Two former Syracuse basketball assistants will be top of mind tonight when the Syracuse Orange host the Eastern Michigan Eagles.
SU welcomes back Rob Murphy to the Dome for the first time since he took the Eastern Michigan job this summer. Murph's enthusiasm and affinity for creating theme songs have surely been missed but Orange fans have been wishing him well ever since. Except maybe in this game.
Of course, it's another recently-lost assistant that most folks will still be buzzing about. This will the first basketball game that Syracuse will play without Bernie Fine as an employee of the university since March of 1976.
Don't expect to see that empty chair moving forward...things feel a little different since the last time the Orange played in the Dome. However, the game itself shouldn't be too impacted. It's Boeheim's press conference that's going to get most of the attention.
Transfer DaShonte Riley will also be in the building. Riley followed Murphy to EMU this year but was unable to get a medical hardship waiver and must sit out his second-consecutive season.
EMU is 4-2 on the year, and is coming off a 72-40 loss to Michigan State on Sunday. They stay in the neighborhood and play Colgate on Dec. 1st as well.
Keep an eye on EMU guard Darrell Lampley. who was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week last week. Lampley led the Eagles in scoring in three games last week, including a career-best 21 in a 62-51 win over Arkansas-Little Rock.
Believe it or not, we're losing the series at the moment. EMU won the only contest between us, which many might remember from the ill-fated 1996 Carrier Classic. That was one of my first games as a freshman at SU.
Win this one for me, Syracuse. You owe me.