Syracuse Heads to The Final Four

by Ralph Cotran on March 30, 2016

Syracuse Heads to The Final Four

The Syracuse Orange continued their improbable, but exciting run in the NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament this past Sunday. They will be heading to the Final Four to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in Houston, Texas. Many people were surprised Syracuse was even selected by the NCAA committee after a 0-4 start in ACC play and losing four of their last five games to end the season. The Orange also had to cope with losing their head coach, Jim Boeheim, for nine games due to a suspension from the NCAA.

Syracuse opened up the tournament against a talented Dayton Flyers team and Syracuse made a quick statement to everyone on why the deserve to be in the tournament. They routed the Flyers 70-51 and were led by talented freshman, Malachi Richardson with with 21 points.

Next up was the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. The Blue Raiders upset the championship favorite, Michigan State to get to this game so you knew their confidence was sky high coming in. However, it did not make a difference for the Orange whose trademark zone defense suffocated the Blue Raiders on the offensive end causing multiple turnovers. Syracuse defeated Middle Tennessee 75-50 and punched their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.

A sweet sixteen matchup against the Gonzaga Bulldogs proved to be one of Syracuse’s toughest matchups in the tournament. With Gonzaga leading 57-48 late in the second half, Syracuse turned to their aggressive full-court pressure to shut down the Bulldogs and get them back in the game. Down one with under 20 seconds remaining, Senior Forward, Michael Gbinije made a go-ahead layup and Syracuse advanced to its 10th Elite Eight under Jim Boeheim with a 63-30 win.

After a gut wrenching win against the Bulldogs, it set up an all-ACC matchup with Virginia for a spot in the Final Four. Let’s just say this game was by far one of the best games I have ever watched. Syracuse trailed by 16 points at the start of the second half and rallied all the way back to defeat Virginia 68-62. Malachi Richardson was the difference-maker in the game as he scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half and hit key shots down the stretch. After the game, Coach Boeheim said “It was a great comeback, one of the best I’ve coached in, any team I’ve had, in terms of you’re playing, I think, a great team”.

Syracuse was among the last teams to get into the NCAA tournament and now they are headed to the Final Four. They will be taking on a very talented North Carolina team, but the sky’s the limit for this year’s team as they have shown they can overcome anything thrown their way.

Tune into TBS at 8:49 PM EST on Saturday, April 2 to watch Syracuse and North Carolina battle it out for a spot in the National Title Game on Monday.

Filed Under: Sports, Syracuse Tagged With: Basketball, Final Four, NCAA, Sports, Syracuse

by Ralph Cotran on August 7, 2015

The End of a Soccer Rivalry

The Syracuse Silver Knights may no longer find a rival in the Rochester Lancers. Why? Because the team will soon cease to exist.

Lancer’s owner Salvatore “Soccer Sam” Fantauzzo explained the reasoning for the soccer teams disbanding on their official website, citing a hefty worker’s compensation bill as a major factor. According to Fantauzzo, the Lancer’s premium rose from $20,000 to a completely unaffordable $277,000.

In a letter to the Professional Arena Soccer League, the owner divulged the of Lancer’s abusing the system and granting special privileges to players, such as allowing players who were actively competing to receive disability payments. Apparently, the state neither informed the Lancers of those claims nor fought the awards granted.

“There’s no going back,” said Fantauzzo.

The Lancers nearly disbanded last summer, but new management revived the franchise just before last season began. Unfortunately, it’s doubtful they will be granted the same fate.

“I think in order to be saved, they have to be moved,” said Silver Knights coach Tommy Tanner, also a friend of Fantauzzo. Indeed, many of the players will be looking for new teams for this upcoming season.

As for the fate of the Silver Knights, they aren’t in jeopardy anytime soon. Tanner reaffirmed the four-year old team will come back this upcoming season, and that it’s premiums are nowhere near that of the Lancers.

They will have to find a new rivalry, however. An average of 150 fans would travel between Rochester and Syracuse to see the two teams face off, and replacing a quick trip to Rochester a few times a season with more distant journeys will likely add about $15,000 to the Silver Knight’s travel budget.

There are rumors that a new team in Connecticut is slotted to replace the Rochester Lancers in the Syracuse Silver Knights division. Many fans will definitely mourn the loss of the great rivalry between the two upstate New York soccer teams, with Tanner commenting “…that was a great one that we had.”

There is chance that the Syracuse coach may pursue a few Rochester players, but didn’t name any names.

To read the original article, click here.

Filed Under: Football, Soccer, Sports, Syracuse, Uncategorized

by Ralph Cotran on May 6, 2015

Syracuse Football Having Success in the Recruiting Game

Syracuse University Football

Syracuse University football offensive coordinator George McDonald and director of recruiting Eric White have been delivering to their Twitter fans. Exclamations such as “BOOM!” and “#BeBold” have been used to announce the a new a new verbal commitment from a prospect to play football at SU, the Post-Standard reports.

These exclamation are not unwarranted apparently. So far, Syracuse has earned itself commitments from 25 recruits – the highest at this point in the recruiting cycle since the statistic started being tracking 2002. The 2015 Syracuse recruiting class is ranked 28th currently by Rivals.com and 43rd by Scout. McDonald has roots in Florida and has had a great deal of success so far with securing commitments from that area, with seven players thus far. The high school football programs in that state have been shown to be strong recruiting grounds and having success there could prove invaluable for SU this season.

This influx of recruits so early in the cycle should allow the SU coaching staff to start looking ahead at 2016 and developing a long game.

The coaching staff, under the direction of McDonald, has made targeting players that fit the team’s philosophy and approach to play a top priority, and this could explain much of this early success in in recruiting.

“I think having a lot of guys on board shows the commitment that we’ve made to recruiting and recruiting the right players, but it also shows from a university standpoint that we’re doing something right and we have a lot of excitement across the country,” McDonald said.

McDonald’s excitement here is also not unwarranted. By any fair metric, Syracuse’s 7-6 finish in 2013 was quite an accomplishment for the team’s first season in the ACC combined with the fact that they were being led by a first-year coaching staff. Head coach Scott Schaffer has said that he aims to win 8 this season, a number that would certainly validate the new recruits and give credence to McDonald’s strategies.

Chelsea v PSG : An Agressive Match to Date

José Mourinho, the manager for Chelsea, has announced that his team members will not be awarded a bonus during the Champions League playoffs unless they take home the Champions League trophy this upcoming June. After his return to Chelsea in 2013, Mourinho restructured his team’s salaries and the per match bonus give aways. Although these payouts are by no means on the low end scale, Chelsea’s manager wonders whether money is an adequate incentive to motivate his players to do better.

Mourinho believes that unless the team comes out victorious in the finals, they are not deserving of team bonuses, given that they already get paid very well. In a recent interview regarding this matter he was quoted: “If we take the club into quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals but we don’t win the competition, we are doing a very good job for the club financially but I don’t think we should get extra money if we don’t win the last prize. Every player at the high level has enough money in salaries and I think everyone plays to win.” Mourinho states that the pride and success that comes with each win should override the desire to incentivize players with large bonuses. The love and passion the players have for the game should be enough encouragement to try their hardest and win each match.

The Champions League has been a time of reflection for the Chelsea coach and his team, and as they close on the first part of CL, Jose believes that Paris Saint-Germain is one of the most aggressive teams they have played thus far. On the game against PSG, Mourinho voiced a real disappointment stating that the game was more about foul calls and aggressive interaction among the players and much less about soccer.

Filed Under: Chelsea, Ralph Cotran - Soccer, Soccer, Syracuse Tagged With: Champions League, NYC, Ralph Cotran, Sports