Mike Waters of Syracuse.com continues his excellent series on Syracuse's move to the ACC and an introduction to the new ACC opponents. Up now: Maryland.
It occurs to us that the Maryland team we saw this past year would have serious problems because they don't shoot well enough to overcome the damned zone. But Jake Layman showed he could shoot and you would expect that a John Beilein recruit (6-9 Michigan transfer Evan Smotrycz) might have a bit of range too.
The other day we linked a pretty funny video by some Syracuse students about their basketball team. Not so funny to some students: Syracuse intends to make them help pay for the Big East exit fee. Here are the numbers:
- The Big East pays out around $3.18 million
- Syracuse owes the Big East $7.75 million.
- The ACC pays out around $16 million now, which is expected to go up a good bit.
The students - and the University Senate - would like athletics to shoulder the cost. The school says that the burden should be shared "by the whole university - every school, every revenue-generating entity such as its office of housing and meal plan, as well as the athletics department," according to Syracuse.com.
Given the boost they're getting, we can see why folks are upset.
Okay, two more Syracuse links: first, an article about Syracuse's defense as ranked in the tournament, and second, a piece about coach-in-waiting Mike Hopkins.
You know, after the video parody of Bohemian Rhapsody, and the tremendous off-season coverage Syracuse.com is providing, we have to say that at the moment, the newcomers are badly outperforming traditional ACC fans and media. Up your game, ACC brethren!