SU Libraries’ new read-andpublish agreements will allow SU-affiliated researchers to instantly make their work open-access.
While there has been an effort to improve Black History Month programming at SU, there is still a disconnect from non-Black students and faculty.
Page 5
When Honeywell International Incorporated signed over the land which would eventually return to the Onondaga Nation in a historic 1,000 acre landback agreement, the only other party agreeing to the transfer’s terms was New York state.
By the time the Onondaga Nation joined talks about the transfer, its conditions were already set.
The consent decree for the transfer, which Honeywell signed in 2018 in line with the Onondaga Lake Natural Resource Damage Assessment Restoration Plan, was drafted with the intention that New York state would receive the land, but also with a built-in option for a third party, said Joe Heath, legal counsel for the Onondaga Nation.
In June 2022, the Onondaga Nation announced alongside the U.S. Department of the Interior and the New York State Department of Environment and Conservation that through an agreement between the state and the federal government, the Nation would receive a land return of over 1,000 acres in the Tully Valley. The Nation’s receipt of the land is one of 18 remediation projects that the state mandated Honeywell Inc. complete as part of the restoration plan.
black history month
The plan cites Honeywell and its predecessors’ release of “a suite of contaminants” and large quantities of mercury into Onondaga Lake and its tributaries – including Onondaga Creek in the Tully Valley – from 1881 to 1986.
Heath said he knows the state was intending to approach the Onondaga Nation after the initial transfer. But the gap in between meant the Nation ended up working with a decree that didn’t align with its terms for a land transfer, Heath said.
“We did not have a say in those conditions,” Heath
said. “Some people seem to have forgotten that in the intervening time that consent decree imposes certain conditions which we would have tried to resist very vigorously had we been involved in the settlement of the consent decree.”
Under the consent decree, the state reserved the conservation easement – an agreement which allows a unit of government to regulate development and activity on a property – and the recipient of the land agrees not to sue Honeywell for any damage that may result from the ownership.
The Onondaga Nation identifies Honeywell as largely responsible for the environmental degradation of the Tully Valley beginning in 1881 with the incorporation of its predecessor, The Solvay Process Company. Discharge into Onondaga Lake continued until 1990, and by 1992, Allied Signal, another earlier iteration of Honeywell, had signed a consent decree with New York state for a feasibility study.
In 1993, in the aftermath of the Tully Valley Landslide, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Emeritus William Kappel said the event piqued his interest. Kappel, the principal investigator for USGS’s research on the hydrogeology of the Tully Valley, said while some changes in things like bedrock and unconsolidated material were human-caused, he’s also found natural causes for problems in the Tully Valley in his research.
When she became director of admissions and recruitment at Syracuse University, Nichole Henry said she was determined to not be the type of boss Sandra Bullock was in The Proposal.
“Everybody is like ‘she’s coming, witch is on her broom,’ you know, and everyone starts running,” Henry said. “I don’t want that kind
of environment, and I’ve been very blessed and successful to not have that kind of environment.”
Henry said her staff trusts her, and she trusts her staff.
SU students, faculty and staff’s collective trust in Henry made her the best person for SU’s Unsung Hero Award, said Jimmy Luckman, who wrote Henry’s nomination. The annual awards, presented at SU’s 38th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in January, honored
individuals who “embody King’s vision” of creating positive change. When Henry discovered she was chosen as a recipient, she was grateful and taken aback.
“I’m just so honored, humbled by it in every sense of the word,” Henry said.
Luckman, who is the associate director for the university’s Office of Academic Affairs, said he’s taken the time to nominate one person for the award each year since 2019 when he
came to SU. He said when he reflected on who’s made a strong commitment to the community, Henry came to the forefront of his mind as someone who makes prospective and new students feel at home on campus.
As director of admissions and recruitment, Henry is one of the first faces that prospective students meet in SU’s admission’s office.
“It’s not that she brings them in and then she says ‘good luck,’ she goes further, she finds ways to get involved and
support them in different entities, and then also she just gives back to the community,” Luckman said.
Henry emphasized that her dedication in her job is to the students and helping them find the right college fit, regardless of whether it’s at SU.
“Syracuse University is not always the fit, but I want them to walk away and go, ‘Syracuse helped me find my fit, even though it wasn’t Syracuse’,” Henry said.
Henry grew up in Brownsville,
The Onondaga Nation’s receipt of 1,000 acres in the Tully Valley is one of New York state’s mandated remediation projects for Honeywell, Inc.
Editor@dailyorange.com
News@dailyorange.com
Opinion@dailyorange.com
Culture@dailyorange.com
Sports@dailyorange.com
Digital@dailyorange.com
Design@dailyorange.com
BUSINESS 315-443-2315
The Daily Orange is an independent, nonprofit newspaper published in Syracuse, New York. The editorial content of the paper — which started in 1903 and went independent in 1971 — is entirely run by Syracuse University students.
The D.O., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is editorially and fi nancially independent from SU, and the paper receives no funding from the university. Instead, The D.O. relies on advertising revenue and donations to sustain operations.
This fall, the paper will be published Monday and Thursday when SU classes are in session. Special inserts are published on Thursdays before home football and basketball games. The D.O.’s online coverage is 24/7, including while SU is on break.
To show your support to The D.O.’s independent journalism, please visit dailyorange.com/donate. Donations are tax deductible.
If you are a Syracuse University or SUNY-ESF student interested in contributing to The D.O. on either its advertising or editorial teams, please email editor@dailyorange.com.
The D.O. strives to be as accurate in our reporting as possible. Please email editor@dailyorange.com to report a correction.
letter to the editor policy
The D.O. prides itself as an outlet for community discussion. To learn more about our submission guidelines, please email opinion@dailyorange. com with your full name and a liation within the Syracuse community. Please note letters should not include any personal information pertaining to other people unless it is relevant to the topic at hand. All letters will be edited for style and grammar.
The best quotes from sources in today’s paper.
NEWS
“A lot of people are trying to figure out, ‘well, what is sustainability?’ It’s creating a system and creating that monumental change that allows future generations to build.”Ethan Tyo, SU graduate student and Mohawk Nation member
Page 1
CULTURE
“(Black History Month) is mostly for Black people, by Black people, which is also empowering in itself. But I feel as though Black History Month was made to educate the masses, not just people who have experienced it themselves.” - Edikan Ekarika, SU sophomore
“Syrians in the U.S. have escaped the physical effects of the earthquake, but mentally, many are still trapped.”- Alaa Laila, Columnist
Page 8
Page 5 SPORTS
“He knows that he’s the best player in the country. He knows he’s going against the best competition and he knows it’s going to be the hardest it possibly can be.” - Tanner, Finn Thomson’s brother
Page 12
Noteworthy events this week.
WHAT: Afropreneurship
WHEN: Feb. 24, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
WHERE: Bird Library 114
WHAT: Celebrating Black Excellence Gala
WHEN: Feb. 25, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Goldstein Auditorium
WHAT: Black History Month Concert
WHEN: Feb. 26, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
WHERE: Hendricks Chapel
After Syracuse Graduate Employees United’s deadline for Syracuse University to voluntarily recognize it as a union passed on Monday, both the university and SGEU said terms for an election agreement are still actively being negotiated as of Wednesday night.
SGEU set Monday as the final day for the university to voluntarily recognize the unionization effort during a march around campus on Feb. 8, but SU had not publicly recognized the union as of Tuesday. Previously, SGEU stated the organization would file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo if the administration did not voluntarily recognize the unionization effort by Monday.
Amanda Beavin, a member of SGEU’s organizing committee, wrote in a statement that the union is working with SU on an agreement for “a fair process and a speedy election.” She said details for the agreement are still in the works between both parties.
Sarah Scalese, SU’s senior associate vice president for university communications, said university administrators have been engaged in “productive” conversations with SGEU organizers.
Beavin told The D.O. that talks for the agreement came after SGEU reached a strong majority of support with union authorization cards. Cassidy Thomas, also a member of SGEU’s organizing committee, said at a Feb. 14 union orientation that SGEU was approaching a super-majority in support from signed cards.
Beavin also said negotiations between SGEU and the administration progressed due to “multiple public actions on campus” which rallied stakeholders in the community in support of the union, which launched its campaign for recognition on Jan. 17 in support of better working conditions.
During a march across campus on Feb. 8, SGEU delivered a letter outlining its goals to SU Provost, Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter outside Crouse-Hinds Hall asking SU’s administration for voluntary recognition of the union.
Fourteen campus and community groups – including Student Association, the Undergraduate Labor Organization and the Graduate Student Organization – also delivered
letters to Ritter during the march requesting the administration’s voluntary recognition. ULO submitted a petition to Ritter on the same day with over 1,000 signatures from SU students, staff, parents and alumni, according to a Feb. 8 press release from Beavin.
On Feb. 6, SA unanimously passed a bill presented by the ULO that established its recognition of SGEU and requested neutrality from the SU administration in
order to protect graduate student workers who may choose to join the union. GSO passed a similar bill during its meeting on Feb. 1.
Beavin, who is a graduate research assistant in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said SGEU will publicize a press release soon with details of its agreement with the university’s administration.
Scalese said SU plans to communicate
with the campus community when an agreement is reached.
“Although an agreement has not yet been finalized, we are optimistic we will reach consensus on an election and nondisparagement agreement,” Scalese said.
Neither SGEU nor Scalese provided a definitive timeline for when an agreement will be reached.
dcchiapp@syr.edu @DominicChiappo2
By Qiong Wu contributing writer
Syracuse University researchers will be able to publish work without article processing charges and make their publications available to the general public under SU Libraries’ four new readand-publish agreements.
With the new agreements, SU-affiliated researchers are able to instantly make their work open-access, which gives the general public access to publications in addition to alleviating article processing charges usually required of researchers publishing work.
Alan Middleton, associate dean of research and scholarship in SU’s Department of Physics, said the new agreements will serve to simplify and increase efficiency for the open-access process. The new set of agreements more than doubles the number of SU’s read-and-publish deals.
All five of the new agreements are with journals that publish peer-reviewed scientific research articles, including John Wiley & Sons, Inc., The International Society for Optics and Photonics, Institute of Physics Publishing, The Plan Journal and The Company of Biologists. SU Libraries also has previous agreements with the American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press, The Public Library of Science and The Royal Society.
At the beginning of the year, the White House Office of Science and Technology declared 2023 the “Year of Open Science,” and announced it would bar journals which publish federallyfunded research from charging access fees. The office also plans to make scientific research from peer-reviewed publications free and publicly accessible by default.
But with the increase in accessibility for readers, journals aren’t able to rely on readers’ subscriptions as a source of income, said
Dylan Mohr, SU’s open scholarship librarian.
Because many journals turn to authors for revenue, Mohr said, researchers trying to publish their work, including SU students, faculty and staff, now face a substantial rise in costs for processing charges.
“A lot of faculty are finding that the journals they’ve been publishing in for years are suddenly asking them to pay fees,” he said.
The new open-access agreements at SU will help to mitigate these high costs by reappropriating the money that previously paid for readers’ subscriptions to academic journals, Mohr said.
For faculty members in STEM-related fields like physics or biology, who publish a large portion of the research produced at SU, open-access is especially integral, he added.
“Sharing results in publications is the keystone of science,” Duncan Brown, vice president for research in the Department of Physics, wrote in an email statement. “Free and open sharing of ideas encourages innovation, ideas and inquiry.”
Along with the read-and-publish agreements, SU also supports the MIT Press and the University of Michigan Press, both of which are also prioritizing open-access book publishing. Through these partnerships, SU provides opportunities for students and faculty to publish in their programs, according to the SU Libraries website.
SU also has its own open-access repository, SURFACE, which collects and facilitates access to research done by students, faculty and staff at SU. The repository, which launched in 2010, features thousands of scholarly articles, books, journals, dissertations and theses.
“SU has a very strong commitment to open-access publishing, and the read-and-
publish agreements are just one aspect of this,” Mohr said. These new agreements, Mohr said, will continue SU Libraries’ work to support the future of open-access publishing. Brown said he’s looking to that future as a beacon for equity in education and information.
“Einstein built his General Theory of Relativity on the ideas he learned from the papers of Riemann, Ricci and others,” Brown said. “Open-access publishing democratizes science, bringing more equitable access and more possibilities for future research.” qwu102@g.syr.edu
Syracuse University’s Graduate Student Organization senators addressed concerns regarding former GSO President Yousr Dhaouadi’s resignation last weekend at the University Senate’s Wednesday night forum.
Dhaouadi, who served two years as GSO president, announced her resignation in an email to GSO on Saturday after at least ten senators filed articles of impeachment against her. The articles cited GSO members’ doubt in her “willingness and ability” to carry out her responsibility to advocate for graduate students.
At the meeting, Dhaouadi pointed to GSO taking a stance as an organization on the Syracuse Graduate Employees United unionization campaign as the source of disagreement between her and the rest of the members.
“There has been kind of internal back and forth conflict around the topic of unionization,” Dhaouadi said. “To take a stance as an organization, this is kind of where the tension is coming from just because there’s a lot of students on campus with many perspectives.”
Benjamin Tetteh, a senator and PhD student in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, advocated at Wednesday’s meeting for more legal support for graduate students and alleged violations of GSO’s constitution. Shiilā Seok Wun Au Yong, a senator and PhD fellow in Cultural Foundations of Education, said they felt excluded from the impeachment process.
Cassidy Thomas, a senator on the executive board and a graduate assistant at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, referred to GSO’s procedural guidelines in her response to
from page 1
He said that after the landslide, he found there were three other landslides which occurred thousands of years ago just north of the area.
The easement has meant continued negotiations between the DEC and the Nation over stewardship of the land. Heath said that now, it’s come to a conceptual lack of agreement on whether the consent decree is necessary in the first place.
“There’s a lot of back and forth involved in helping them understand that the Nation can take care of this land and water very well without the state telling it what to do,” Heath said. “That’s a cultural disconnect. It’s simply a lack of respect for certain points in it.”
The Nation is currently in the process of pushing for a more respectful stewardship agreement rather than the conservation easement, which removes agency over the land from the people it was stolen from, he said.
“Part of the problem here is the state still doesn’t accept the wisdom of traditional ecological knowledge,” Heath said. “That’s the concept of, Indigenous people who live on the land, close to the land, close to the water, have a much better basis for preserving and living in a positive relationship to them.”
Jeanne Shenandoah, an Onondaga Nation member who is Eel Clan, has been involved in the Nation’s landback efforts and environmental work for years. She said the Nation went into the land return with optimism, but referred to the way
from page 1
Brooklyn, where she said a lack of community resources made education a consistent struggle. But with her parents’ support, she said she made education a priority and ended up earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MBA in marketing and marketing management at SUNY Oswego.
After starting her career in finance at Chase Bank, Henry transitioned to the higher education field when she began working as a residence hall director at SUNY Cortland. Henry said the switch to being surrounded by students every day gave her a renewed energy, and she’s worked in education ever since.
“Being in higher education is great, but you have to be able to relate with students to let them understand that it is an attainable goal,” Henry said. “I think sometimes whether it’s cost or family issues, or whatever it is, students come from different walks of life, and sometimes they need encouragement.”
Kourtney Toxey, Henry’s daughter,
Tetteh and Yong, including Robert’s Rule of Orders, saying GSO members followed proper procedure throughout the impeachment process.
“What was going on in the GSO was not a court of law,” Thomas said. “It was concerned about effectively, again, the role of the presidency and the terms or the job responsibilities of the presidency, and how the senate felt about how those job responsibilities were being performed.”
Daniel Kimmel, GSO’s internal vice president, wrote in the meeting’s virtual chat that
dealings have gone with state officials as typical.
We got seeds back to our ancestral lands on the university for the first time in history, and that was our reciprocity, that kind of relationship was started in that true land acknowledgement. We have the written one and a verbal one that we give. But for the first time, this was an actual land acknowledgment.
“It’s been the opinion for a long time that we don’t know what we’re doing over here,” Shenandoah said. “It’s been very difficult to deal with them because they do not realize or appreciate our presence and the teaching.”
In a statement to The Daily Orange, the DEC said it is committed to building out knowledge and guidance on implementing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) based approaches through its work, including with the land being transferred to the Onondaga Nation.
The DEC also said in its statement that it created an Office of Indian Nation Affairs to consult with
pointed to Henry’s caring nature and enduring commitment to working with students. Toxey said Henry’s maintained a passion for her work over 20 years at SU.
“She’s seen the campus at its worst, and she’s seen it at its best,” Toxey said. “She’s helped students who weren’t the nicest and she’s helped students who have gone on to be really successful in whatever career that they pursue in higher education.”
Luckman said Henry weaves her care for others into everything she does at SU and beyond the university in the greater Syracuse community.
Henry – who also works with InterFaith Works and SU’s fullCIRCLE program – is a lead instructor for the university’s First Year Seminar, a required class for firstyear SU students to discuss topics related to diversity, identity, bias and socialization.
Luckman said he first met Henry when she expressed interest in the FYS position in the spring semester of 2021.
With the majority of students in her FYS classes being white, Henry said she wants those in her section to walk out of the classroom as confident advocates for marginalized people.
Henry also works to give back to students
decisions to settle disputes in meetings were mediated by multiple GSO members.
“An entire parliamentary team of hardworking graduate students worked on understanding and enforcing the process; it was not unilaterally decided,” Kimmel wrote.
Other business
The senate also addressed accessibility to online classes when students are absent due
Indigenous Nations that have cultural ties to lands or waters, which aims to include the Nations’ ideas of stewardship to protect the environment in accordance with their traditional teachings and knowledge. DEC remains committed to the transfer of the Tully parcel as part of the Natural Resources Damages process under CERCLA, the statement said.
The Nation is pushing back against the state’s request for an extension for the transfer, Heath said, as well as that it’s working to get the transfer done as soon as possible so it can have autonomy over the land.
The priority now is to bring as many Onondaga Nation citizens there as possible, Heath said. He added that people surveying the land learned more with Nation members present because they recognize details and information about the land like medicinal plants that others don’t.
“(When the Nation members come) We’re able to talk on a much better informed basis about how we’re going to restore and what needs to be done. ‘What are the challenges, what are the positive things?’ That will go on for quite a while,” Heath said. “It would just be easier if I didn’t have to get permission from Honeywell to do that.”
Ethan Tyo, who is Akwesasne and a member of the Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee, centers his work as a masters student in food studies at SU in reconnecting with Indigenous land to promote food sovereignty. His graduate practicum project, Pete’s Giving Garden, grows foods and plants on the Indigenous land that makes up Syracuse University’s campus. Tyo said he uses his academic focus on food as a way to bridge the gap between people and land.
“We got seeds back to our ancestral lands on the university for the first time in history, and
of color through Zeta Phi Beta Inc., a historically Black sorority, of which she has been a member since spring of 1993. She joined the sorority at SUNY Oswego and continues to work with SU’s Pi Iota chapter of the organization, which Toxey also joined. Henry is also a member of the city of Syracuse’s Kappa Xi Zeta chapter.
Ericka Love, secretary of SU’s Pi Iota chapter, said she was glad to see Henry receive recognition for her work on and off campus.
“There are a lot of Black women who work in faculty here at Syracuse who don’t get the credit,” Love said. “They do a lot of background work that nobody else knows about.”
Toxey said Henry extends her motherly nature to all members of the sorority. Growing up, Toxey said she knew Henry’s sorority sisters as members of their family. Henry pointed to family life and religion as central priorities.
In addition to her other commitments, Henry is participating in a doctoral program at St. John Fisher University. Henry, currently pursuing a doctoral degree in education, said she’s in the process of writing her dissertation on degree completion for Black males in private higher education institutions.
to personal emergencies.
Several graduate students discussed issues with being unable to attend mandatory classes when they have personal emergencies, and proposed a Zoom option as a way for students to virtually participate when unable to physically attend. Faculty at the meeting countered that Zoom alternatives would lead to in-person attendance drops and a lack of hands-on learning opportunities.
adasam@syr.edu
that was our reciprocity,” Tyo said. “That kind of relationship was started in that true land acknowledgement. We have the written one and a verbal one that we give. But for the first time, this was an actual land acknowledgment.”
He said beyond the receipt of the land itself, landback means the opportunity for Indigenous people to take care of the land and sustain themselves after decades of environmental mistreatment. Shenandoah reflected on a time when the sacred creek water that runs through Haudenosaunee territory still flowed quickly and hosted native coldwater fisheries.
Growing up, Tyo said, he always knew he couldn’t have the fish in the creeks or hunt at all. He said he was always told that his people couldn’t grow food on the land because it was toxic.
“It’s stuff like having access to these local medicines, having access to those practices to restore them, and projects like returning these seeds back to their land that’s huge,” Tyo said. “I can’t wait till we start returning our plans and seeds back to the land.”
Heath emphasized that for Indigenous people, after enduring centuries of trauma and theft, the only way reparations can be made is in the form of land. Ultimately, the Onondaga Nation’s 1,000-acre land return, Heath said, is historic and precedent-setting.
For Tyo, the change in stewardship means a shift toward collective action and willingness to put Indigenous voices at the forefront of the conversation when it comes to land and how it’s managed.
jlseal@syr.edu @JanaLoSeal
Marsha Senior, who works with Henry at SU, said she’s been inspired by watching Henry incorporate bi-weekly weekend courses for her doctoral program into an already busy schedule.
“She is one who can do it all, and is doing it all,” Senior said.
Henry said she has a passion for civil rights and social action, and sees it as her civic duty to participate in community action and contribute to positive policy changes. To say no to an opportunity to engage, she said, she would either need to have a full schedule or be out of town.
Luckman said with the lack of acknowledgement for Henry’s contributions over her 20 years at SU, the recognition from the award was long overdue.
“It speaks volumes that she’s the only staff member at SU that was the recipient this year,” Luckman said. “We have to start valuing our staff more.”
Now Henry is finally taking her turn in the spotlight, Senior said.
“I think the title ‘Unsung Hero’ is so befitting because she does so much, and I think she has overcome so many obstacles,” Senior said. “This was just the icing on the cake for her.”
kaluther@syr.edu
sion is that a lot of the focus is on space and these spaces being created,” said Smith, a Student Engagement staff member. “But you can create a space and not have the right things within the space to make it comfortable enough for the people the space is created for.”
The issue is historical and systemic at Syracuse University, and while it can’t really be blamed on one individual, it still needs to be addressed nonetheless, Smith said. Now, as Black History Month comes to a close, SU students and staff members reflected on similar sentiments, noting the progress of the involvement of the university and also the elements that still need improvement.
Even with the aim to get everyone involved, microaggressions still created a divide.
“While there are opportunities for students who are not of color to engage, there’s not a heart or a willingness to (get to) a comfort level,” Smith said. “The ice hasn’t been broken yet and I don’t know whose fault it is, really.”
By Ofentse Mokoka asst. copy editor“The
While
This year’s events ranged from social and cultural, with music and dancing, to educational, offering the community a chance to learn about Black culture. The month started with a kick-off celebration, meant to highlight Black talent on campus, and a Black and Brown Informational Fair.
The fair was placed in Schine to engage more students in a space they frequent often. The event included a DJ who spent the morning playing R&B and various culturally-significant music to complement the fair.
While the music was meant to engage students and lift the energy up, some students complained that the DJ “scared” them, Smith said.
This year, the BHM Planning committee was intentionally made up of a variety of students and staff from different backgrounds on campus. Marissa Willingham, the Intercultural Collective manager, said that she and her team purposefully looked for staff members in Student Experience and Student Engagement for the committee to get their perspective on the types of events that would engage students best. The committee was made up of five students, eight staff members and one administration member.
However, some students still felt a lack of acknowledgement of the month from the colleges on campus. Senior Assul Larancuent said that while she felt like there was a lot of recognition of the month from offices like the Intercultural Collective and Student Engagement, she didn’t feel the same from the different schools and colleges on campus.
Black issues go beyond just culture, Larancuent said, and a lot of Black students face significant struggles within their major due to the programs being historically predominantly white.
from the studio
Whether it’s watching Stephen Curry make shots from half court or Michael Jordan gracefully fly through the air on a dunk, Marlon Forrester ultimately sees the sport of basketball as an outlet for expression and creativity.
“Basketball is not just a sport, but a cultural phenomenon in which the untapped artistic expression manifested through the game has a global impact on youth culture and corporate investment,” Forrester said.
Forrester is among many other artists who combined their love for the sport with their artistic abilities to create a new display at the Everson Museum of Art. The combination of basketball and creative expression came together to make “Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art.” The exhibit will be on display through May 21.
The exhibition highlights the history of basketball and the unique connection that Syracuse has to the game. Forrester, like many of the other artists featured, sees the court as not just a place for people to
compete, but an area for individual creativity to thrive.
Steffi Chappell, the curator and exhibit manager at the Everson, said that the exhibit is a way to introduce the museum to basketball fans who may not have been as captivated by the other programs in the museum.
“By showing the connections between art and basketball, I hope that ‘Hoop Dreams’ helps us reach a new audience that ultimately finds something they love about the Everson, and can keep coming back for years to come,” Chappell said.
Chappell said that all of the art-
ists who are displayed in the exhibit have some sort of connection to basketball, and each brings their personal experience with the sport to the exhibit. Some of the artists played basketball in high school or college, and some were lifelong fans of the game, she said.
Jason Middlebrook, another featured artist, loved the sport growing up in Oakland, California, and even spent some time playing in college at the University of California Santa Cruz. He said that he wanted to show his respect for the game with his work, and every piece that is featured in the exhibit is a
symbol of his love of basketball.
One of the pieces that Middlebrook worked on is an installation called “Respect the Call,” which is a variety of 33 basketball hoops mounted on a wall. Middlebrook wanted the display to recognize all levels of basketball and give people an interactive experience at the exhibit, he said. Guests can even shoot on one of the hoops and work on their free throws.
Middlebrook said that each of the hoops in “Respect the Call” are different and represent the array of
see faculty page 7 see exhibit page 7
SU does a good job at creating spaces for marginalized communities, Jolisa Smith said it still needs to get the right “furniture” for these spaces in order to make them effective for the communities they serve.
thing about diversity, equity and inclu-
With the end of Black History Month approaching, students and staff reflect on the engagement of the school and communityOn Feb. 1, the Schine Student Center hosts the Black and Brown Informational Fair to offer students the ability to learn more about Black and Brown student organizations. cassandra roshu asst. photo editor
By Kelly Matlock asst. copy editor
For the past few weeks, Jimmy Luckman has attended a program to expand his knowledge on Islam and better accommodate Muslim students.
“I was thinking and I was like, ‘wow, I don’t know anything about the Muslim community,’” said Luckman, associate director for First Year Seminar at Syracuse University. “How am I supposed to help, support and be able to help educate?”
Established by Amir Durić, SU’s chaplain, “Understanding Islam” is a six-week program designed to help the Syracuse community learn more about Islam. The program meets in the Bird Library Peter Graham Scholarly Commons Room every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Participants complete journal assignments and community involvement tasks that culminate in a certificate of completion. This Tuesday, Durić explained topics like iftar, suhoor and taraweeh to the audience of community members.
Durić joined SU in 2017. His duties as chaplain include supporting Muslim and non-Muslim students, helping faculty and sta , having presence when it comes to organizing religious life and advocating for student needs, faith based counseling and Islam interfaith dialogue.
“(My job) includes raising awareness about Islam and Muslims at Syracuse University, and building bridges between Syracuse University and the broader Syracuse community,” Durić said.
The program seeks to address a lack of
understanding on campus of Islam’s basic practices. Faculty and sta need to fully understand what Muslim students’ needs are so that they can cater to them, Durić said.
Luckman said that FYS wants their lead instructors and peer leaders to go into the community and learn to be able to teach di erent types of students e ectively. He wanted to set that example and attended this class to deepen his understanding.
Mariam Abdelghany, student representative for the Muslim Student Association, agreed that professors and small communities within campus need to do better. She said improvement should come from a personal level.
Abdelghany said that Luckman emailed her about the class and said he wanted to start accommodating Muslim students better, and asked how he could start doing that. She said it was great to see people going out of their way to make sure all students feel comfortable.
“For me personally, it’s a way to continue to have dialogue and not just read from a book, but come together,” Luckman said. “I can learn and try to read on my own, but it’s helpful to have spaces like this where some people are asking questions, or engaging in dialogue.”
It’s important to attend events such as this program with the intent of taking something valuable
away, Luckman said. He said it isn’t worthwhile to attend events with the purpose of “checking a box,” and he takes away tangible things from each meeting to implement into FYS 101.
“I think that oftentimes people say like, ‘oh, we have a religious observance policy,’ “ Luckman said. “But instead of acknowledging, they’re just tolerating it”
Unlike previous years, Ramadan will fall fully within the spring semester — in March and April — so it is crucial that the campus community understands what that entails and supports Muslim students, Durić said.
Muslim Student Association Vice President Mariya Tazi said that events like these promote awareness and foster community especially in light of Ramadan, because they raise awareness for Muslim students about the resources available on campus.
“Even though you are without your family during Ramadan, you kind of have these times every day… with the community, with the other Muslim community on campus,” Tazi said.
Abdelghany said that the motto of the Muslim Student Association is “a community where all belong.” She said that the group isn’t just about accommodating Muslim students, but about using their religion to make sure every
This weekend you couldn’t walk two steps outside your apartment without seeing some drunk girl clutching a gallon of mysterious pink liquid. It wasn’t really a secret what was in these gallons. It was vodka, water and some sort of flavor enhancer—usually MiO. These jugs are affectionately called borgs, otherwise known as “blackout rage gallons.”
Let’s be real—borgs have their advantages. They’re pretty transportable, kind of yummy and you get to write funny phrases on the outside of the gallon. However, like any alcohol, they also have their disadvantages. I mean, with a name like “blackout rage gallon,” you shouldn’t expect to remember the next 48 hours.
What adults don’t understand about borgs is that they’re not just some random plastic jug that you slug around with you all day. A borg is like a child—it must be taken care of, nourished and most importantly, named. Instead of drinking, I spent most of the Duke game scouring the pregame for the funniest borg names.
Ranked from “that’s sort of funny” to “that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen since I watched that kid fall down the stairs at the darty,” here’s a list of the best borg names I saw last Saturday.
10. “Material Borg”
At the bottom of the list is “material borg,” an obvious play on “material girl.” It’s funny, but a bit overdone. I’ll admit—the first time I saw the sharpied words, I let out a little chuckle. But by the end of the day, I had seen ten different renditions of “material borg.” Or, I’m not gonna lie, it could have been five. I was so drunk I was seeing double.
9. “Step Borg, What Are You Doing?”
What I like about this borg name is that they took a classic line from po—excuse me, American cinema and added a borg-licious twist.
8. Borgan Donor
Short and sweet. The opposite of how the Duke game went for the men’s Syracuse basketball team.
7. Blackborg.edu
A play on every Syracuse student’s favorite website—blackboard.edu. Points were deducted for giving me flashbacks to my declining grades.
6. Our Borg and Savior
It’s important to recognize a higher power. That power being vodka.
5. “The Borg not Taken” - Roborg Frost Two borgs diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not drink both.
4. Heisenborg I am the one who…drinks.
3. Borg Washington
If the fi rst president of the United States was still kicking, he would be honored to have a borg named after him.
2. The Borgeoisie Down with the Bourgeoisie! And while we’re downing things, down your drink.
1. LamBORGhini Mercy
“…Your chick, she’s so thirsty!” Well, actually she’s pretty quenched. She just drank half a gallon of water.
ahunt04@syr.edu
The Last Horizon
Tune into some heavy metal music at Soulfly’s concert on Thursday. The four-man band was started in Los Angeles in 1997 and will be joined by Bodybox, Skinflint, Symmetrical Defiance and When Skies Decide. Tickets are available here, attendees must be 16 or older and will be required to show ID.
WHEN: Thursday at 6 p.m.
PRICE: $32.90
Bullfinch Brewpub
Native Syracusan Connor Campbell will take the stage at Bullfinch Brewpub on Thursday night. His music draws from varying genres, like folk, rock and soul. The Brewpub is located within Destiny Mall and o ers a full bar and menu to accompany the live music.
WHEN: Thursday at 6 p.m.
PRICE: Free
Redgate
Come check out some Syracuse University talent as Gritty Jawns, Polarded and Angvl play at Redgate on Friday. The event will be a mystical Mardi Gras celebration and attendees can buy tickets by messaging Redgate or at the door.
WHEN: Friday at 10 p.m.
PRICE: $5 for presale, $8 at the door
Funk ‘n Wa es
If heavy metal music isn’t your thing, head over to Funk ‘n Waffles instead to see The National Reserve play on Saturday. The band originated in Brooklyn, New York and consists of four members. Their music combines hints of rock, alternative, pop and indie. Tickets for their show are available here.
WHEN: Saturday at 8 p.m.
Spend your Saturday night at The Garden with some live music from BRI. and Padma. The two SU students will take the stage to perform songs from their own discography. If you’re interested in supporting some SU talent, message The Garden on Instagram for the address and get tickets at the door upon arrival.
WHEN: Saturday at 8:30 p.m. with doors opening at 8 p.m.
If you want to support Ottothon and watch some great music, stop by the Mudpit this Saturday. The house show venue is using the concert to raise money for Ottothon. Many of the performing artists are SU students, including Saint Luke, Mnemonic Advice, Lauren Juzang, Rhodes Corduroy and Nancy Dunkle. Tickets can be bought through messaging the Mudpit on Instagram or at the door.
WHEN: Saturday, doors at 10 p.m., music at 10:30 p.m.
PRICE: $7 presale, $10 at the door
For me personally, it’s a way to continue to have dialogue and not just read from a book, but come together. I can learn and try to read on my own, but it’s helpful to have spaces like this where some people are asking questions, or engaging in dialogue.
Jimmy Luckman
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF FYS
“So far, I feel that this year specifically, I saw a huge turnout in the Black history events that were hosted mainly by Black students on campus,” Larancuent said. “However, I do feel like in the actual schools, there’s no acknowledgement of this month like specifically just for the School of Engineering.”
Some non-Black students like Jen Jordan spoke about how the hesitance to engage isn’t coming from a place of not wanting to learn but rather a place of caution. Jordan is aware that since SU is a predominantly white institution, there aren’t many spaces for students of color to be comfortable and find community in, so she was wary of attending some Black History Month events out of fear of overstepping her bounds or taking up space in an area where white students shouldn’t be the focus.
“It’s not that I feel like I can’t go. I just also feel like that space isn’t for me as a white student,” Jordan said. “It’s not that I’m not invited to the space, but also I feel like a lot of the celebration is for Black students. And that is a great thing and I can go if I want to, but maybe that’s not the first place that I should be on this campus.”
Jordan wasn’t alone in this sentiment, as some other non-Black students reiterated her feelings. Freshman Johannah Rennert said how the constant high volume of emails students get can sometimes make them lose track of the purpose of
these events, thus making boundaries tricky.
Jordan Pierre, who serves as a member of the Black History Month Planning Committee, said that while Black students understand the hesitancy, they still want their non-Black counterparts to try to place themselves in those spaces so that they can better understand the struggles of Black students.
“We need to find ways or encourage people to put themselves in positions where they are the minority, because that’s how we learn most,” Pierre said. “Often, we don’t have that choice as Black students — to determine when we want to be the minority.”
While Black History Month is a time for the Black community to celebrate themselves and their culture, it is also an important chance for non-Black people to educate themselves on issues surrounding equity that are still prevalent on campus, Pierre said.
This year, the committee wanted to make a conscious effort at covering the different intersectionalities within Blackness and highlighting the contrasting identities Black people hold, Willingham said. They made a point of organizing events that cover topics like hair, sexuality, gender and ethnicity.
While the Black community on campus is being seen and heard more, students still feel that it is largely due to Black students, staff and faculty bringing attention to it. There isn’t as much collaboration as there could be with the non-Black community members.
“What I’ve experienced is that (Black His-
tory Month is) not really a campus wide phenomenon. It’s mostly for Black people, by Black people, which is also empowering in itself,” said sophomore Edikan Ekarika. “But I feel as though Black History Month was made to educate the masses, not just people who have experienced it themselves.”
Students understand that the university isn’t going to reach all students with the programming, but they can still do better at reaching more than just the communities affected by the topic, Ekarika said.
He feels as though the university could do a better job of making it known within the entirety of campus. Ekarika understands that there’s 20,000 people, but it would be good to at least reach a wider audience than those who are already impacted or affected.
Pierre and LS Jones, an administrative assistant for the New Student and Family Programs office and Planning Committee member, said the lack of engagement and involvement from non-Black community members is noted not only during Black History Month.
This year, the university hosted its first Fête at Syracuse Welcome. It was a celebratory end to the first launch of the pre-welcome program created for BIPOC students, a program both Jones and Pierre had significant roles in.
“I particularly don’t feel like my department was aware of Black culture, until I got there,” Jones said. “We got a pre-welcome program for every other religion and race but people of color. That’s mind-boggling to me.”
She spoke about how the lack of pre-welcome programming for students of color came as a surprise, considering all the protests focused on racial issues on campus and the racial violence that occurred in Buffalo. Jones was disheartened that it took her passion and voice to get the ball rolling on the initiative.
It disappoints Jones to note the imbalance of work being put in throughout the planning of this month from non-Black faculty and students, she said.
“For this particular month, for these events, for these Black students, invest back into your Black students,” Jones said. “They invest in campus by paying all this money to come here and live here.”
Many of these equity issues unfortunately end up being brought up and dealt with by Black students and staff, even when it is to their detriment, Jordan said.
While students and staff are willing to recognize the progress that has been made, there is still more that needs to happen and more collaboration and nuance needed when approaching the topic, Smith said. The university needs to do a better job at interrogating its history when looking at implementing improvements as the two go hand in hand, she said.
“I do think one of the unspoken values of the university is family and tradition,” Smith said. “So, when you have family and tradition as a core value, but then family and tradition kind of contradicts the values of the newer generation, which is about inclusivity, it creates conflict.” ommokoka@syr.edu
places people can play basketball, such as street courts. The installation helps to further explore the history of basketball, specifically the evolution of the hoop, he said.
“It’s called ‘respect’ because it’s about pickup basketball, but also respecting the rules of the game and respecting the players,” Middlebrook said.
Middlebrook also helped to design a mosaic basketball display that pays homage to Syracuse’s history of basketball, and holds two of them specifically close to his heart.
The first honors the 2003 Syracuse University men’s basketball team, which won the national championship that year. The ball celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first and only national championship in the program’s history.
The second basketball commemorates the 1955 Syracuse Nationals. In the summer of 1954, Danny Biasone and Leo Ferris, owner and general manager of the Syracuse Nationals respectively, helped to design the 24-second shot clock. The clock was then used to speed up the pace of play in the National Basketball Association, and was first used in the 1954-55 NBA season.
In that same exhibit, there is also a set of three balls that show the development of professional basketball over time, all of which Middlebrook designed. On the top of the display is a mosaic of a ball designed by Spalding, the original supplier of basketballs to the NBA. In the middle is the ball used in the American Basketball Association, which is famous for its red, white, and blue coloring. Lastly, there is a mosaic of the current ball used in the NBA, supplied by the Wilson brand.
“I wanted to treat the balls like jewels, because they’re important markers for the trajectory of the NBA and in basketball and the NCAA,” Middlebrook said.
Forrester discussed how art is a vehicle for “human consciousness,” and that similar to basketball players, everyone has their own style. He said basketball is a special sport because of the amount of individual expression that players can show, and although the sport is played between teams, players can use their unique skill sets while on the court.
Basketball has also had a significant cultural influence on fashion, Forrester said. Shoes such as Chuck Taylors and Air Jordans, which were once used to help athletes up their athletic ability, are now pieces used to bolster people’s sense of style.
“The game of basketball is a reflection of that human expression and style, through the dribbling, shooting, passing, dunking, clothing and sneaker design,” Forrester said.
Chappell wants those who attend the exhibit to see how meaningful basketball is to so many people, especially the artists whose work is being displayed, she said. Forrester shared this sentiment — he said the exhibit reflects the collective joy that basketball brings to so many, particularly in the Syracuse area.
“Whether you are in the stands cheering on your favorite team or playing yourself, the human capacity for love remains the connective tissue that holds us together,” Forrester said. “The paintings, sculptures, video, installations and performances in ‘Hoop Dreams’ calls attention to a higher awareness of this multifaceted experience. It further illustrates how sports humanize us.” natelechner@dailyorange.com
have such a large turn out.
one feels that they belong.
She said even though she’s Muslim, she learned something new through the program about restrictions during Ramadan. Tazi agreed that it’s important to have the ideas taught in the programs reiterated, because learning about religion is a constant, ongoing process.
Durić was surprised by the interest in the Muslim community that he found on campus. When he began “Understanding Islam,” he did not anticipate that the series would
He said that because of the sizable turnout, the programs became a space to foster dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. The attendees came from various backgrounds and religions, so the program created an environment for open conversation, he said.
“We would often have really interesting conversations, how practices and beliefs overlap, what is similar, what is different,” Durić said. “Participants would engage in this discussion that really moves the needle a little bit when it comes to understanding those that we will interact with.”
One challenge that the program faces is advertising. Durić said that they are competing
with many other programs in the same time frame, and given the optional nature of the class, sometimes it’s difficult to garner interest.
“The benefit is that it is more accessible for students but also those who work at (the) university and public,” Durić said. “But at the same time since there are no requirements, and it’s not mandatory for anyone to be there, it is a challenge to really recruit participants.”
Senior Cindy Mendoza heard about the event through SU’s online events calendar. She said as a neuroscience major, Islam isn’t something she’s studied or is exposed to often academically.
Mendoza, whose roommate is Muslim, said the program has given her a better under -
standing of her roommate’s background and religious practices. She mostly took the class because she didn’t know anything about the religion and wanted to learn.
“Overall, I think (the religion) is a lot about compassion,” Mendoza said.
Durić said that he was glad to see the positive influence of the program on campus, and thinks it has been effective in bridging gaps within the Syracuse community.
“I definitely think (the program) is beneficial for those who attend it,” Durić said. “It became a space for mutual understanding between different faith traditions and different backgrounds.”
kellymatlock@dailyorange.com
On Feb. 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the northern and western regions of Syria and Turkey. This event is said to be the worst natural disaster to hit both nations in over 200 years, resulting in over 46,000 deaths. Syria was especially affected because of the limited response in the 72 hours after the earthquake, considered the most crucial. Syria received limited support and aid from international organizations, while Syrian people rushed to help each other out of the rubble and chaos.
In 2011, the United States imposed sanctions on Syria, an attempt to limit the regime’s resources in hopes of ceasing violent activities against civilians and to pressure the government into agreeing to be democratically run. But these actions limited aid in the wake of the earthquakes, only causing more harm throughout Syria.
“The sanctions have mainly hurt the Syrian people, particularly in terms of access to basic necessities such as food, medicine, medical care, and fuel,” said Rania Habib, associate professor of linguistics and Arabic at Syracuse University. While international organizations are delayed in bringing supplies to the region, local groups are at the forefront. The White Helmets, a Syrian defense group, recruited over 3,000 volunteers to rescue people from under the rubble in the harsh weather for over 50 hours straight. The White Helmets continuously show up on the front lines ready to help in times of tragedy.
The sad reality is that many of us Syrians have families that were affected by the earthquake firsthand.
During the first hours of the earthquake, I
was unable to contact my family back in Syria as the power lines were down, I was living in a state of fear and only thinking of the worst. I kept imagining my grandparent’s house collapsing as I watched the news show picture after picture of demolished homes. I felt guilty and helpless, wondering how I could help.
Habib’s brother and his family live in the regions that were struck by the earthquake and are not able to return to their building as it could collapse at any moment.
Nidaa Aljabbarin’s uncle also lived in the affected areas and witnessed the deaths of many victims. He used his bare hands to dig out people from the rubble. Aljabbarin is an SU graduate and works at Upstate Medical University Hospital as a research support specialist for refugees.
Syrians in the U.S. have escaped the physical effects of the earthquake, but mentally, many are still trapped. Aljabbarin claims that many Syrian patients have reported to a clinic with an increase in bad habits like smoking following the earthquake due to stress and anxiety. Many of them faced episodes of panic and hysteria thinking that it could’ve been them or their children stuck under concrete. Aljabbarin recalled how “the rubbles and destroyed buildings gave me flashbacks to the war.”
We, especially Americans, tend to remove ourselves from such issues. However, we must recognize that our government’s punishments directly underdeveloped and destabilized these countries, Syria especially. And as seen in this crisis, the sanctions declared by Congress have “exacerbated [Syrian’s] suffering.”
At the local level, it is important to support such people in times of crisis, and value the role they play in the community. Aljabbarin said “having a supportive environment at work that asked about my family and showed me support
helped me feel better.”
However, the lack of education and information makes it challenging to engage in such conversations. Tension builds as we feel unheard, making it hard to build a connection as one community. Abdulwahed Idrees, a junior at SU studying biology, said “people may not be fully aware of the extent of the human suffering, displacement and destruction caused by the conflict.”
Personally, it makes me question my role as a storyteller. I enjoy being involved in the community and helping those in need, however I feel that my work is pointless if I am not talking about my home country. Being in school when everyone else was ignoring the disaster was unbearable. I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t hurting. The ignorance about the hardships in the Middle East makes me feel excluded from my current community. It is negatively affecting my attendance and performance at school as I don’t feel the support from my teachers and classmates.
“The lack of awareness about what is going on in Syria limits my ability to engage with a diverse audience in the community who may lack basic knowledge of the conflict and the current earthquakes and their disastrous impact on the Syrian people,” Habib said.“It also limits my ability to advocate for the devastated Syrian population and to engage effectively in discussions and informed political discourse.”
I encourage people, especially students, to learn more about the Middle East. Being aware of the conflicts is an effective way of helping as it allows you to better understand what people from those regions have lived through and how such a large power like the U.S. has contributed to it. Beyond the wars and the conflicts, Syria has a deep culture and a variety of traditions to offer that need to be valued and are worth learning about.
Habib said that “it is important to remember Syria’s rich cultural and historical heritage, and to recognize the resilience and strength of the Syrian people. Syria is home to diverse landscapes, including mountains, desert, and coastal regions. The Syrian people come from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds and are known for their hospitality and warmth towards visitors, which they continue to show despite the ongoing conflict.”
There is a lot of beauty to appreciate despite the ugliness of the destroyed buildings. There is so much life, despite all the death, which I find inspiring. Syrians are not people known to give up easily.
There are many ways to help. “Reach out to your Syrian neighbors, ask how they are and ask about their families,” Aljabbarin suggested.
Other ways include donating. Aljabbarin raised $970 with the Muslim Student Association and sent the donations to her uncle to help those in need. The money was used to purchase food for the victims and provided some families with $20 each to help purchase a tent, diapers or a heater.
Carry The Future is a local non-profit organization that helps refugees in need, where you can donate or volunteer your time. You can also directly donate to the White Helmets to provide them with safer equipment to extract people from under the rubble faster and decrease the risks. The Syrian American Medical Society Foundation provides direct funding for those who need it. There are hundreds of organizations you can support.
For those unable to donate, please spread awareness as it is just as important. As Idrees said, “by sharing information about the situation in Syria and the impact of the earthquake on social media or other platforms, individuals can help raise awareness and encourage others to take action to support Syrians.”
Alaa Laila, Syracuse City School student
two of whom play in the National Lacrosse League, Thomson always had a stick in his hands on the sidelines of his brothers’ games, St. Michael College’s head coach Angus Dineley said. But Thomson created his own identity, built over years of playing, watching and learning from older players. Instead of attacking with a more “sporadic” approach, like Tanner said he and his other brothers do, Thomson patiently waits for the defense to mess up, then pounces on the mistake.
The Thomsons are a quiet family, Tanner said, and the brothers don’t talk technically with each other about the sport. Tanner said lacrosse was always the best when they saw it as a game, something fun to do in the side yard or with their teams. There were goals set for Thomson that revolved around playing professionally, but Thomson was best as his own player and the other brothers knew that.
“He has a natural feel,” Dineley said. “He just had a great feel for where to be. I wish I knew exactly how to coach that because I’d do it more often.”
Cole Begley was 11 years old when he moved to Toronto and tried out for Mimico Lacrosse. He described Thomson, as an “enigmatic person that was a star from the get go.” Their
from page 12
enough to rely on lakes to completely freeze.
The process started by buying tarps and using wood to build boards to create a perimeter. Then, he filled the inside with water. If they were lucky, a cold spell would hit and the water would freeze. Starting out as a smaller 10-by-20 foot area, it was “basic,” John said.
As Marchand practiced more, the rinks grew. Instead of using tarps, John bought big plastic sheets and 4-by-8 foot pieces of plywood for the boards. With Marchand’s help, her dad drove wood pilings into the ground, keeping the boards upright. The whole process took around six hours, but the finished product was a 35-by-55 foot hockey rink. But by March, the rinks would melt.
“It meant a lot to me, and I always made sure to tell him that,” Marchand said. “He always asked me to come outside… he gave a lot to me and cares a lot about hockey, so I’m glad I had him around.”
After school, Marchand usually went right to the rink for around an hour before finishing her homework. Once she finished, Marchand went back out before dinner. On nights when she didn’t have practice, it wasn’t uncommon to see her back out on the ice after eating. Even when it was dark, Marchand practiced using two 500 watt lights that John bought for her. When Marchand got older, she said she practiced before school as well.
In the rink, Marchand refined her stickhandling and close control. John built little wooden stick figures that she used as obstacles for shooting drills. Marchand also put 10 pucks down in a line, weaving in and out. When she got to the last one, she grabbed it, repeating the process until all were gone. If Marchand hit one of them, she restarted.
“Her stick handling at a very young age, and
from page 12
without a field goal for three minutes early in the first half before Maliq Brown converted on a layup. Duke’s size inside, led by freshmen Dereck Lively and Kyle Filipowski, had shut down Edwards on Saturday. The center posted only five points and five rebounds in 37 minutes, his lowest-scoring performance since January 7 at Virginia. Edwards had trouble securing position, and couldn’t do anything with the ball even once he had it. And without Edwards’ usual production, SU struggled to score, with its 55 points being the fewest it recorded in a single game since the 44-point showing against Illinois in November.
from page 10
Led by fifth-year head coach Lance White, White has never accrued more than three conference wins in a season during his time at Pitt, with the lowest point being in 2019-20, where the Panthers finished 5-26 with just one conference win.
This is a much-improved Syracuse team when compared to the first meeting between the two sides. Woolley has played much better over the course of recent games, Kennedi Perkins has provided a relief option
coach positioned a lacrosse ball in the center of the box lacrosse rink the team played on. Begley lined up across from Thomson, readying himself for the ground ball drill. The coach blew his whistle, and both players flew off of their lines toward the ball.
Begley remembers the competition was never close. Thomson would sprint faster to the ball, quickly scoop it up, stand up and score. It felt surreal to Begley to see someone so young with that much talent, and for the next seven years, he played alongside Thomson, befuddled at his ability to create shots and get around any defender. Thomson learned to play with more creativity. He came to Syracuse knowing how to effectively create his own space, work around guys in tight quarters and make quick reads under pressure.
Rory Graham, a former high school teammate of Thomson, said that while field lacrosse is more “run-and-gun,” box lacrosse forces a player to create space with their stick skills and quick hand motions, something Dineley said Thomson always had. Graham, who had played with Thomson since he was 12, watched him develop twists and quick passes that were difficult to cover in box lacrosse, but were nearly impossible to stop on the field.
“I’ve seen him turn a lot of heads his entire career,” Graham said. “He creates space for himself to get his hands free and then the dif-
her ability to skate with her head up and just flow through the ice around people, was very good,” Beuglet said.
Beuglet also noted that Marchand’s shooting ability was significantly better than other girls her age. She could raise the puck consistently, while others’ shots skidded across the ice. She sometimes even shot “bar down,” Beuglet said.
Her first year playing, Marchand’s coach set a 5,000 puck challenge by the end of the season. Before the rink in the backyard, Marchand used her driveway. There, she shot a couple hundred pucks a few times per week.
After games or practices on weekends, Marchand invited her teammates, playing seven-game series against each other that would last all day. Beuglet said that around six of them would usually be out in the cold, sometimes for nearly eight hours at a time.
“We’d have so many games out there,” Marchand said. “It helped me a lot to be able to get my skills up and just hang out with my friends… playing in the backyard was some of the most fun I’ve had playing hockey.”
John recalled bundling up to watch the backyard battles. Despite the freezing temperature, Marchand and the boys typically wore just one layer. They were moving so fast that it didn’t affect them.
The games got so competitive that the group would sometimes lose track of time, staying outside until midnight, Marchand said. Beuglet remembers his son, Karson, sleeping in Marchand’s basement with some of the other boys after a long night.
Marchand and her friends never outgrew the rink, playing in her backyard all the way up until she left for college. The opportunity she had to put in extra work on the DIY rink prepared her for the collegiate level.
“The rink was so much smaller… you didn’t have a lot of time and space,” Marchand said. “You had to be able to stick handle well and make
And Edwards got another big body — 6-foot-10, 245-pound Hall — thrown at him on Wednesday. Hall, like Lively and Filipowski, kept Edwards in check. The center had trouble backing his way into the paint, and got shut off trying to drive baseline. Edwards finished with 12 points, though most of that came in garbage time, with the outcome already solidified.
Syracuse’s offense couldn’t keep up with Clemson, though Mintz was a lone bright spot. The freshman hit 4-of-4 from 3-point range, and finished with a team-high 23 points. Yet it mattered little with the Tigers’ ability to drain 3 after 3 of their own.
Syracuse got within 11 on a 7-0 run at the end
off the bench and Fair ranks second in the conference with 19.9 points per game. On the glass, SU ranks No. 35 in total rebounds per game, per Her Hoop Stats, with just over 41. Legette-Jack said 43 is her team’s target number, and if Syracuse can reach that mark against Pitt, it should close the regular season on a high note.
In the most recent game against Miami, Syracuse displayed a complete, all-around win. In the earlier part of the season, it’s been mostly Fair carrying the workload, but the win over the Hurricanes proved that Syracuse is much more than her. Pitt might lock in on Fair, but with reliable options like Woolley and Alaina Rice on the perimeter,
ferent angles with passing and shooting just create different looks.”
During his third career game and Syracuse’s 20-goal win against Holy Cross, Thomson got a feed from Jackson Birtwistle inside the defensive. He spun around, his stick hinting an aim for a high shot. But, as he whipped the ball around, Thomson dropped his stick and flung a shot low past the goalie for Syracuse’s first score. Toward the end of the first quarter, Thomson received the ball about 13 yards away from the net. He quickly flicked in a one-hop shot that got behind the goalie for a hat trick.
Life never seemed to speed up on Thomson, and neither did lacrosse. Despite playing nearly 100 games a year between box, club and school lacrosse, Thomson never wavered, gradually becoming more skilled, patient and dynamic as a scorer. When he committed to Michigan on Sept. 2, 2020, he was in line to take over a talented squad as the No. 5 recruit in the 2023 class. There were other schools, but playing for the Wolverines was his best offer. Everyone was “fired up,” Tanner said.
Then, Thomson received a call from Syracuse head coach Gary Gait. Gait offered him a chance to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference for an offensive coordinator that granted his offensive players freedom — similar to how Thomson learned the game. The Orange had
come in late to the recruiting process, but he immediately flipped to sign with SU.
“He knows that he’s the best player in the country,” Tanner said. “He knows he’s going against the best competition and he knows it’s going to be the hardest it possibly can be.”
Through three games, he’s already showcased his stick skills and had shown promise in becoming what Pat March said was going to be “an above the cage player.” Conference play hasn’t started, and Thomson hasn’t gotten a true taste of ACC competition, but he’s already shown his prowess as a scorer and point-getter, just like he did in high school.
In one game at St. Michael’s, Dineley remembered Thomson caught a ball in traffic that Dineley said he “probably shouldn’t have been able to catch.” He was unphased, but Dineley was surprised that he corralled it, let alone throw a behind-the-back pass to his teammate in front of the net. His teammate was so surprised that he stopped moving. Just like so many other times, Thomson proved he was one step ahead of everyone at his age.
Finn just seems to have this shine to him,” Begley said. “It’s not easy to go there, with all the pressure on him, and score and win. He comes alive in those moments.” e, it’s on her stick.”
anthonyalandt29@yahoo.com @anthonyalandt
those tight-area plays, so that helped me develop my stick skills.”
Marchand started showing signs of Division-I talent at around 12 years old, Beuglet said. Based on her hockey IQ and offensive abilities, Beuglet knew Marchand would play collegiately in Canada or the United States. After graduating from the boys’ league, Marchand played for the Chatham Outlaws and Cambridge Rivulettes — both all-girls teams — during her last three years of youth hockey.
Marchand’s transition to the college game was seamless. As a freshman, she finished second on the team in points with 25, scoring a second-best 10 goals while leading the
of the first half, and trailed by 13 at the half, but Galloway hit two 3s to open the second half and SU never got closer.
Boeheim tried some defensive adjustments, with the full-court press making an appearance early in the second half. But like Duke, Clemson had no trouble getting the ball over halfcourt. The press generated no steals, and the Tigers maintained a doubledigit lead throughout the second half. SU even went to a 1-3-1 defense midway through the half, but Hunter drilled a 3. Out of the ensuing timeout, the Orange resorted to their traditional 2-3 zone.
At the 14:17 mark, when Benny Williams was caught in the paint, Alex Hemenway was wide-
Syracuse can spread the floor and score.
Stat to know: 64.2%
When the Panthers have secured at least 25 defensive rebounds, they have won 10-of-14 games this season, most of which came against weaker nonconference opponents. But overall, Pitt struggles on the defensive glass, with a defensive rebounding rate of 64.2%, 326th in Division-I, per Her Hoop Stats.
With their size down low in Dariauna Lewis, the Orange can extend possessions, get easy points in the paint or kick out for jumpers, taking advantage of second-chance opportunities. In the first meeting, Syracuse notched 13 offensive rebounds and trans -
team with 15 assists. In year two, Marchand’s numbers dipped a bit, along with the team’s success, but she’s been a big piece for head coach Britni Smith in her first season. The sophomore is sixth on the team in points with 16 — eight goals and eight assists — including a two-goal performance in SU’s 4-3 win over Lindenwood on Nov. 5.
“She’s a player that can make a difference every shift,” Smith said. “We look for her to be the player that, when you need one, it’s on her stick.”
zakwolf784284@gmail.com
@ZakWolf22
open on the wing where Williams should’ve been. The 3-pointer was good — Clemson’s 12th make of the game — and Syracuse trailed by 20. Girard handed Clemson the ball trying to draw a foul, and Tyson threw down a twohanded dunk on the other end. And Mintz, the only guy the Orange could turn to for points on Wednesday, missed a windmill dunk in transition.
After the ball hit the floor and the Tigers had started their transition push, Mintz put his head down for a brief second. And only after that, with Syracuse down 16, did the freshman pick it back up and begin the jog upcourt.
csmith49@syr.edu @csmith17_
lated that into 16 second-chance points.
Player to watch: Amber, forward, No. 5 Amber Brown has started every game for Pitt in her collegiate career and is the only player for Pitt that has started every game this season. The senior forward averages just 9.6 points per game and 5.0 rebounds. In Pitt’s first game against the Orange, Brown notched a season-high 21 points and added seven rebounds. She became the fastest player in program history to notch 550 career points, 450 rebounds and 100 career assists in over 20 years. colebambini@gmail.com
Lynn Farquhar has been named the new head coach of Syracuse’s field hockey program. She takes over after Ange Bradley retired at the end of the 2022 calendar year. In 2022, Farquhar served as an assistant athletic director and field hockey head coach at the George School in Pennsylvania.
“We are excited to welcome Lynn back to Syracuse,” Director of Athletics John Wildhack
track and field
said in a press release. “She will continue to keep Syracuse Field Hockey among the elite programs in both the ACC and in the nation.”
Farquhar previously served as an assistant coach under Bradley at Syracuse from 20072010 and was the first assistant hired by her. In 2008, the Orange reached the Final Four while advancing to the Elite Eight in 2009 and 2010. After that she had associate head coach stints at James Madison and Delaware before being in charge of St. Joseph’s program for eight seasons. She began coaching career at Richmond,
which won the 2005 and 2006 A10 titles.
Under Farquhar, St. Joseph’s qualified for four NCAA Tournaments in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. In each of those seasons, her squad won the Atlantic-10 conference title and regular season title. Farquhar was named A10 Coach of the Year five times, coaching six All-Americans, more than 50 All-Conference selections and 22 AllRegion Selections.
Farquhar played at Old Dominion and was a member of the Monarchs’ 2000 NCAA Cham-
pionship Team. Later in her collegiate career, she served as team captain and earned regional first-team honors.
“This field hockey program has a strong heartbeat — committed to honoring our past, choosing to be our best self, and leaving a legacy for those who follow will endure,” Farquhar said in the release. “Thank you to the women who have laid the groundwork. I am honored to be your coach, and you will get my very best.”
colebambini@gmail.com @ColeBambini
This Thursday, Syracuse travels to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. Prior to the postseason, Syracuse had competed in invitationals at Cornell, Boston University and Clemson.
Syracuse will feature 14 participating athletes on the first day of the meet and also have a team competing in the men’s distance medley relay. Kaleia Arrington and Peyton Rollins will represent the Orange in the women’s 200m. Arrington recorded her personal best of 24.85 seconds to place second at the Tiger Paw Invite at Clemson this month, while Rollins recorded 25.16 seconds at the Boston University Invite.
James Nmah and Carlton Landingham will headline the men’s 200m. Nmah finished the event within 22 seconds (21.99) this month, which was his personal record. Landingham posted his personal best of 22.17 seconds in early February.
Amanda Vestri is competing in the women’s 5000m along with Ellie Lawler and Savannah
men’s lacrosse
Roark. Roark trained with her father’s fellow officers in the Air Force to be an All-American runner. Vestri achieved her personal and school record of 15:42.48, in the event, which she set at the season-opener in December 2022. Vestri also enters the competition as the reigning champion of the 5000m, having won the race at the 2021 ACC Indoor Championships. Ellie Lawler’s personal record is 16:48.80 while Roark’s is 16:08.89.
The rest of Syracuse’s seven runners are competing in the Men’s 5000m. Nathan Lawler (13:51.26), Sam Lawler (13:52.45), Alex Comerford (13:56.76), Assaf Harari (14:08.35), and Ethan Wechsler (14:18.79) all posted their best records at the Boston University Invite this month. Paul O’Donnell finished with his personal best (13:54.94) during SU’s season opener in December while Noah Carey recorded his personal record (13:53.86) last year.
The men’s distance medley relay will be the last event of the day.
On Friday, Sydney Nowicki and Caroline Kirby will start in the women’s mile. Nowicki and Kirby both posted their personal bests at the
Boston University Invite this month with 4:51.97 and 4:52.92, respectively.
Karl Winter is also competing in the mile. He posted his personal record time of 3:59.25 at the Boston University Invite, becoming just the eighth athlete to finish under four minutes in program history. Winter will run the event alongside Kevin Robertson, who completed his best time (4:06.28) this month.
Six Syracuse athletes are expected to race in the 60m hurdles, On the men’s side, Jaheem Hayles recorded his personal best of 7.69 seconds at the Tiger Paw Invite and Naseem Smith medaled with a second-place finish at the 2022 Kane Invite with a personal record of eight seconds. David Peters will also make his debut appearance at an ACC Indoor Championships. Peters’ best time in the event came all the way back in December 2021 when he finished in 8.12 seconds.
On the women’s side, Shaleah Colaire holds the best 60m hurdles record on the team (8.39), while Rollins will compete in her second event of the meet after undergoing the 200m. Rollins has a personal best of 8.76, which she set at the track season tip-off in December 2022.
Elijah Mallard will be competing in the men’s 400m, an event where he set his best time of 48.63 seconds at the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge at the end of January. Xayvion Perkins, whose personal record is 49.87, will be competing as well.
In the 60m dash, Kahniya James will compete alongside Arrington. James’ best performance was at the 2022 ACC Indoor Championships with a 7.39 second finish, and placed sixth in the final heat. Arrington has her personal best of 7.75 seconds in the event, which she set when she placed third at the Kane Invitational this month.
On the men’s side, Daijon Richards and Trei Thorogood will compete in the 60m. Richards successfully finished the dash just under the seven second mark (6.95) and won the bronze medal at the Marc Deneault Invitational last weekend, while Thorogood set his personal best (6.72) at the Greg Page season tip-off in December.
Alexander Segarra will be Syracuse’s lone runner in the men’s 800m. Segarra recorded his personal best of 1:55.62 earlier this month.
jlu124@syr.edu
Syracuse lost its first game of the season, 15-12, to No. 9 Maryland on Saturday, despite outscoring the Terrapins in the second half. Nine different SU players scored, with Jackson Birtwhistle’s hat trick leading the way, continuing the trend of a diverse scoring attack that head coach Gary Gait has reinforced early in the season. The Orange had mostly cruised to a 3-0 start, catapulting them into the top 20 after going just 4-10 last season and not earning a preseason ranking.
Next up for Syracuse is the first contest of a three-game homestand against No. 12 North Carolina, which jumped seven spots in the national rankings after beating Johns Hopkins and losing to Ohio State last week. The Tar Heels are the second of nine games the Orange currently have scheduled against top 20 teams this season.
Here’s everything to know about UNC (2-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) before its visit to Syracuse on Saturday afternoon:
All-time series
Syracuse leads, 18-11.
Last time they played
SU traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the midst of its six-game losing streak to end last season, and fell 14-13 in a tight affair. The
women’s basketball
then-15th-ranked Tar Heels jumped out to a 5-1 lead behind two goals each from Dewey Egan and Chris Gray. Syracuse bounced back with a four-goal second quarter, and only trailed by one goal at halftime.
The Orange then rattled off four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter — two coming on man-up situations — and took a 13-12 lead with 2:16 remaining when Brendan Curry found the back of the net on an unanswered goal. But that lead disappeared roughly a minute later, when Jacob Kelly connected with Lance Tillman for a game-tying score. With 15 seconds remaining, Gray notched his fifth goal of the game to give UNC a one-score win and SU a deflating road loss.
The defeat secured Syracuse’s first season without a postseason berth in 15 years, since the Orange were officially unable to reach the necessary .500 winning percentage mark needed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. In any case, SU still lost its next two games, amassing the most single-season losses in program history.
The Tar Heels report
North Carolina opened its season with a 25-3 clobbering of Mercer, and then beat Johns Hopkins by four. The Tar Heels lost to then-No. 6 Ohio State on Saturday, scoring just five goals — and only one in the second half — in a three-score loss. UNC is the third-highest ranked team in the ACC, trailing No. 1 Virginia.
The Tar Heels lost Gray, who led them in goals for two straight seasons, to graduation. Through three games, graduate student Logan McGovern has led them in goals (six) and points (10), led largely by his four-goal, two-assist performance in the win over Mercer. Sean Goldsmith, Antonio DeMarco and Egan have also added four goals.
Junior Collin Krieg has started all three games in goal for UNC, recording 37 saves and allowing 18 goals. His .679 save percentage ranks first among ACC goalies, as does his 6.55 goals against average. Krieg has helped North Carolina hold all three of its opponents to eight goals or fewer.
How Syracuse beats North Carolina Syracuse — specifically face-off specialist Johnny Richiusa — was dominated in the faceoff circle against Maryland, diminishing the number of offensive opportunities SU could get in a high-scoring game. The Orange won just 7-of-31 faceoffs — and only 1-of-7 in the fourth quarter — against the Terrapins, something that will have to change on Saturday. Without enough faceoff wins, Syracuse got outshot by 21, forcing goalie Will Mark to make double the saves of his counterpart, Teddy Dolan.
Mark’s performance of 18-saves and 15 goals allowed was another impressive one, and his fourth straight with at least 13 saves to start the season. If SU continues to lose faceoffs, Mark will need to have a big game in goal to keep the Orange in what will likely be a low-scoring
game against UNC. Goals from a variety of places — which Syracuse has gotten in its past three games — will certainly keep the game close, too, as will avoiding the penalty box. The Orange had three more penalties than UMD last weekend, leading to three goals allowed.
Stat to know: 11.5%
UNC’s 11.5% defensive efficiency ranks first nationally, per Lacrosse Reference, and its six goals allowed per game is second in the nation. While the easy win over Mercer certainly helped all their statistics — offensive and defensive — the Tar Heels’ defense also contained two ranked teams in Johns Hopkins and Ohio State. The performances showcased their defensive abilities that could be tough for young attacks Finn Thomson and Joey Spallina to score against.
Player to watch: Connor Maher, short stick defensive midfielder, No. 31 Maher was North Carolina’s sole preseason first-team Inside Lacrosse All-American, and has notched three points and five ground balls so far this season as a key part of UNC’s top-ranked defense. Maher was a second-team All-American last season, registering 43 ground balls and nine caused turnovers. He’ll be a key part of containing Syracuse’s attack, and letting Krieg only face easy shots from deep.
csmith49@syr.edu @csmith17_
Ahead of Syracuse’s game against Miami last Sunday, SU was sitting in the “First Four Out,” according to ESPN’s Bracketology. And on Monday, SU snuck into the “Last Four In.”
Last Wednesday, head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said she believed that the Orange needed to win two out the last three games to comfortably secure its spot in the NCAA Tournament as they sit on the bubble. A loss at Florida State didn’t do much good, but they bounced back against Miami on senior day.
Syracuse controlled the game for all four quarters, spreading the ball offensively, recording five double digit scorers. The Orange fended off any Miami comeback despite temporarily
struggling to break the press at the beginning of the fourth quarter. SU’s 77-68 win over the Hurricanes now has them in the Field of 68.
The Orange now travel to Pittsburgh — the worst team in the conference — to close the regular season and are in search of the regularseason sweep over the Panthers.
Here’s everything to know about Pitt (10-17, 3-13 Atlantic Coast).
All time series Syracuse leads 50-16.
Last time they played
On Jan. 5, Syracuse hosted Pittsburgh in the JMA Wireless Dome in search of its first win of the 2023 calendar year. After taking a six-point lead at the end of the first quarter, Syracuse fell
apart in the second, allowing 20 points in about a five-minute stretch. Dyaisha Fair was silenced in the first half with just two points, while Georgia Woolley carried the offense.
But the Orange flipped the script in the second half. Fair scored double digits in both the third and fourth quarters while Woolley continued her momentum from the first half, finishing with 23 points. The duo combined for over half of SU’s points in the 89-71 win — the Orange’s 23rd straight win against Pitt. Defensively, Syracuse also notched 11 steals, fueled by Woolley’s five.
The Panthers report
The Panthers are the worst team in the conference and have only three conference wins, which came against Virginia, Boston College
and Georgia Tech. Those three conference wins have come in the last five games. Prior to that, the Panthers had lost their first 11 conference games, including a 10-game losing streak.
Pitt is pretty middle of the pack in most statistical categories, averaging just over 63 points per game and shooting 39.3% from the field, which rank 12th and 13th in the conference. But against ACC opponents, those numbers drop to 59.6 and 36.5%, respectively, both good enough only for 14th in the ACC. The Panthers have some strength defensively, ranking in the top one-third in blocks and steals per game, per Her Hoop Stats. But on the glass, they’re in the middle of the pack, corralling just 36.5 rebounds per game, 181st in Division-I, per Her Hoop Stats.
East Syracuse, NY 13057 315-760-5905
www.velocityclinical.com
Velocity Clinical Research is committed to making clinical research studies succeed by generating high quality data, while providing exemplary individual care at every step. Our team achieves this goal by making sure quality of care as one of our highest obligations.
Our site participates in national and global research studies by partnering with specialists from all different backgrounds. Our team joins together to explore new medical treatments by conducting clinical research studies for investigational edications and diagnostic tools. Our site conducts multiple concurrent studies, all performed in accordance with mandatory guidelines.
Conveniently located in Central New York, our site offers ease of access from major highways and NYS Thruway. Our site offers free parking along with a commitment to providing individuals safety and data integrity through the duration of each research study.
Healthy Memory
Independent with self-care. No memory concerns outside of normal aging.
Memory Loss/Mild Cognitive Impairment
Occasional forgetfulness or loss of shortterm memory that interferes with daily life. Possibly experiencing diminished thinking skills, ability to make sound decisions, or forgetting important information.
Fatty Liver
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a type of fatty liver disease characterized by infl ammation of the liver and fat accumulation in the liver.
Vaccine
Utilize trained staff to administer vaccine(s) in accordance with the protocol of the research study.
school. Then, a break for dinner before heading back out to the side yard, practicing their stick movements and whipping in more shots on a mini lacrosse goal.
men’s basketball
CLEMSON, S.C. — Both Syracuse and Clemson needed wins on Wednesday night. But only one team played like it.
The Tigers, sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble, needed another win to continue bolstering their resume. They won 91-73. All five of their starters had double digit points.
The Orange, meanwhile, are fighting just to make the NIT. They didn’t look competitive, giving up 14 Clemson 3-pointers. They trailed by 10 after four minutes, by 13 at halftime and never got closer than 11 in the second half.
Three possessions late in the first half perhaps summed up the loss best. SU’s defense had one of its best possessions of the night, rotating soundly and forcing Clemson to take the shot clock inside five seconds. But then Hunter Tyson took Joe Girard III o the dribble, and used his seven-inch height advantage to shoot right over the senior for two points.
By
Thomson would play with his first club team, Mimico Lacrosse, when he was 5 years old in the Baby Peanut division, then come home and toss around a lacrosse ball with his brothers — Tanner, Keaton and Hudson. By 8 years old, Tanner said the older brothers figured Thomson was old enough to get thrown in front of the net, his small frame getting pelted with shot attempts.
“Hopefully, that helped him get a little tougher. That’s something I never got to deal with, was getting beat up by my older brothers,” Tanner said. “So I never got the toughness like he did.”
Thomson continued the line of lacrosse players in his family, becoming the fourth brother to play at the Division-I level when he started at attack for Syracuse against Vermont. Those close to him said his ascent to becoming one of the best players in Ontario — from box lacrosse to St. Michael’s College to Everest Academy — was unsurprising. Thomson was a natural scorer, originally a top recruit at Michigan before committing to SU.
Following his brothers,
ice hockey
John Marchand would come home from a long day of work and look straight to his backyard. He always knew where to fi nd his daughter.
Everyday, Syracuse’s Sarah Marchand trained in the ice rink he created in the backyard, working on her stick skills.
As soon as Marchand started play-
ing hockey, she was hooked. Two practices per week and local skates weren’t enough for her — whenever Marchand was free, she was out in the backyard.
Growing up outside of Detroit, Marchand didn’t live in a super cold climate like Syracuse, so she used her time wisely, practicing as much as possible during the winter months to put herself above other girls in the area. Marchand played on an all-boys travel team for seven years and often
called her teammates to practice.
“She was always the one making the call,” said Kevin Beuglet, Marchand’s former travel coach. “She had that kind of drive… always bugging the boys…it didn’t take much for them to come over.”
At first, it took her a while to get the hang of how to skate, struggling to stop herself and mark sharp cuts. But when it clicked, she started playing in local “house leagues” and practicing
for an hour on weekend mornings. Her dad also took her to open skates at the rink on Sunday afternoons.
But it still wasn’t enough for Marchand. After a year, Marchand started playing travel hockey, and that’s when John thought of making the rinks that currently reside in his backyard. Every December, he began construction, preferencing the backyard since temperatures weren’t cold
Jesse Edwards coughed up the ball on the other side of the court, and Brevin Galloway knocked down a transition 3 from the left wing to put Clemson (20-8, 12-5 Atlantic Coast) up 38-20. Jim Boeheim called timeout, Judah Mintz pulled the ball behind his head, slammed it to the floor and Syracuse (16-12, 9-8 ACC), for the second straight game, faced a blowout.
Despite having lost four of their past five games, the Tigers still had a 68% chance of winning Wednesday, per KenPom. After the Duke loss, the Orange had no more marquee-win opportunities left in the regular season, and their only route into the ACC Tournament is to win the whole tournament for the first time ever.
Still, Wednesday’s matchup had meaning. With a win over Clemson — a team sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble — SU could increase its likelihood of getting into the NIT, and avoiding going two straight years without a postseason appearance for the first time since 1969-70. The Tigers, meanwhile, need wins for their NCAA resume, and it showed in their 3-point shooting.
Clemson ranks third in the ACC in 3-point shooting, but has only attempted the 10th-most shots in the league. The Tigers, though, were shot-heavy early on, with 14 of their first 18 field goal attempts coming from beyond the arc. They made six of those, four from Tyson, who finished with a game-high 28 points, and two from Chase Hunter. Sprinkle in a few mid range shots from PJ Hall, who finished with 16 points, and the Orange trailed by at least eight for nearly 13 minutes in the first half.
Late in the fi rst half, Tyson hoisted up a 3-pointer several steps behind the line, just in front of Boeheim, and buried it. Even a strong contest from Chris Bell’s 6-foot-8 frame wasn’t enough, emblematic of how little Syracuse’s defense could get in the way of a scorching hot Clemson 3-point barrage.
A persistent theme throughout the season, the Orange once again got out to a slow start. They trailed 13-3 after four minutes and went