by getting an invite to Golden State’s summer training camp. Mookie looks headed for another stint in the D-League, and Demetris Nichols will be a free agent looking for a spot. We’ll keep you posted as summertime roster news comes down the pike, but for all intents and purposes we are done talking about the NBA for this season.

But while the NBA fades from our Orange consciousness, there is still plenty of action in the overseas leagues, including some much-awaited good news from the desk of Gerry McNamara.

Read More »

The SOBs - Day Two - Most Improved Player

trophyGood morning ladies and gentledudes, and welcome to Day Two of the Syracuse Orange Blogger Awards. There is another tasty menu of accolades to come today. If you missed Day One of the awards, you can go to SOB-HQ at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician for links to all the awards that have been given so far, and a schedule of today’s presentations.

Folks, yesterday we at Cuse Country had the honor of bringing you the award for Worst Moment of the year. But we are not all so jaded that we can’t also celebrate something positive about the basketball season just concluded. The team as a whole accomplished exactly what the 2006-07 team did — a quarterfinal loss in the NIT. So from that perspective, nothing can be said to have “improved”. But if we instead focus on individual players, it was obvious that great strides were being made right before our eyes.

So to kick off Day Two of the SOB awards, we at Cuse Country are proud to present the award for Most Improved Player. Unlike certain other contests, the winner in this category will not be awarded a fabulous SU nightlight. However, he will win the knowledge that the SU blogging community recognizes the leaps he made this year and that we will be summarily disappointed if he doesn’t do it again next season.

The nominees are:

1. Paul “The Hustle” Harris

Jameson of CuseAdelphia: “The kid figured out during Big East how to not get
every one of his shots blocked in the paint. For that I give him kudos.”

Brian from Orange44: “He developed his mid-range jump shot, his baseline moves, free throws, and even a slight outside game. How anyone could think that he is not the most improved player on the squad would even surprise the great DOCTOR Gross.”

Señor Axeman: “It is amazing how big of a stride his game took this season. See kids, that is why you stay in school!!! “

Howie Mansfield of Sports Night With… : “Harris is evolving, and next year will be ready for big numbers.”

2. Kristof “K-Ong” Ongenaet

Matt of HoyaSuxa: “He went from Ethan Cole clone to viable option.”

3. Arinze “Beefcake” Onuaku

Nick from Nick’s Two Cents: “He’s no Otis Hill yet, but he could get there, which is amazing considering where he was a couple years ago.”

Josh from Cuse Country (i.e. me): “When the season began did you ever imagine he’d be such a huge part of the offense? No. No you did not.”

Sean of TNIAAM: “Expectations were probably so low for Arinze that any mild improvement would have garnered him this award. But he gave the SU offense (and defense) a dimension that was unexpected this season…. He built a solid foundation for the next two years in the paint.”

Syracusan from Cuse Country: “To go from nothing to 13 points and 8 rebounds per game, virtually overnight, is astounding.”

4. Devin Brennan-McBride

Just kidding. Nobody voted for him. But I thought I’d give D-B-Mac one last bit of love before we completely forget that he ever existed. Just like David Patrick.

(Look it up.)

This was a close tally, with only one vote separating the winner from the runner-up. But with six votes, your 2007-08 SOB MIP is:

Paul Harris!

Congratulations, kid. We’re all looking forward to you averaging a double-double next year. No pressure.

We now are pleased to pass the mic to veteran Cuse blogger Matt Glaude at his latest endeavor, HoyaSuxa, your #1 source for Orange-flavored Schadenfreude. (My favorite taste so far, on the occasion of Davidson beating Georgetown in the NCAAs: “Roy Hibbert weeps tears of unfathomable sadness; they are yummy and sweet.”) In the 11 o’clock hour, HoyaSuxa will be presenting the award for “Biggest Villain/Nemesis” which should be right in Glaude’s wheelhouse.

SOB Awards: Worst Moment

Thanks Nick. You know, ladies and gentlemen, SOB can stand for a number of things. But if you read it as an acronym, it spells “sob”, and the basketball team certainly made us sob at times this year. As Syracuse fans we know to expect more than just sunshine and roses throughout the year. It wouldn’t be a true SU Basketball season without some truly awful moments that just made you want to slam your head in a car door over and over. To honor this critical component of Orange fanhood, we here at Cuse Country are proud to present the SOB award for Worst Moment of the season. (PS. If you don’t know what the SOB Awards are, go here to get the backstory and begin your journey through today’s awards ceremony.)

The nominees for Worst Moment are:

1. Eric Devendorf Tears ACL

Axeman: “You just knew it wasn’t good.”
Brian from Orange44: “Lineups, strategies, and games were clearly affected by this. Syracuse lost its most seasoned leader and was forced to turn to a bunch of freshmen to play a lot of minutes. While plenty of moments really stunk, this clearly had the most implications.”

2. Believing the Preseason Hype
Matt from HoyaSuxa: “I thought this team would win about 400 games and beat Georgetown 100 gazillion to zero”

3. The Paul Harris Turnover & Pitt Loss

Ray from Orangehoops: “In a season where the best player, Eric Devendorf, tears his ACL and is lost for the season, it’s pretty hard to make one single ‘bad’ play that is worst than that. Harris managed.”
Sean of TNIAAM: “Stomach-punch to the nth degree.”

4. Losing to Villanova in the BET

Three Idiots: “That’s when we knew the season was over.

And the winner is:

(drumroll)

(clumsily fumbles with envelope)

It’s a tie! What an historic occasion. The two worst moments of the 2007-08 basketball season are Devendorf’s Injury and The End of the Pitt Game. Congratulations you two. Now take your trophies and git out!

For the next SOB award, we continue to celebrate the sucky bits of the SU basketball season by passing the baton to CuseAdelphia for the Most Disappointing Player award, coming up in the 3 o’clock hour.

Wednesday afternoon bouillabaisse

I haven’t posted in a while, but the latest obsession I’ve been working my brain through is a paranoia about Jonny Flynn, and the possibility of him following Donte to the pros after next season. It probably won’t be the right move for him to go pro after next year, but all my confidence is shot about these kids making smart and predictable decisions.

Flynn has all the tools for the NBA except a consistent jump-shot and a more focused approach to defense. The defense may well come next year, and the jump shot will likely improve by virtue of having Devo and Rautins around to take the pressure off. More of Flynn’s shots next season will be wide open, and he’ll be forcing up fewer, which will lead to a much better shooting percentage. He’ll also have more opportunity to take it to the basket for high percentage shots, thanks to all the long-range shooters spreading the defense. His turnovers will decrease by virtue of experience, and his assists will tick upwards. Just by virtue of team dynamics he’ll come out looking golden next season — plus his organic growth as a player will legitimately leave him better off. This is scary stuff, given that players like Kyle Lowry — who was also an undersized guard with no jumpshot who came out too early — are getting 10 points and 25 minutes a game in the pros. Flynn doesn’t have the pure blazing speed of Lowry, but he’s got more of all the other tools. I can see the NBA temptation hitting him big time this time next year.

This new paranoia is increasing the vital nature of the 2008-2009 season in my head. This coming season may be the best and only chance for this generation of players to do something special. We’re in the heart of the 3rd generation of the post-Championship era, and no team missing Gerry has done anything memorable so far. No team missing Hakim has even been nationally competitive. If Flynn leaves after next year, we’ll go right back to treading water. They’ve got to nail this thing next season, in my mind. Which is a scary thought, given all the flaws and question marks we’re still dealing with.

Read More »

in memoriam

My grandfather passed away last night, at the age of 89. Normally I wouldn’t involve the Cuse Country space with such a personal event, but my grandfather holds a special place in my history with Syracuse sports, so I wanted to honor him here. Without his influence, I wouldn’t be the SU fan I am today, and I surely wouldn’t have gone down a path that led to writing for this blog.

My parents were not sports fans at all, and still aren’t. But my grandfather was a life-long die hard for Syracuse football, holding season tickets for decades at Archibald and later at that new-fangled Carrier Dome. When I was a kid — with no siblings to guide me and parents that hadn’t seen the light — I had zero exposure to, or knowledge of, anything sports related. But along came my grandfather, sometime when I was in elementary school, to start dragging me to SU football games. At first I didn’t know what was going on or what I was getting myself into, but the enthusiasm, energy, and family bonding of those gamedays got to me, and a life-long passion was born. Those 35 yard-line, 1st level seats (visitors side) at the Dome hold a special place in my memory, and I consider them part of my formative experience in life. I rarely missed a home football game from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, and when I came home on break from college, my grandfather and those seats were always waiting for me if there was a home game that weekend (Donovan’s last game stands out…). Later in life, when my grandfather didn’t have the energy to go to every game, he was always happy to give me both seats to use myself. Several Cuse Country contributors, and at least a few of our readers, had the opportunity to sit in those seats over the years, and I’m glad they too are a part of that memory.

Thanks to that introduction by my grandfather, my love of sports was kindled and a lifetime hobby developed. I soon discovered the basketball team (1987 helped, of course), and eventually the professional ranks. The kind of joy that only fanhood can bring is a special gift, and without him I never would have known it. My grandfather died peacefully, without pain, surrounded by loved ones, after a long, happy, and very successful life. So here’s to you Zedi, I know those 20th row, 35 yard-line seats in the sky are much more comfortable than they ever were in the Dome. Thanks much, I’ll miss you.

Dr Henry Cramer, DDS (1918-2008).

“I’m here to man up to my mistake”

It’s hard to argue with Josh’s impassioned pimp-slap of Carmelo for his latest fiasco, but I liked what I heard from Melo today. Primarily, I like that he went to the podium with a prepared speech — undoubtedly written by his agent and people from the Nuggets, and filled with fancy phrases and words that Melo would never use, like “contrition” — but then he never once referred to it. Instead he looked everyone straight in the eye and spoke his own words, from his own heart, talking honestly about what a major mistake he made and how bad he feels about it.

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t stand when athletes use inappropriately eloquent and completely phony pre-written apologies. The words are clearly not their own, which leaves the impression they don’t believe or care about what they’re saying. The language usually comes straight out of a politicians playbook, and inevitably gives me a bad taste in my mouth. It’s almost an abrogation of the athlete’s responsibility to his fans. They obviously tried to get Carmelo to hold that type of press conference, and he was tempted to let it happen. But when he got up there, he flipped the script and handled his own business himself. He took responsibility for his actions. That, at least, is a sign of maturity. Maybe there’s hope.

If anyone should be drunk at 4AM it’s Jason Hart (Pro Update 4-15-08)

I’m not sure why Carmelo felt the need to get blasted on Sunday night. His team had won the game (even though he didn’t do so well) and put themselves in the driver’s seat. This morning came the news that Denver officially clinched its playoff spot since the Warriors lost. I’m sure the mood at Nuggets practice today was cheerful and optimistic. Yeah I bet.

I mean, among the Syracuse NBA contingent, Carmelo has the least reason to be drinking his sorrows away. Consider:

  • Etan Thomas has still not returned to the court despite having been cleared to practice weeks ago, and it’s doubtful that he’d make his season debut during the playoffs. Not only that but his competition at the center spot, Brendan Haywood, has had a career year in Etan’s absence, and both Haywood and Thomas are under contract with the Wiz for the next two seasons so Etan doesn’t have great prospects for playing time, once he finally does come back next year.
  • Jason Hart has been completely buried on the Jazz bench for months. He only gets into games during garbage time. He did have 12 points in 7 minutes of play on Saturday, but other than that he’s only played a few minutes here and there. Sure the Jazz are winning, but he’s nothing more than an insurance policy to them at this point. He’s not contributing a whit and could find it difficult to catch on with another team next season. And to add insult to injury, at the moment his nba.com page is missing. (Just in case they’ve fixed it later, here’s the screen grab:)

    nohart.jpg

  • Hakim Warrick has the opposite problem. He’s playing tons of minutes but for a terrible team. He’s scored in double figures in 13 straight games, most recently posting 16 points and 7 rebounds against Minnesota. Memphis’s season ends tomorrow night with a meaningless game against the Nuggets. He’ll be back next year, playing out the final year of his contract before becoming a restricted free agent, but he’s never fit into their idea of what a power forward should be, and they have Rudy Gay playing SF (and playing well). They will have a high pick in the draft, and a fair amount of free-agent money to toss around (expiring contracts from the Pau Gasol trade) so if they pick up a bruiser in the frontcourt, Hak’s minutes could shrink back to their 2006 levels. Although he should continue to show up in photos like this one (from his most recent game):
    hakim warrick dunks on your mama
  • Demetris Nichols has it worst of all. He’s only playing a few minutes here and there, in garbage time, and he’s doing it for a crappy team. Chicago’s season is just about over — they’ve badly missed the playoffs in the weak Eastern Conference — and the fact that he still plays only sparingly, in blowouts, indicates that the Bulls aren’t really interested in seeing what he can do for next season. He will certainly end up in someone’s summer camp, but anything beyond that is up in the air.
  • This is not to mention Darryl Watkins, who is playing moderately well for the Iowa Energy — but not enough to really garner any NBA attention. He’s had a good April, putting up these stats: 12 pts and 8 rebs on April 3; 18 pts and 11 rebs on April 5; 12 & 8 on April 7; 14 & 6 on April 11; and 6 points and 10 boards on April 12. Those are solid numbers but nothing that’s going to rocket him back to the bigs. The D-League regular season has now ended, and Iowa missed the playoffs. And now Mookie will have to ponder his future as the summer camps loom.

And if that’s not enough, Carmelo, to convince you to quit boozing and cruising, consider that you could have ended up playing overseas like any one of these guys:
Read More »

Joe Lunardi: perhaps not a hater anymore?

Got this tidbit off of CuseAdelphia, which made a trip to the rejuvenation machine.

Joe Lunardi’s extremely early Bracketology projections for the 2008-2009 season is a smorgasbord of Big East love. He has fully nine (count ‘em, 9) Big East teams in the dance next year, including, of course, a triumphant return for Syracuse. The nine squads are in fact the eight teams from this past tournament, plus SU. But he doesn’t just sneak the nine teams in; he’s got Pitt as a one seed (!!), and UConn and Notre Dame as two seeds. Holy crap. SU, for our part, grabs an unimpressive seven.

(Personally, I’m anticipating better than a seven seed next year, but given Donte’s departure I understand there will be skepticism from the national media until Devo and Rautins prove they’re healthy. So I’m reserving my resentment at any perceived disrespect, for the moment.)

What Joe Lunardi is saying with these numbers, whether he means to or not, is that the Big East will be the greatest conference in the history of basketball next year. In fact, given how strong he seems to think it will be, it’s hard to imagine a one seed and two number twos coming out of it. With that kind of lineup, the conference will eat its own, and the top teams will have too many losses to get those high seeds. But, aside from the logical flaws in his seeding projections, it’s amazing to see the Big East put a nine-spot up there. For the sake of SU, I can’t decide if I want him to be right or wrong.

If you’d just shot 3-14 you’d get drunk too

OK, we are going to get to all the pro news (including Matt Gorman in the Irish League playoffs) but first there’s this which you’ve definitely heard about by now if you have been watching ESPN at all today.

Carmelo was ticketed last night on suspicion of DUI. It’s only “suspicion” because he gave a blood sample and the results of that test won’t be back for a while (just in time for the playoffs of course). But apparently he failed the field sobriety tests that were administered. This arrest comes on the heels of his 3-14 shooting performance against Houston (a game which the Nuggets nonetheless won fairly handily to put them in a “win-and-you’re-in” playoff scenario vs. Memphis on Wednesday). He’s had no comment so far other than to apologize for the “distraction” this is causing.

I’m as big a Carmelo fan as anyone but I’m pissed at this. Drunk driving is just unacceptable and I’m stunned that he would not have the self-control to prevent this. If you are so wasted that you are going to baldly fail a roadside sobriety test, you know it before you get in the car. And it’s not like he had to be concerned about publicly saying “I’ve had too much, call me a cab” to the bartender at whatever club he was at. You know there is a number he can call and have one of the Nuggets’ lackeys come pick him up, no questions asked. Someone would come get his car too. He keeps doing stupid stuff that tears down whatever good image he’s built up. Early there was the “friend’s marijuana” thing and Stop Snitching (which ought to have an IMDB entry, come on folks) but you could chalk those up to a teenager trying to figure out his new world. Most folks (who were not simply trying to shout their soundbites louder than the next guy) were willing to look beyond those, or write them off. He had a good couple of years and then the SuckerPunch and resulting suspension gave his image a major blow. But he worked his way back into the public’s good graces from that, was a star for the Olympic Qualifying team, was voted as an All-Star starter this year and had completely stayed out of trouble. It seemed he’d finally matured to the point of knowing that he had to carefully shepherd his public image and not do anything dumb. But now he goes and does something that’s not just dumb but actually dangerous — life-threatening, to himself and others. What an incredibly fucking stupid thing to do.

I’m actually not sure how this will play out with respect to my own allegiances (which I use as a proxy for the public at large). I’m not sure I can cheer for someone who consciously risked the lives of himself and any other motorists or pedestrians on the streets he was using. Everything else — hanging out with the ‘wrong crowd’, even getting into a fight (or whatever you want to call it) — is dumb but forgivable, or at least understandable. This, I don’t know if I can let it go. Can you file this one under “youthful mistake” for a guy who is now almost 24, has been a professional for five years and has an infant son?

Well, now that you’ve enjoyed that, I’m going to get to writing about the rest of the pro guys. But I’ve decided I’ll post that separately, later tonight.