S
Home cookin’
Tipped off Syracuse softball has stolen signs and learned pitchers’ tendencies to create an advantage. See dailyorange.com
SU softball welcomes Duke to central New York this weekend for two matchups. See dailyorange.com
SPORTS
Tar Heel showdown Syracuse men’s and women’s lacrosse are traveling to North Carolina for games Saturday. See dailyorange.com
dailyorange.com @dailyorangeëetvmp믯 ë°®¯·ë:ë PAG E 12
Foreshadowing
men’s lacrosse
Curry improves in 2nd season By Josh Schafer
senior staff writer
JIM BOEHEIM has been the head basketball coach at Syracuse for 43 years. But from 1966-73, Boeheim was also the head coach of SU’s golf team, while doubling as assistant basketball coach. photo courtesy of su archives
Jim Boeheim’s early days as SU’s golf coach displayed elements of his competitiveness By Matthew Gutierrez and David Schneidman the daily orange
W
hen Jim Ganotis arrived at Syracuse, he thought about joining the golf team. Ganotis was a quality golfer on the junior level, and he wanted to keep playing at the college level. He went to Manley Field House to talk with the team’s young coach, Jim Boeheim. “I’m glad you came,” Ganotis recalled Boeheim saying. “We have a tournament tomorrow. Be here at 7:30 in the morning. “He was really astute with things that he would predict, as far as abilities of players,” Ganotis said later. “I say to everyone now, ‘Listen closely to what the coach says.’”
I honestly think that the reason he coached the team was so there could be a team. Ed Mazza
former su golfer
People have been listening to what Boeheim has to say since the 1970s, when he doubled as an assistant men’s basketball coach and golf team head coach. He made $2,000 to lead the golf team, for which he played as a student at SU for two seasons. As the university’s last golf coach, Boeheim’s intensity on the basketball sidelines did not translate to the golf course. The slight age difference between him and his players allowed for a lighthearted, laid-back environment that included going out to bars on road trips, betting on pick-up basketball and staying in hotel rooms together. There weren’t official uniforms and the equipment shed was scarce. Boeheim could simply be see boeheim page 10
Before his college lacrosse trainees return home for the summer, shooting coach Torre Kasemeyer spends his Saturday nights watching game film. He calls players on Sunday with feedback and they discuss off-season goals. Through CURRY five games, Kasemeyer saw the same themes in Brendan Curry’s game. The sophomore saw himself as a facilitator, Kasemeyer said, and his speed often forced slides and opened passing lanes. With a quick first step, Curry could always shoot on the run. But what if he modified his release motion, changed the pacing of his stride and stepped into slides? “You can be a 20 goal scorer and stay where you are,” Kasemeyer said. “Or you can be close to a 30 and pick this up.” When Curry left campus for the summer, SU head coach John Desko told the rising sophomore to improve his shooting. He favored a sidearm on the run shot, and still does sometimes in moving situations. Last year, Curry had played hero for Syracuse against North Carolina when he scored two goals in the final minutes of regulation and assisted the overtime winner. But Kasemeyer saw the opportunity for Curry to build on his usual sweep down the right alley. And that training — combined with an injury to midfielder Tucker Dordevic — vaulted Curry’s production to a projected second-team All-American midway through the season while leading the midfield in points (27) ahead of the Orange’s game on Saturday against North Carolina. “My shooting’s been subpar,” Curry said after scoring on one of 12 shots against Duke. “I’m getting a lot see curry page 10
softball
tennis
Hansen’s speed increases steals Better serve helps Hegab take next step By Adam Hillman staff writer
When Syracuse head coach Shannon Doepking first looked at the statistics from the 2018 season, she was stunned. Then-junior Alicia Hansen had only 10 stolen base-attempts. In 2019, Hansen’s last for the Orange, DoepkHANSEN ing decided to make Hansen’s speed a priority. So, after a practice at Skytop Softball Stadium in the fall of 2018, Doepking and assistant coaches
Vanessa Shippy and Miranda Kramer asked Hansen to improve her base running. She needed to attempt more steals. “I think when you get a player like Alicia who can do it on both sides of the ball… what you get is someone who buys in really, really quickly,” Doepking said. Through 37 games this year for Syracuse, Hansen has stolen 16 bases. Four away from her seasongoal of 20. Doepking noticed Hansen’s speed and athleticism and it’s paid off. The senior is first on the team by six steals for Syracuse (1720, 6-6 Atlantic Coast), after being third on the team with nine last year. Hansen has benefited from a
team-wide mindset that promotes aggressive play. “It was just a whole new mindset for me because the team prides itself on if you’re aggressive and make a mistake, we’ll talk about it,” Hansen said. “If you don’t make the mistake, you can’t get better.” Entering the season, Doepking and Shippy pushed Hansen to take more bases compared to last year. In 2018, Hansen totaled just 10 steal attempts in 50 games. She’s nearly doubled her total to 19 attempts in 13 fewer contests. Whether stealing second base or trying to score on a shallow single, Hansen knew she had to be faster, she said. see hansen page 10
By Andrew Crane staff writer
As Dina Hegab locked her knees, she tossed the ball to its maximum height — higher than she did before. As it descended, the ball brushed the strings of her racket. The next thing her serve hit was the net’s mesh. It was late in her doubles match HEGAB against North Carolina State on March 31, and Hegab’s
serve was off, but for her, that was OK. The senior wanted to try something new — a two-week-old approach to the serve that held her back all season. Throughout her final season for Syracuse, Hegab has focused on making small changes to all aspects of her serve. It started with reading and returning opponents’ serves better and transitioned to capitalizing off her own. Hegab committed to tweaks in her serve that would cut down on faults and only had one in last Friday’s win against Pittsburgh. Her new serve technique has come see hegab page 10