It would seem to make some sense for Syracuse's football team to wear orange, with that kind of being its mascot and all.
Last year they wore blue tops and it ticked off some fans. This year they're going with orange tops, as this article in the Syracuse paper explains.
Ever since Syracuse football unveiled its white, blue and platinum tops during a highly anticipated announcement at Destiny USA last April, the lack of orange in the wardrobe makeover has been a hot topic of conversation among fans.
There were rumblings about the addition of an orange uniform last season, and on Monday SU confirmed that the team will have orange and blue tops available during the 2015 season.
Last season, the omission of orange generated enough of a stir up there that this article was written about it in October.
Is there enough orange in the Orange's uniforms?
Syracuse (Master of Ceremonies Matt Park at uniform announcement): The Orange (in the white jerseys) is designed to pop out at you so Orange is part of the look. You'll see orange shirts, orange jerseys, those are all in play. You'll be seeing orange down the road.
Angry fans: Nope.
Lukas: To me, no. I think there should be more orange. I find the gray confusing. Nike has had that issue that you saw Saturday, which we call the sweat box, for years. I don't know why they don't fix it. Black looks cool, kind of bad-ass, so I get black. But grey looks blah to me. Maybe it's meant to look like Syracuse? I went to college in Binghamton so I get that it's gray and cloudy like Upstate New York.
Dorfman: I can see issues with the lack or orange but there are orange pants and orange jerseys coming.
Duda: It is kind of hilarious that they're having an Orange-Out on Friday and none of the uniforms have very much orange. We're the Orange but there are three or four teams in the ACC that wear more orange than we do.
If Syracuse needs some sort of slogan to create a push for more orange, I'm sure Clemson has one or two leftovers they can borrow.
A few Tuesday links:
-- At Grantland, Charlie Pierce writes about the NCAA bar brawl to face Kentucky.
Now that the herd's been culled to 16, it's hard to say one way or the other whether the chalk has held in this year's tournament. Certainly, that's the case with Kentucky, which, despite some lackadaisical shooting against Cincinnati, has performed exactly the way people expected it to perform. The same can be said for Duke, which has Jahlil Okafor in the middle of one of the great salary drives of our time. (Even Mike Krzyzewski, Leader Of Men, conceded before the season that Okafor's a rental who's out of there when the tournament ends.) There is no question that the team having the most fun is Wisconsin, which had to work hard to get by Oregon. The Badgers players have become famous for their interest in the stenographer who's working their regional. In pursuit of this peculiar enthusiasm, Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes managed to get both "cattywampus" and "onomatopoeia" into the off-day interview transcripts. (I think Hayes's next experiment in this regard should be on the general theme of Towns In Wisconsin. He should begin with Oconomowoc and go from there.) That's why I think the Badgers are the best shot in the field against Kentucky. This is a team that does not crack.
Agree with that last part about Wisconsin. They're huge. They're skilled. And they're smart.
-- Pat Forde of Yahoo! gives his take on the Cinderella-less Round of 16.
Just call it the OTSS tournament.
Any program that could even remotely answer to that name is gone. Ushered out. Only the historically and financially strong survive.
There are 13 teams from Power Five conferences still going. The three from outside that club are Gonzaga, Wichita State and Xavier, which bear no resemblance to mid-majors.
The Zags are a No. 2 seed making their 17th straight NCA tourney appearance. The Shockers are 95-14 over the past three seasons, made the Final Four in 2013 and went undefeated into the tournament last year. The Musketeers are in the NCAAs for the ninth time in the past 10 years, and have been to the Elite Eight twice this century.
They all belong with the elite.
To understand how dead Cinderella is, consider this: the lowest-seeded team in the Sweet 16 is No. 11 UCLA. Merely the program with the most national titles in history.
All told there are 10 programs still playing that have won national titles. Seven of them have won multiple national titles. This is a blueblood field.
-- Stewart Mandel lists four ways we can get from 16 to four.
My Best Bet for a Final Four
I admittedly haven't picked much right so far this tournament, but at least my original Final Four are still standing. Why change now?
Kentucky (Midwest): Cincinnati was able to match the Wildcats' physicality for about a half, but eventually Kentucky's insane length became impassable. "It's hard to see the rim,'' Bearcats guard Troy Caupain told reporters afterward. "I mean, they're blocking shots at the top of the backboard.'' If a team's going to take down the 36-0 Wildcats it will need to both frazzle them defensively and knock down a whole bunch of threes. Sweet 16 opponent West Virginia can do the former but not the latter. Notre Dame and Wichita State are scarier but still long shots.
Arizona (West): Arizona has one thing few teams in this tourney do: An elite veteran point guard, T.J. McConnell. He was at his do-it-all-best in Saturday's victory over Ohio State, scoring 19, dishing six assists, grabbing six rebounds and notching five steals. The second-seeded Wildcats will likely be viewed as the underdogs if they do end up facing No. 1 seed Wisconsin in the Elite Eight, but Arizona is just as talented, just as seasoned and a little bit better defensively.
Oklahoma (East): The Sooners showed serious mettle in fending off pesky Dayton in front of a highly partisan crowd. The Flyers had all the momentum after climbing back to build a 49-40 lead seven minutes into the second half, but OU clamped down on defense, holing Dayton without a field goal for more than eight minutes. Buddy Hield did not even have a great game, but he did make the most important play with his last-minute block to negate a turnover. This is a tough, defensively stout squad, not to mention the highest remaining seed in the region.
Duke (South): The Blue Devils may have a harder road over the next two games than any of my other picks. Nobody wants to play Utah, the No. 8 team overall in Ken Pomeroy's efficiency ratings, one with a superstar in Delon Wright. Win that and the Blue Devils may get a brutal Elite Eight matchup with Gonzaga, whose bigs would present a legit challenge for star Jahlil Okafor. But I still believe Duke is the best team in the tournament not named Kentucky.
-- And finally, former Miami linebacker Alex Figueroa has a grudge against the Hurricanes. A serious one.
Alex Figueroa, the dismissed former UM linebacker, has a new opportunity. He begins classes Monday at Garden City (Kan.) Community College and will join the football team, coach Jeff Sims confirmed to the Post.
Before enrolling, he decided to share his feelings about his former school in a unique way. Last Wednesday afternoon, Figueroa posted a 15-second video on his Instagram account that shows him crouching over a burning Hurricanes flag.
"This is how I feel about this [expletive]," Figueroa said to the camera. "Don't call me Figatron, [expletive]. Don't call me A-Figs. It's Fig. You feel me? I'm not a [expletive] Hurricane. [Expletive], I'm a Broncbuster."
The latter is the Garden City mascot. "Figatron" is a nickname Figueroa earned while at UM for his impressive physique.
What the...
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This post was edited on 3/24 9:15 AM by Larry_Williams
