The ‘Melo Center had it’s “soft opening” yesterday. Oh don’t worry, it has a grand opening planned as well.
Why? Well, it wasn’t actually finished. Also, the $3 million man couldn’t stick around very long because preseason workouts started for the Nuggets.
This brings a couple interesting things to the table. First, this isn’t the only building opened before it was done this year at SU. Parents were wearing hard hats at the beginning of the semester as they moved their kids into Ernie Davis Hall. In fact, Couzens even did a report on this just last week and was kicked out of the building by the construction crew.
But who knows? The helmet look could be good for the ‘Cuse.
Secondly, ‘Melo has become the king of the Gulfstream Five dedication. At the start of the semester, the banner bringer¬†christened some outdoor courts at Wilson Park in Syracuse. According to reports, he didn’t sign many autographs and was there for less than an hour before departing in a sexy Cadillac Escalade.
Thursday, he had a repeat performance at the debut of a facility named after him (although ‘Melo didn’t bother to go shirt or tie – a flannel shirt was good enough for the superstar).
In the end, though, Syracuse gets another recruiting chip (Tobias Harris, are you listening?). And he did put up trey mil, so “It’s his party and he can wear flannel shirts if he wants to.” Everyone seemed happy in the end, including, and most importantly the players.
In fact, Couzens and I saw Wes Johnson, Kris Joseph and an interesting character we weren’t completely convinced is a student at Kimmel Food Court later on that evening. All seemed joyous (but then again, how could one be depressed in Kimmel?).
On to Maine:
It’s interesting that Brian Bennett from espn.com noted that “Syracuse is going for it’s first two game win streak since 2006.” While¬†The Fizz isn’t completely sure if that’s a depressing synopsis of the last three years or a hopeful sign of the Doug Marrone era, it should be a streak after Saturday night none the less.
The Black Bears simply aren’t a D-1 BCS competitive team. No knocking on wood. No “trap game.” The Orange should win this. The way the players have been talking this week, they seem to feel the same way. Just ask assistant head coach/special teams guru Bob Casullo.
I’ll be stationed at the Dome handling the sideline reporting for WAER. Look for tweets throughout the game from the Dome on¬†the Fizz Twitter.
