If you're like me (6' and named Matt), you're probably thinking something along these lines:"Holy crap! This blog looks marginally different."
Well, you're right. The blog is receiving an aesthetic overhaul. I'm not sure what this virtual notebook will look like when I'm finished with it, but for now, this appears to be the basic structure.
The only thing that has substantially changed from the prior format is the structure of comments. To leave a comment, you must now click on the essay title and, at the bottom of the entry, input your comment along with your name. Your comment will be registered accordingly and the number of comments made will appear alongside the entry's title.
With that stuff out of the way, onto some news.
SU Football Is Still Terrible
Critical Condition? That may be an understatement.
This team is about two pallbearers away from dead.
BasketBlog Poll Releases Preseason Poll
Alex over at CrossCyed is running the show and did a nice job assembling an initial Top 25 from Blog Nation.
What is interesting is that bloggers had a difficult time slotting Syracuse into their ballots. Generating the highest standard deviation amongst those voters that submitted a ballot, Syracuse is clearly one of the question marks teams of 2005/6.
My ballot can be found here.
Oh, Canada!
Apparently, Andy Rautins needed some Canadian companionship on the Orange bench for next season. As such, Coach Boeheim pulled up his britches and went north to nab Maple Leafer Devin Brennan-McBride. (No relation to Julie McBride, the gnome that used to run the point for former ladies coach and Harriet Tubman lookalike Marianna Freeman)
The Ontario native is listed as 6'9", 245 pounds and chose Syracuse over offers from Michigan, Xavier and Tulsa. McBride will join superstud Paul Harris and rising hoopster Mike Jones in Syracuse's Class of 2006.
Mike Waters asks some important questions and provides some marginal answers on his Post-Standard blog about the Brennan-McBride commitment.
Joe Fields to Start Saturday; World Doesn't Give a Shit
Does it really matter?
Joe Fields has all of one completion on the season. A switch isn't going to make things marginally better or worse. It's all just bad.
Gerry McNamara Over-Hyped?
Hawkeye Hoops thinks so.
And if you have no idea what HH is talking about, it may be helpful to get through Ken Pomeroy's stat primer beforehand.
Other Stuff
I heard on the news the other night that Syracuse, according to a poll of players at Wednesday Big East hoops Media Day, had the best fans in the conference.
How can one quantify "best fans"? Are there enough objective criteria?
So I started working on it. The results will be debuted Monday.
Also, Yale is really pissing me off.
Looks kind of odd in firefox.
Just a statistical correction on Joe Field's numbers.
3 completions on the season in 8 attempts.
1 to a Syracuse player and 2 to the opposing defense.
Ba-zing!
ESPN.com lists his passer rating as -31.2... I didn't know that was actually possible.
In 8 attempts he has passed for 6 yards and 2 picks. Here's your silver lining... the INTs were returned for a total of 1 yard. Orange recievers are outgaining the opposing defenses 6 to 1 in yardage despite having 50% less receptions.
Thank god this kid had that extra semester of spring ball. Really helped the development.
A negative passer rating, eh? That's got to be a first.
In the abstract, a negative passer rating would indicate that he is actually costing the Syracuse offense yards. So, basically, he's the opponent's best defensive player.
Maybe he should be nicknamed "Benedict Arnold".