SPORTS
TUESDAY
november 13, 2012
PAGE 20
the daily orange
SYRACUSE MAKES
NCAA TOURNAMENT FOR 1ST TIME
28
IN
YEARS
sam maller | asst. photo editor LOUIS CLARK leads the Orange into the NCAA tournament despite falling to Notre Dame 4-2 in the Big East quarterfinals. SU faces Cornell at 7 p.m. Thursday in Ithaca, N.Y. The Big East sent eight teams to the NCAAs.
“I TOLD THE GUYS BEFORE TONIGHT THAT TOURNAMENT BID OR NO TOURNAMENT BID, I’D BE PROUD OF THE END RESULT OF THIS SEASON.” IAN MCINTYRE SU HEAD COACH
By Nick Toney
A
STAFF WRITER
fter pushing Notre Dame to the brink of an upset in the Big East tournament on Nov. 3, Ian McIntyre thought his players proved they had “more soccer left in them.” The NCAA tournament selection committee agreed with the Syracuse head coach on Monday night. For the first time since 1984 and the second time in program history, Syracuse earned an appearance in the NCAA tournament with an at-large bid. The Orange (12-6) will travel to
Ithaca, N.Y., for an opening-round game against Cornell (15-1) on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Berman Field. And that means McIntyre and Syracuse will extend the storybook 2012 season by at least one more game. “I told the guys before tonight that tournament bid or no tournament bid, I’d be proud of the end result of this season,” said McIntyre, who coached Hartwick to an NCAA tournament berth in 2005. “But you could tell that as this week wore on, our guys weren’t happy with going out like they did.”
McIntyre said no Syracuse player wanted to end the season with the “sour taste” of a loss to Notre Dame. But Syracuse may have benefitted more from that 4-2 defeat than those players initially thought. Syracuse held a lead over the Fighting Irish — the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament team – for 48 minutes of its Big East tournament game earlier this month. That game, combined with a breakout, 12-win season and another strong year for Big East teams,
SEE TOURNAMENT PAGE 19
m e n ’s b a s k e t b a l l
l acrosse
Syracuse to host regional in 2015 NCAA Tournament
Miller protests insensitive slogan
By Chris Iseman ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
The NCAA announced Monday that Syracuse will host the 2015 NCAA Tournament East Regional. Syracuse was one of 53 cities to express interest in hosting the event, NCAA vice president of men’s basketball Dan Gavitt said in a press release. “We are thrilled for our hosts for the ’14 and ’15 tournaments,” Gavitt said in the release, “as they include a mix of cities that have proven over the course of several decades how to stage this great event, as well as cit-
ies that have come on to the scene in recent years and have embraced the tournament.” The games will be on March 27 and March 29 of 2015 at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse last hosted the East Regional during the 2010 NCAA Tournament, when West Virginia beat John Calipari’s Kentucky 73-66 to advance to the Final Four. The NCAA also announced 25 preliminary-round sites for the 2014 and 2015 tournament on Monday. cjiseman@syr.edu @chris_iseman
By Jacob Klinger ASST. COPY EDITOR
Former Syracuse midfielder Jovan Miller announced on Twitter last Monday that he would retire from lacrosse if Warrior Sports did not drop its “#NinjaPlease” marketing campaign. Miller said it means “N-word please.” The sportswear company that outfits all eight Major League Lacrosse teams encouraged Twitter users to tweet with the hashtag #ninjaplease for a chance to win a pair of Dojo training shoes. Promotional posters were also released with the #ninjaplease slogan. Miller, who plays for the MLL’s
Charlotte Hounds, first became aware of the slogan when retired midfielder and three-time All-American Kyle Harrison called him about it. An email chain starting on Oct. 25 among current and former black lacrosse players followed, including Harrison, Shamel and Rhamel Bratton, Sam Bradman, Milton Lyles, Brendan Porter and Chazz Woodson. “We had a collective idea on what we were going to say,” Miller said. “It was me who put it out there because I’m probably the most popular of all the black players, so once I said something I knew we would get a lot of feedback.” On Nov. 5, Miller went public. In the week since, Miller witnessed
a groundswell of mixed reactions before Warrior removed any traces of the slogan on Thursday. Miller said Warrior Sports Chief Marketing Officer Dave Dixon spoke with him for five minutes on the phone last Friday and apologized. Miller said he now plans to continue his career. Much of the feedback Miller received was positive, he said, though hateful responses on Twitter and an initial argument with an unnamed teammate who did not understand his position caused him to speak out. Miller said he is basically done publicly protesting the campaign and his decision to go public was meant to
SEE MILLER PAGE 15