Syracuse Daily Links - Orange Still Have Alec Baldwin's Vote

NCAA Tournament 2012: Jesse Eisenberg, La La Anthony, Lil Wayne, more celebs pick Syracuse for Final Four | syracuse.com
"30 Rock" actor Alec Baldwin, whose mother Carol still lives in Central New York, is likely also rooting for SU. While he hasn't shared his picks for the Big Dance, he tweeted that he was rooting for "Cuuuuuuse!!" during the Big East Tournament.

Breaking down Syracuse’s competition in the East and potential Cinderellas | The Juice Online
Despite what the illustrious statistician Ken Pomeroy suggests, Syracuse should have little trouble dispatching its first-round opponent, UNC-Asheville. That said, there’s plenty of talent in the East region, including a few seven-footers that the Orange may be ill-equipped to handle without Melo. Let’s take a look at the teams that are most likely to end Syracuse’s season earlier than expected.

Syracuse Orange Basketball - Know Your Bracket: Kansas State
K-State is the definition of a "win ugly" team. They play hard-nosed, pressure, man to man defense and force the opponent to conform to their style. They beat Missouri, one of the most efficient and fast paced offenses in the country, twice this year and completely got them out of their game. So they can make even the best teams lose sight of their character. Their best asset is their rebounding where they rank 7th nationally, they crash the boards on both ends of the court as well as anyone.

Syracuse Orange Basketball - Know Your Bracket: Southern Miss
The Golden Eagles prefer a physical style of basketball. They shoot the ball okay from the outside with guards LaShay Page, Neil Watson and Angelo Johnson, who also rebound really well. Upfront, the Eagles are physical and generally beat teams at the free throw line.

March Sadness? And a podcast breaking down the madness - Joe Quijano - timesunion.com - Albany NY
My friend and fellow basketball junkie Chris Maitland joined me for a podcast to breakdown the tournament. We make our picks, discuss Syracuse’s chances, make fun of his alma mater, Pitt, for playing in the CBI, and look ahead to the greatest sporting event of the year. Also interesting to listen to someone openly rationalizing and bargaining with himself in the wake of Syracuse’s chances being greatly diminished. Chris talks me off the ledge.

College Football Playoffs: The 64-Team Tournament Edition - SBNation.com
Here's what a 2011-2012 college football bracket could've looked like, based on F/+ ratings -- those do take bowl game performances into account, so ... so they're even better! Rub your eyes twice, as, yes, this bracket includes Northwestern:

East Region Preview: Syracuse screw-up paves way for Florida State - Searching for Billy Edelin
Syracuse is (was) unequivocally the best team to ever walk Marshall Street, or any street for that matter. You could write "'Cuse" six times in a blood Orange market and then have your black lab dog fill out the rest. As Kenny Powers would say, "it's not extreme arrogance, if you'ref#%!ing right." But then neglecting to do school work happened, and the Orange lost eight points, six rebounds and three blocked shots a game because Fab Melo said to hell with the student part of being a student-athlete.

MBB | 3 things Syracuse needs to do to advance past the NCAA Tournament's 1st weekend - Sports - The Daily Orange
Syracuse has to make due without Melo. The Orange already struggled as a rebounding squad — tied for 235th in rebounding margin this season — so losing its leading rebounder does not help. Yet if Christmas can scratch the surface of his potential, as he did in those games against Cincinnati and Connecticut, Syracuse could recover and still make a deep run.

East Region: Good times – but also bad dreams - College Basketball - Rivals.com
Best case: Encased in a force field of indifference, either real or impressively feigned, Jim Boeheim continues his remarkable ability to coach great basketball through off-court issues. The bombshells of Bernie Fine, drug-testing issues that have resulted in an NCAA investigation and Tuesday’s suspension of Fab Melo haven’t touched the Orange, who won 31 times during the regular season and win six more in the tournament for the school’s second national championship.

Fab Melo Continues To Be A Twitter Trend | WebProNews
The fans continue to weigh in on Melo’s suspension, and let’s just say, if Twitter could shape the future of upcoming sporting events, I’m not sure Syracuse would make it out of the first round:

What Fab Melo’s Suspension Says About Syracuse, Jim Boeheim & the NCAA : Orange Fizz
But before we blame the NCAA for snooping, or Bernie for having skeletons, or Fab for not going to class, we have to ask ourselves if SU is responsible for all of the above. Has a powerful cash-infused program turned a blind eye toward multiple potentially damning situations? Syracuse is not a renegade athletic department, or more corrupt than any other at this level. But the cost of doing big business is high. The charade of innocent college student-athletics continues. Who really believes any of these schools are doing everything above board? When you’re sleeping with dogs, you get fleas. It’s the reality of big time college athletics. You want to win, and win big? Well, everyone’s got fleas. You just can’t be that surprised when you find out.

ESPN anchor deletes tweet about Syracuse recruiting target Nerlens Noel in wake of Fab Melo news | syracuse.com
"If Melo opts to turn pro because he simply doesn't want to crack the books anymore, that leaves a giant-sized hole in the middle of the Orange. Would Noel turn down a chance to be Kentucky's next Anthony Davis to stay close to home and play for Syracuse? It certainly helps, as DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony tweeted, that Noel's close friend Michael Carter-Williams is currently a freshman for the Orange and is expected to return next year."

Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau :: 1 for 1 | All the Way
The Syracuse University men's basketball team secured a number one seed in this year's NCAA® Tournament! In the spirit of being number one, the Greater Syracuse community is offering a wide variety of discounts, allowing residents and visitors alike an opportunity for $1 deals in celebration of Syracuse's #1 seed. Just mention "1 for 1 All the Way" at any of the participating businesses listed below to receive discounts.

MBB | Q&A with Keith Jarrett, Asheville Citizen-Times - Sports - The Daily Orange
I talked to a couple of the guys before the announcement and they were pretty much like ‘Well, nobody wants to see Kentucky the way they're playing.' And Kentucky did lose. ‘And nobody wants to see Syracuse because of that athleticism and the bad mismatch.' So that certainly wouldn't have been their preference, but this is a veteran team that feels like they're ready to make some noise and I think they are confident.

As required by law, Hitler is mad about the Fab Melo news...