Wednesday, February 5, 2014
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THE GAZETTE, EMPORIA, KANSAS
NO. 1 SYRACUSE REMAINS UNBEATEN The Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Gritty Syracuse is atop the national rankings after playing second fiddle to Arizona for two months, and the Orange’s perfect season is intact after another single-digit victory. Syracuse (22-0, 9-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) beat Notre Dame 61-55 on Monday night, its fourth win by six points or fewer, to remain one of two unbeatens along with No. 4 Wichita State. Off to the best start in school history, the Orange are on top of the poll for the first time since a six-week run in 201112, and it’s the 15th week all-time Syracuse has been No. 1. “None of us talked about it,” said Trevor Cooney, who rescued Syracuse against the Irish with a career-high 33 points. “It’s just a number right now. We want that number at the end of the season.” Combined with No. 1 Arizona’s first loss of the season last weekend, the Orange’s 91-89 overtime win over Duke on Saturday moved them up one spot to the top. Syracuse (21-0) received all 65 first-place votes from
the national media panel Monday, making the Orange the first unanimous No. 1 since Duke was for six weeks in 2010-11. “We’re happy to be No. 1,” coach Jim Boeheim said. “Obviously, it’s taken a lot of hard work. It’s an honor. We’ll try to keep playing well.” Syracuse is the fourth team to hold the No. 1 ranking this season. Kentucky was on top for the preseason poll and one in the regular season while Michigan State was No. 1 for three weeks and Arizona, which lost to California hours after Syracuse beat Duke, for the last eight. Arizona (21-1) and Syracuse, which were 1-2 for the last eight weeks, switched spots this week. Florida, Wichita State, the only other unbeaten in Division I, and San Diego State remained third through fifth and were followed by Villanova, Cincinnati, Kansas, Michigan State and Michigan. Duke, which also won at Pittsburgh last week, was 11th, a jump of six spots from last week’s poll. No. 20 Virginia, No. 22
Connecticut and No. 23 Gonzaga returned to the rankings. They replaced Ohio State and Wisconsin, which both reached as high as No. 3 this season, and Massachusetts. The Duke-Syracuse game drew a Carrier Dome-record crowd of 35,446 and it was a record for wins between competing coaches with Boeheim at 941 with the victory and Mike Krzyzewski, the all-time leader with 973. Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon beat the buzzer in regulation with an off-balance 3-pointer that tied it at 78 and Jerami Grant scored eight points in overtime to lead the Orange in the first meeting between the schools as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The teams meet again in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 22 which means a crowd of about 26,000 fewer people, but it could be just as good a game. “We knew we were going to be No. 1,” Syracuse’s C.J. Fair said. “Everybody’s excited to be No. 1, but there’s a price to pay because everybody’s going to be gunning for you. I think it will bring out the best in us.”
WEATHER
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ROYALS From PAGE 9 be strong but instead lost 90 games. The Royals backpedaled when that season turned to mush, forced to try some revisionist-history spin that the slogan referred to holding the All-Star Game, not the actual team. But you can bet that general manager Dayton Moore and others in baseball operations are now given a heads-up before the marketing department goes public with a check the team may not be able to cash. This is how it goes. Marketing departments are bigger (and often more detached from baseball) than ever before. And those billboards aren’t going to fill themselves. So men and women sit around and bounce ideas off each other until — and this really is the goal — they find one empty enough that it can’t be used to hang a losing team. In 2011, the White Sox bumped up payroll and went with “All In,” which turned into a disaster when they finished 16 games out of first place. There is just no winning here. No profit in slogans. No traction to be made. If the team loses, the slogan is remembered only with irony. If the team wins, chances are something better and organic comes along to replace it. Had the Royals experienced more success last year, you can bet James Shields’ weird neon deer in the clubhouse would’ve become a thing. They didn’t, but 86 wins were
FILE PHOTO
Kansas City Royals’ mascot Sluggerrr holds up a broom after an early-season sweep last season at Kauffman Stadium.
the team’s most since 1989 and enough to keep “Come To Play” away from infamy. But baseball teams feel as if they need these things, even if a T-shirt giveaway and fireworks can put twice as many people in the seats as any slogan (and a winning team does much better). Can we guess the runners-up to “Be Royal?” And remember, you can’t overpromise. “We’re Due.” “Ned’s Actually Very Funny Away From The Cam-
eras.” “Kids Under 12 Race Billy Butler For Free.” “Our Last Playoff Appearance Is Old Enough To Be A Doctor.” “C’mon, There’s No Good Movies Out.” Actually, this is kind of fun. Come up with a marketing slogan that wins, but only if it doesn’t lose. Sort of like a teenager who throws a party when his parents are out of town and doesn’t get caught. I tried that once. I was 16. And I got caught.
5 THINGS TO KNOW: COLLEGE FOOTBALL SIGNING DAY Alabama head coach Nick Saban, center, calls drills as his team warms up before the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma in New Orleans. The Southeastern Conference is still reigning supreme on the recruiting trail. rated recruiting class
The Associated Press
Officially, national signing day allows high school football players to start signing a letter of intent with the college of their choice. In reality, national signing day is not a starting block but a finish line. All the flip-flopping, committing, de-committing and re-committing stops. “It’s the end of the fiscal year of college football,” said former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel of the Pac-12 Network. “Truthfully, the next year has already started. It’s a culmination of lots of work, two and three and four years of work to get these guys into the boat.” Sure, there are occasional stragglers among the blue chippers. Some kids get cold feet and need a little extra time. Or maybe mom flips out, and needs to be reassured that her baby is in good hands. But for the most part, by the time Wednesday is over, the vast majority of FBS teams will have their latest haul of players locked up. “It’s a long day,” Neuheisel said. For a coach, the best signing days are drama-free. “The last thing any coach wants at the 11th-hour is a surprise,” Neuheisel said. Five things to know about signing day 2014: S-E-C!: The reason why the Southeastern Conference wins all those national championships and bowls is apparent every signing day. When it comes to quality and quantity, the Deep South is the most fertile football recruit-
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning walks off the field after the Broncos lost to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J. The Seahawks won 43-8.
HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS FOR BRONCOS IN 15-4 YEAR
ing territory in the country. SEC schools are sinking big bucks into coaches’ salaries and facilities to make sure all those studs stay close to home. Heading into signing day, the leading recruiting news sites — Rivals.com, Scout.com, ESPN.com and 247sports.com — all had nine SEC teams ranked in the national top 20. That includes Tennessee, which finished 5-7 last season and Kentucky, which won two games. Expect Alabama to be crowned recruiting national champs — again — by most experts. The Crimson Tide has had the No. 1 class according to Rivals each of the last three seasons. Coach Nick Saban has commitments from five of Rivals’ five-star recruits. No other school has more than three. Those schools? Alabama’s SEC West rivals Auburn and Texas A&M. SIGNING DAY STARS: Most of the top prospects have already made solid verbal commitments. Signing day is a formality. But a few of the most-sought after recruits in the nation are still undecided: ✦✦Defensive back Adoree’ Jackson, from Gardena, Calif., took late trips to USC and UCLA and is also considering Florida and LSU. “That’s a family fight,” said Mike Farrell, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. ✦✦Running back Malik McDowell from Southfield, Mich., appears to be leaning Michigan State, though his parents aren’t.
“That’s a pretty publicized family battle,” Farrell said. ✦✦Wide receiver Malachi Dupre from River Ridge, La. He and two of his teammates took a late trip to UCLA. Farrell says LSU is still his best guess on where Dupre lands, but watch out for Florida State. FLIP-FLOPPERS: Last season, three of Rivals’ five-stars flipped on signing day, including Florida State star defensive back Jalen Ramsey. Farrell said running back Joe Mixon of Oakley, Calif., is a candidate to pull a similar move this season. He’s committed to Oklahoma, but maybe UCLA can change his mind. MAD HATTERS: The routine is familiar to most college football fans. Recruit sits at a table with a microphone and announces his college choice by grabbing a hat with the logo of the winner. A few turn to props, like a live bulldog puppy to choose Georgia. Oh the drama! But sometimes the prospect’s future coach knows what is coming. “Two nights before (signing day), there’s a bunch of what we call secret commitments,” Neuheisel said. “No one knows but the coach and (player) because they want to make a big splash and big surprise.” PERSPECTIVE: Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was a two-star recruit, according to Rivals, when he signed with North Carolina State in 2007. The top-rated QB in that class was Jimmy Clausen. This is not an exact science.
The Associated Press
DENVER — Terrance Knighton summed it up for so many Broncos fans when he sat stone-faced after Seattle’s 43-8 drubbing of Denver in the Super Bowl and said, “It doesn’t feel real. It almost feels like a nightmare.” Following an otherwise spectacular season that ended in such stunning fashion, here is a look at some of the best and worst moments for the Broncos: BEST GAME: AFC Championship. The Broncos dominated the New England Patriots 26-16 in what turned out to be the crowning achievement of a recordshattering season that came up short. WORST GAME: Super Bowl. Peyton Manning had never played as poorly in the two years since joining the Broncos as he did at MetLife Stadium after the Broncos fell behind with a safety 12 seconds into the game and never recovered. “We’ve been through a lot and had a lot of injuries to key players, and I’m still proud of the team with how far we got and how hard we fought,” Knighton said. “The score doesn’t tell how hard we worked all year. Hats off to Seattle.” BEST PLAY: Manning throwing a nifty touchdown pass at Houston to tight end Julius Thomas that broke Tom Brady’s record of 50 set in 2007. He’d finish with 55 TD throws to go with a record 5,447 yards passing, surpassing Drew Brees’ mark by a yard.
WORST PLAY: Ma nny Ramirez’s snap over Manning’s head to start the Super Bowl that Knowshon Moreno smothered in the end zone for a safety. “Nobody’s fault,” Manning said. “It was just a noise issue.” Coach John Fox, who was lambasted for taking a knee and playing for overtime in Denver’s playoff loss to Baltimore a year ago, will long be second-guessed for not going with a silent count instead of a cadence that his team couldn’t hear. The 2-0 deficit wasn’t a big deal, except that it turned into a 36-0 hole by the time Demaryius Thomas scored his TD to keep Denver’s dud from being a humiliating shutout. “It’s hard to get things turned around against a great defense like that,” said Broncos boss John Elway, who endured three Super Bowl blowouts like this one before winning back-to-back titles to cap his Hall of Fame playing career. “They are a great defense. So, that’s why you can’t afford to lose the momentum because to try to flip it on a great defense is always hard.” BIGGEST SURPRISE: Denver’s self-destruction in the Super Bowl after such a stellar season in which the Broncos averaged 37.9 points and their three losses were by a combined 16 points. They trailed by more than that at halftime against Seattle, then the Seahawks needed just 12 seconds to score again in the second half on Percy Harvin’s 87-yard TD return when one of Matt Prater’s patented touchbacks — he had a
league-best 93 of them coming into the game, including 12 in the playoffs — would have been the best way to keep the ball out of Harvin’s hands. “We were hyped up, saying we were going to come out and get a stop, let’s get three-and-out and then they’re like, ‘Boom!” defensive end Shaun Phillips said. “We got kicked in the chin.” BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Failing to win a third Lombardi Trophy behind the best offense in NFL history a year after their crushing loss to Baltimore in the playoffs. This one hurts more, linebacker Wesley Woodyard said. “This is the biggest game, the biggest stage ever,” he said. “It (stinks) to come all the way to New York and not leave with a victory.” WHAT’S NEXT: Figuring out how to parlay this defeat into a championship next season with a roster that could lose Dominique RodgersCromartie, Knowshon Moreno and Eric Decker to free agency and that will need a makeover on defense even if Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr., Rahim Moore, Derek Wolfe and Kevin Vickerson, starters who were on IR by season’s end, come back and regain their form. They’ll have to look at taking a cornerback high in the draft, too. Decker’s 32 TD grabs over the last three years are tops in the league, but the Broncos have to think about contracts looming soon for the two Thomases, who are unique talents at their positions.