Between the Lines
2/10/2012 10:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball, Men's Lacrosse
This Week: Seeing something a second(or third…or fourth) time is preferred to up close and personal viewing. The first lacrosse scrimmages against Hofstra and Le Moyne were contested Sunday producing a couple of wins for the Orange and oodles of tape for the coaching staff. (Yes it was all on DVD or in some digital form…but we were still calling things film long after projectors were no longer necessary, so tape it is).
“I thought we did fairly well all things considered,” John Desko said midweek post said tape viewing. “It was early so there were a lot of mistakes. We need to clean a lot of things up. It's the time of year where we have to get better at everything.”
After a week full of practices the next in game chance for improvement comes in Sunday's final scrimmage against Maryland. Yes the same team the Orange watched celebrate when last season abruptly ended.
“We're not talking about that,” Coach Desko said. “I'm sure it's in the back of the guys' minds, but we're not really talking about it. We need to get everything we can out of the scrimmage. It's our last contest before our first game against Albany. We're really looking just to improve, evaluate our players and see who's going to play well against a team like Maryland.”
To see my real time thoughts on the first scrimmages of the year scroll back a few days on my twitter feed(yes past the Eli fawning). Same goes for Sunday when the updates will be flying fast and furious @BrianHigginsSU. Hashtag LaxScrimmage.
Pass the Fries: For the first time ever Quentin Hillsman, or anyone else who's coached women's hoops at Syracuse for that matter, will add multiple McDonald's All Americans to the program at the same time. The previous two in program history Erica Morrow and Juanita Ward arrived consecutively in 2007 and 2008. Next fall Q will welcome Brianna Butler and Brittney Sykes to the fold. Both are Jersey natives, though Butler's family relocated to Brooklyn for her senior year so she could ply her trade for the since passed and previously documented Apache Paschall at Nazareth Regional High School.
How about this for the company Syracuse is now keeping. There are only five other schools bringing in multiple McDonald's All Americans next year: Baylor, Notre Dame, UConn, Duke and Texas A&M. Incidentally that list includes four of the top five in the current polls and accounts for the last three national titles(and likely the next one).
If you look at the men's Mickie D's roster and consider DaJaun Coleman, Syracuse is also one of only seven schools to be adding high school All Americans to both the men's and women's rosters. Heady recruiting times for those whose offices are located in a building named for a former McDonald's All American himself.
Higgo's Hero: Iasia Hemingway. She's the reigning Big East women's basketball player of the week. Why is this a big deal? For your consideration, in each of the previous three seasons more players have been named first team all league at the end of the season than have snagged individual player of the week awards.
Great players have a habit of consuming as many of the weekly honors as possible. Last season UConn's Maya Moore was tabbed a league record 10 times, so while we're at it let's also retroactively recognize Kayla Alexander for being selected thrice a year ago. This year the award's been more democratically spread with nine players having been honored thus far and only two, Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins and Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers, more than once.
The formula for being selected is pretty simple. Generally combine two wins and some dynamite stats and you're in the mix. Iasia certainly did that with a pair of 24 point games in victories against Providence and USF. Go figure that Hemingway's tied for the lead league with three 30 point games, but topped out on the conference's weekly honor roll after those standout performances.
The main takeaway is that if any Orange is honored the rest of the way, it means for certain the team's had a pretty good week.
Next Broadcast: We're off to the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville Saturday for women's hoops against the Cardinals at 2:00. For the large group exiting the Dome around 3:00 or so let ESPN 97.7 deliver the sound track for your drive home. Those listening on the web Orange All Access as always is the place to be.
“I thought we did fairly well all things considered,” John Desko said midweek post said tape viewing. “It was early so there were a lot of mistakes. We need to clean a lot of things up. It's the time of year where we have to get better at everything.”
After a week full of practices the next in game chance for improvement comes in Sunday's final scrimmage against Maryland. Yes the same team the Orange watched celebrate when last season abruptly ended.
“We're not talking about that,” Coach Desko said. “I'm sure it's in the back of the guys' minds, but we're not really talking about it. We need to get everything we can out of the scrimmage. It's our last contest before our first game against Albany. We're really looking just to improve, evaluate our players and see who's going to play well against a team like Maryland.”
To see my real time thoughts on the first scrimmages of the year scroll back a few days on my twitter feed(yes past the Eli fawning). Same goes for Sunday when the updates will be flying fast and furious @BrianHigginsSU. Hashtag LaxScrimmage.
Pass the Fries: For the first time ever Quentin Hillsman, or anyone else who's coached women's hoops at Syracuse for that matter, will add multiple McDonald's All Americans to the program at the same time. The previous two in program history Erica Morrow and Juanita Ward arrived consecutively in 2007 and 2008. Next fall Q will welcome Brianna Butler and Brittney Sykes to the fold. Both are Jersey natives, though Butler's family relocated to Brooklyn for her senior year so she could ply her trade for the since passed and previously documented Apache Paschall at Nazareth Regional High School.
How about this for the company Syracuse is now keeping. There are only five other schools bringing in multiple McDonald's All Americans next year: Baylor, Notre Dame, UConn, Duke and Texas A&M. Incidentally that list includes four of the top five in the current polls and accounts for the last three national titles(and likely the next one).
If you look at the men's Mickie D's roster and consider DaJaun Coleman, Syracuse is also one of only seven schools to be adding high school All Americans to both the men's and women's rosters. Heady recruiting times for those whose offices are located in a building named for a former McDonald's All American himself.
Higgo's Hero: Iasia Hemingway. She's the reigning Big East women's basketball player of the week. Why is this a big deal? For your consideration, in each of the previous three seasons more players have been named first team all league at the end of the season than have snagged individual player of the week awards.
Great players have a habit of consuming as many of the weekly honors as possible. Last season UConn's Maya Moore was tabbed a league record 10 times, so while we're at it let's also retroactively recognize Kayla Alexander for being selected thrice a year ago. This year the award's been more democratically spread with nine players having been honored thus far and only two, Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins and Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers, more than once.
The formula for being selected is pretty simple. Generally combine two wins and some dynamite stats and you're in the mix. Iasia certainly did that with a pair of 24 point games in victories against Providence and USF. Go figure that Hemingway's tied for the lead league with three 30 point games, but topped out on the conference's weekly honor roll after those standout performances.
The main takeaway is that if any Orange is honored the rest of the way, it means for certain the team's had a pretty good week.
Next Broadcast: We're off to the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville Saturday for women's hoops against the Cardinals at 2:00. For the large group exiting the Dome around 3:00 or so let ESPN 97.7 deliver the sound track for your drive home. Those listening on the web Orange All Access as always is the place to be.
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