SB Nation - Kristof Ongenaet

Ciao & Congratulazioni Kristof!

Sean Keeley — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:51:19 -0000

Though he only spent two seasons with us, Kristof! Ongenaut, much like Jack in Titanic, will live on in our hearts forever. We've released him back into the world and, it turns out, our little Belgian Waffle is all growns.

SUAthletics posted the good news today that Ongeneat has signed a three-year year contract with Sutor Basket Montegranaro (or Premiata Montegranaro, depending on who you talk to), the Italian pro team from Montegranaro. Monte (as I will call them) are a member of Serie A, the top level of the Italian League, though they are a bit of a surprise entrant being from such a small town. They're like the Green Bay Packers of Italian Basketball. Without any of the history. Or Brett Favre.

Kristof! joins some former Illinois player Kiwane Garris and former Ohio Bobcat Brandon Hunter on the roster.

Here's an exciting fact about the town of Montegranaro that you probably didn't know.

It is one of the main centers for shoes production in Italy.

Sweet! I worry about how Kristof! will get on playing in a city where that fact is the only notable piece of information on their Wikipedia page, but I'm sure he'll get on just fine. Hopefully they have queen size beds available.

H/T: Syracuse.com

Sleep Like A Belgish King. On A Queen.

Sean Keeley — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:13:10 -0000

Couple thoughts:

Um, yes. I'm interested. Don't wash it beforehand, I want to make sure it still smells Kristof!y.
Is this the end? Cause where KO is going, they don't need queen size beds. Or at least, they have their own queen size beds.
KO slept on a queen size? How does he pull that off? I'm 5'9", have a California King and still reach my feet to the end of the bed. Surely the Greatest Belgian Of All Time could find a more comfortable way to snooze. I blame Hopkins.

Update: Yep, KO is on his way back to Europe. Everything must go! Going back to Europe in a week. My queen size bed, microwave, and a bunch of kitchen supplies all for sale! 200, 20, and 50. Or just buy everything for 250.

H/T: BillOrange

Casual Hoya Caption Contest

Hire Esherick — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:38:33 -0000

Following in lordnick's precedent of filling the dead time with non-Georgetown related humor, I present to you the first ever Casual Hoya Caption Contest.

via assets.nydailynews.com

Have at it.

Wrapping Up The SOBs

Sean Keeley — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:14:53 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Roberson - AP

Browse more photos »

Well there you have it folks. Another year, another collection of made-up awards that aren't actually awards. Just in case you missed them, here's all the Syracuse Orange Blogger Award winners:

Best Syracuse-Related Video - Paul Harris' Rap

Best Senior - Kristof!

Biggest Villain/Nemesis - HasheemThabeet / Jim Calhoun

Best Freshman - Kris Joseph

Best Boeheim Quote of the Season - "Paul, which one? At one point you missed four in a row."

Best Sophomore - Jonny Flynn

Worst Moment of the Season - Finding out Jonny Flynn was signing with an agent.

Best Game of the Year - Syracuse beats UConn in 6OTs

Most Surprising Player -Slick Rick Jackson

Best Junior -Eric Devendorf

Worst Game of the Season -Oklahoma in the Sweet Sixteen

Best Non-Boeheim Quote - "Eric Devendorf smells deuces" - Doris Burke

Favorite Moment of the Season -Winning the 6 OT game over UConn

Best Photo -Tie (Devo & Jonny embrace/Devo preening)

Most Valuable Player - Jonny Flynn

Huge thanks to the many Syracuse blog out there who took part. I truly believe Syracuse has the best collection of bloggers of all the Big East teams and is among the best in the nation. You keep laughing at fart jokes, we'll keep writing them.

The 2009 SOBs - Day One

Sean Keeley — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:57:30 -0000

Day One is done for the Syracuse Orange Blogger awards. In case you missed them...

Best Syracuse-Related Video - Paul Harris' Rap

Best Senior - Kristof!

Biggest Villain/Nemesis - HasheemThabeet / Jim Calhoun

Best Freshman - Kris Joseph

Best Boeheim Quote of the Season - "Paul, which one? At one point you missed four in a row."

Best Sophomore - Jonny Flynn

Worst Moment of the Season - Finding out Jonny Flynn was signing with an agent.

Best Game of the Year - Syracuse beats UConn in 6OTs

Tomorrow morning we'll start handing out the remainder of the awards. Check out the schedule below and report for duty accordingly.

THURSDAY

Time	Award	Blog
10:00am	Most Surprising Player	Superman Wears Rob Long Underoos (Ray)
11:00am	Besy Junior	The Orange Fizz
12:00pm	Worst Game of the Season	CuseOrange
1:00pm	Best Non-Boeheim Quote	The Sport Hump
2:00pm	Favorite Moment of the Season	Orange44
3:00pm	Best Photo	Three Idiots on Sports
4:00pm	Most Valuable Player	TNIAAM

Actually A Pretty Nice Little Saturday

Sean Keeley — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:06:36 -0000

I do not envy your Dodge Stratus. It's tires are going to get some serious wear and/or tear tomorrow. Cause you have a very big day.

First, you're going to the Carousel Mall around 10am, like you always do. But this time, it's not to sit down on the bench across from the Bally's and stare at the soccer moms on the step machine. This time, it's to go stand in line so you can get Jonny Flynn's autograph. Bring $20, it's gonna cost you.

Hopefully you're out of there by noon because now you've got to kike it over to North Syracuse (sorry) and stop by Installations Unlimited so you can get Kristof!'s John Hancock. Hang out for a little bit, see if those diamond-encrusted rims you've had your eye on are in stock and dance in the parking lot to the sweet sounds of DJ Ray Caruso who will also be on hand.

But don't dilly-dally, there's NCAA lacrosse to be seen. It's Senior Day over at the Dome and the Orange are taking on a frisky Colgate squad that's desperate for a quality win and is looking to bear SU for the 3rd straight year. The game starts at 2pm and tickets are still available (don't tell Rahme...he'll flip his sh*t).

The game should be over by 5pm and it's time to grab some dinner. Perfect kind of day for a pie at The Varsity. After that, maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time...

That's because the last event of the day doesn't start until 10pm. That's the Filmmaker's Award Party at the Syracuse Film Festival. If their marketing material is to believed, it's going to be the best thing ever done by humans:

This is the not-to-miss event of the fest... a party at the MOST, sponsored by Rums of Puerto Rico, with live music by Los Blancos, food, open rum bar, and filmmakers awards...just like the Oscars!

Just $40 and eat and drink as you please. Just consider it a steep cover charge. But...Los Blancos, you guys!!!

Previewing The Syracuse Orange Sweet 16 Matchup

dishingoutdimes — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:05:16 -0000

#2 Oklahoma vs. #3 Syracuse
South Regional Semifinal
Friday, March 27, 2009 6:27PM Central - Memphis, TN
Winner plays either #1 North Carolina or #4 Gonzaga

Storylines

Oklahoma advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 73-63 win over Michigan on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time OU has advanced to the Sweet 16 since Kelvin Sampson's 2002-2003 squad went to the Elite Eight. Coincidentally, that year the Sooners met Syracuse and the Orange went on to win the national championship with Carmelo Anthony, Hakim Warrick, and crew.

For Syracuse, this is the first Sweet 16 since 2004. Basically this will be a matchup of two squads that have been a bit disappointing in recent years, and have both had Sweet 16 droughts of at least 5 years. However, both programs are historically good (give the edge to Syracuse on basketball history though).

Of the teams in the South Region, Oklahoma has the shortest travel distance despite the committee usually trying to protect the 1 seed. Oklahoma is the closest, North Carolina has a bit more travel, and Gonzaga and Syracuse both have long trips. Anyways, that's a story that people like to play up a lot, but a historical GIS analysis says it's really not that important.

It will be a matchup of a veteran coach (Jim Boeheim who has coached at Syracuse since 1976) and a new coach (Jeff Capel, one of the younger coaches in Division I). It will also be one of four (yes four - how boring) 2 seed vs. 3 seed matchups. In fact, without considering a 5 seed over a 4 seed an upset, there will only really be one Cinderella team in the Sweet 16 this year - 12 seed Arizona in the Midwest bracket. There were some first round upsets, but it all evened out by the Sweet 16, so there are a lot of heavyweight matchups - OU vs. Syracuse will be no different.

Full preview after the jump (click link below)...

Getting To Know The Orange

Starters

Arinze Onuaku - F/C 6'9" 275 Junior - 10.4 ppg 7.4 rpg
Rick Jackson - F 6'9" 240 Sophomore - 8.2 ppg 5.8 rpg
Paul Harris - F 6'4" 230 Junior - 12.4 ppg 8.1 rpg 2.2 apg
Eric Devendorf - G 6'4" 180 Junior - 15.8 ppg 2.0 rpg 3.0 apg
Jonny Flynn - G 6'0" 185 Sophomore - 17.5 ppg 2.8 rpg 6.7 apg

Other Rotation Players

Andy Rautins - G 6'5" 205 Junior - 10.2 ppg 3.3 rpg 3.0 apg
Kristof Ongenaet - F 6'8" 215 Senior - 3.3 ppg 4.8 rpg
Kris Joseph - F 6'7" 220 Freshman - 3.3 ppg 2.4 rpg

Syracuse features an experienced rotation of players. Rautins has started for most of the year, but in the tournament, Boeheim has brought him off the bench (for significant minutes) anyways, while starting Rick Jackson. Really, the players that will make an impact are the 5 starters and Rautins, who have all had about 30 minutes per game or more in the tournament so far. The bench has not been used much at all for the entire year, but has been used even less so down the stretch and in the tournament. For the entire season, from the KenPom site, the bench minutes are at about 24%, which is good for a dismal 312th in Division 1. Flynn and Devendorf basically play the entire game.

Interesting stat to illustrate the minutes the starters play: Jonny Flynn has played 1,339 minutes this season, an average of 37.1 per game. Only John Wallace (1,379), Lazarus Sims (1,352) and Sherman Douglas (1,348) have played more minutes in a single season at Syracuse. (courtesy of syracuse.com)

Their guards are their playmakers and Devendorf has had the hot hand lately. He's scored at least 20 points in 4 of the last 5 games - a stretch that basically includes the Big East and NCAA tournaments. In fact, Jonny Flynn really is the heart and soul of the team. People can talk about Devendorf and Rautins hitting treys, but Flynn leads the team in scoring and minutes, and Syracuse is 14-2 when he shoots 50% or better from the field. Anyone who watched the Greatest Game Ever knows how good Flynn has been for Syracuse this year.

Weaknesses to Exploit

Offensive Turnover%: 20.5, 183rd nationally
Defensive Turnover%: 18.6, 279th nationally
Giving Up Offensive Boards: 270th nationally
Free Throw%: 64.5, 300th nationally
Giving Up Steals%: 11.0, 281st nationally

Surprisingly, the Orange and the Sooners seem remarkably similar with regards to weaknesses. Both teams rely heavily on starters, both have trouble with turnover margins, both miss a fair number of free throws, and both get the ball stolen a fair amount when pressed.

Syracuse is actually a worse free throw shooting team than OU, and has been one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the tournament so far. Luckily they were able to blow out Stephen F. Austin and used the 3-pointer to take down Arizona State. In a close game, this could be a key.

The Orange play a 2-3 matchup zone which has been their trademark under Jim Boeheim. This causes some problems for some teams who simply don't gameplan to beat it enough. Back in 2003, this was the case as Syracuse blew out OU in the Elite Eight. Hopefully Capel comes up with a more imaginative gameplan than Sampson did. However, the 2-3 zone (and any zone for that matter) makes teams vulnerable to giving up offensive rebounds. This has been the case all year with Syracuse, and showed early on against Arizona State. Unforunately for the Sun Devils, they shot way too many contested threes, and that's why they lost.

The Sooners have played one team this year (at least one competitive team) that played exclusively zone - Michigan. As would be suspected, Blake Griffin was a monster on the glass (15 rebounds). Not only that, but the Michigan zone was exposed when deceptively fast wing players were able to penetrate and kick a bit - most notably Taylor Griffin.

Finally, the Orange are susceptable to turnovers. There is nobody on the roster with better than a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio on the year. OU executed the press pretty well against Michigan at times, and created some errors from the Wolverines.

Syracuse is a very streaky team. They started 16-1. Then they went on a stretch where they posted a 3-7 record. Then they finished 9-1. They are a solid 16-3 at home but only 12-6 on the road and at neutral sites.

Keys To Victory

Pressure: As with any streaky team who has hit their stride, you have to find some way to mix it up and knock them off their game. OU should selectively apply the press like they did against Michigan. Their man-to-man defense needs to continue to be solid. If Tony Crocker can continue his solid defensive performance in the tournament and Juan Pattillo can be a mistake eraser, the pressure to outscore Syracuse will be lessened.
Win The Turnover Battle: It sounds simple, but it's easier said than done.
Dominate The Paint: The Orange give up lots of second chance points and offensive rebounds. Blake is good at this, but OU's other big men (Taylor, Juan, Ryan/Orlando) need to step up.
No Easy Points: This applies to perimeter defense (don't give them open 3's), but also to layups and dunks. If they are going hard to the basket, foul them hard. Make them earn it from the stripe because they haven't even made 2 out of every 3 foul shots.
Penetrate: There will be alleys in the zone. Blake will be the most dominant post player in the game. Penetrating and being aggressive to the rim gets the other team in foul trouble. Syracuse is not a "deep" team, so getting them in foul trouble early would help a lot. Willie Warren can really help in this regard. When he drives to the rim, the Sooners are hard to beat.

Tell Kristof! More About This, How Do You Call It...Big Dance?

Sean Keeley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:42:24 -0000

First off, one of the best things awaiting us in the NCAA Tournament that no one is mentioning? The cavalcade of announcers attempting, poorly, to pronounce Kristof! Ongenaet's name. Just this morning I heard someone on the radio say "On-ja-neat." It's going to be fun.

So many of the players in the Tourney have been dreaming of this weekend their entire lives. They grew up watching the Big Dance on TV, re-enacting it's greatest moments in their driveway. All except Kristof!, who pretty much would have had no idea what you were talking about up until four years ago.

“Maybe if you had a special channel, you had a couple NBA games a week that you could watch,” Ongenaet said. “It was real late because of the hour difference. So no. Before I came to America, maybe I saw 10 NBA games and except for that there’s nothing I really knew about it.”

Even now, KO's not entirely sure what the hell is going on.

‘‘I don’t really know 100 percent everything,’’ Ongenaet said. ‘‘The third seed, the fourth seed, the fifth seed. I’m not really sure what all that means.’’

That's okay, Kristof! Neither does Dick Vitale and he's been at it for years.

KO goes on to say the chance to play in the NCAA Tournament was a big part of the reason he came to SU in the first place. Which is weird considering once they finally made it, he had absolutely no idea what to do with himself:

On Sunday, he watched the NCAA’s Selection Show along with the rest of his teammates, but lacked their familiarity with what was happening. The SU players erupted at the sight of Syracuse’s name as the No. 3 seed, so Ongenaet just followed in kind.

How cute is this guy? (nh)

Kristof! Ongenaet Eats Lightning And Craps Thunder

Sean Keeley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:37:17 -0000

Glue guy. Mr. Intangibles. Spark plug. Waffle.

Kristof! has been called many things in his all-too-brief Syracuse career. However, he added an entirely new facet to his legend last week when he took one of the most gruesome spills in basketball history and not only got back up but ended up playing extremely well afterward.

It's the kind of thing that, if you're not careful, might lend itself to hyperbole:

In the first Jurassic Park movie, the tyrannosaurus rex wasn't chasing the jeep. KO was chasing the tyrannosaurus AND the jeep.

Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have slept with over 20,000 women in his lifetime. KO calls this a 'slow tuesday.'

A cobra once bit Kristof's leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.

Funny, KO never mentioned any of these things in his Facebook status.

It's been a couple days now and any concerns that Kristof! might not be back to full-strength in time for SU's match-up with Stephen F. Austin on Friday should be put to bed, thanks to drugs. Sweet, sweet drugs.

‘‘I’m good,’’ Ongenaet said. ‘‘I took some painkillers and some inflammation stuff and I put ice on it before I went to bed. I got great support from the staff. It’s pretty good. Give me a couple days and I’ll be fine.’’

All in all the Orange are happy not only for the Friday slot but also for the chance to play in Miami. A little too happy, if you ask me:

‘‘It’s Miami. You got nice weather. You got the beach,’’ Flynn said. ‘‘You got pretty young ladies down there. But we’re going to go down there with the right mind-set and focus that we’re on a mission. That’s the one thing that we have to remember.’’

Please, if you see any young ladies walking around in University of Iowa shirts, STEER THEM ELSEWHERE. Thank you.

In related news, it MAY be the final Scoop & Wes Show of the season. Tune in cause you don't want the show to be canceled before they have the chance at syndication.

And if you are heading into Miami to watch the game, swing by the open (and free) practice on Thursday between 1:30 and 2:10pm. But don't go blabbing to anyone about the plays they run.

That'll Do Cuse, That'll Do

Sean Keeley — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:47:01 -0000

I can certainly understand why Jonny Flynn buried his face into his lap at the end of last night's contest with Louisville. With the game slipping away, the perfect ending was slipping away as well. The thing he and his teammates fought so hard and came so close to achieving wasn't going to happen. The underdog had finally met it's match in the Big East regular-season champion Louisville Cardinals, who played every bit their reputation in the second half, and the Cardinals ended up spoiling the storybook ending, beating the Orange 76-66 in the BET finals.

Jay Bilas' prophecy finally came to pass. Syracuse's bodies began to give out of them. Crisp passes turned into easily-intercepted lobs. Gimme lay-ups were anything but. Their broken-down bodies unable to quite keep up with the athletes on the other side of the ball, who were "rested" in comparison.

All of that said, there is no shame in this loss. Anyone who doubts the desire of the Orange to win this game clearly didn't watch and clearly hasn't been watching the Big East Tournament at all. The Orange were running strictly on desire in the 2nd half. It's all they had left. And when Jonny Flynn went to the bench with a little over a minute left, the game finally out of reach, all that unfulfilled desire bubbled over. And no one can blame him. We would have buried our heads too.

Kudos to the Cardinals who looked every bit the probably NCAA 1-seed. They came into the BET as the "other" good team and they left as the one that likely replaced UConn in the national standings.

In the moral victories department, Jonny was named Most Outstanding Player of the BET, only the fourth player from a non-winning team to do so. It was well-deserved:

Flynn didn't move for a few moments. He stood at midcourt, his hand over his eyes, his head shaking, and started the slow walk back to the bench. There Flynn sat, huddled between assistant coaches Bernie Fine and Rob Murphy, his head in his hands, unable to even watch the closing seconds of a 76-66 loss Saturday night.

That's how the No. 18 Orange's surprising run here at Madison Square Garden ended: Its best player, the tournament MVP, sitting in the third seat from the scorer's table as the two squads shook hands at center court. Flynn said he stayed in place down because he was disappointed his team couldn't finish the job. But by that point, it looked like he was simply too exhausted to move anymore.

Harris might have won the MVP but it was Eric Devendorf who broke a record. The record for points in a single Big East Tournament (84), beating the old record of 81.

That brings us to KO. And well, that brings us to this:

Is it me or did KO actually come stronger afterwards? Mr. Intangible must've knocked an extra boost loose. He was a passing, rebounding and hustling machine. Let's drop this guy on his head from large heights more often...

At the end of the day, we (and the nation) learned a lot about this Syracuse team. Namely:

We actually CAN hang with any team in the naton, given that we're not coming off 7 OTs in the last two days.
Eric Devendorf is the most dangerous player in the nation with less than 0:01 left.
Jonny Flynn has a huge back, on which he can place the entire SU team at any given time.
Paul Harris can be so great...and so frustrating.
Syracuse basketball officially owns New York City. No question. Much to DOCTOR Gross' satisfaction.

Here's some other thoughts from around the Interweb. We'll find out what the ORange are seeded and where they'll play around 6pm ET tonight. Let the "does Syracuse have anything left in the tank" discussion begin and continue ad nauseum for the next four days.

Mike Waters thinks SU will get a 4-seed (I agree)...Mike Waters
You couldn't miss the signs of fatigue in the 2nd half of the game...Brent Axe
SU can't complete the magical run...WAER Sports
SU lost the game but won lots of hearts. So says Bud Poliquin and his snappy sweater...Bud Poliquin
Flynn and Devo wowed the crowd at the BET...Donna Ditota
Has Jonny Flynn's stock risen now to the point where he could go pro?...Bleacher Report
KO just ran out of air on his 2 and a 1/2 tuck...Sports Hernia

Photo Credit: AP