This was my first time attending a reserve league game, and it was a very enjoyable experience. The midday, weekday start times prevent most from making it out to the RFK practice field, but if you ever get the chance to take a personal day and venture out there, do it. You've gotta use those things before the end of the year anyway.

To me, what makes the games appealing is that they're a celebration of what could be. From the match to the players to the venue. It's like watching D.C. United from a parallel universe.

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Of course the Georgetown-Bayi Rockets brawl got the Taiwanese animation treatment. This is the kind of story those guys live for. You can see the full version over here, but let's take a look at some of the highlights, shall we?

Most Georgetown students forgo beer pong for a much more exciting game: Get wasted in matching t-shirts and ruin diplomatic relations with some random country. I'm pretty sure this explains the current economic crisis.

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It appears the ESPN stands for Ernie Should've Played Necromantically. How else can you explain the fact that they're calling the Syracuse great a bust?

In a new poll put out by the World Wide Leader they ask readers to vote for their "Simply Saturday" Top 10. It's been promoted as a list of "football players who sizzled in college but fizzled in the pros." The third name on that list: Ernie Davis.

Now I don't know if you've committed The Express to memory (and why haven't you?), but just about any Syracuse fan can tell you that the legend of Ernie Davis did not have a happy ending. After being diagnosed with leukemia shortly after being drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he died at 23 without ever playing an NFL down.

Lists like this are compiled all the time. They're usually done to poke fun at the busts and laugh about how bad the Raiders and Lions are at drafting talented players. They should NOT be used to characterize a tragedy as a "fizzle." To call one of the greatest players to ever wear a Syracuse uniform a bust when he never was given the opportunity to prove himself...

Disgusting.

(H/T to Jameson)

When The Rapture happens on Saturday and I find myself in Hell for stealing my brother's ice cream or something, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out David Kahn is running the place. He's certainly succeeded in turning the Minnesota Timberwolves into a Hell on Earth.

In case you haven't been following the Wolves, the guys over at Orange Fizz just put up an article about what a terrible person David Kahn is and how Orange stars are going there one by one to have their spirits crushed into a fine powder. When asked about Jonny's time in Minnesota, their source within the Timberwolves said the team "really fucked him up."

And that's so wrong. It's heartbreaking. For my junior and senior years at Syracuse, basketball games were defined by Jonny's presence. His smile, his confidence, his ability... He was everything you could want in a point guard, and you could tell that he loved every minute he was on the court, which might explain why he was almost never on the bench.

And his personality shone both on and off the court. He said the right things in interviews. He was irrepressibly optimistic. He joked around with flight attendants. His twitter feed was bubbling with the humor and enthusiasm of someone about to make his dreams of being a professional athlete come true.

Now, he hasn't tweeted in months.

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So news just came out that Chad Ochocinco is joining Sporting KC for a trial period next week. Odds are that this is another publicity stunt from Mr. Eightfive. With the NFL lockout nearly inevitable at this point, he has to find new ways to draw attention to himself. He'll pose for some pictures at the practices, and then move on to the next attention-whoring activity.

But what if it doesn't play out like that? What if it turns out he can really play, and makes it onto the pitch in an MLS game? Let's say he even scores a couple goals. Would having Ochocinco on the field reduce the league to a sideshow, or would it fuel more interest in U.S. soccer?

One thing's for sure... He'd come up with some entertaining goal celebrations.

We're in the midst of Hoya Hate Week 2 (or if you're like me, Hoya Hate Week 8 of 2011). I decided to take this opportunity to create my own variation on the "Advice Dog" meme. It's pretty much the same concept, except this dog is a huge douchebag. You can find some of his *ahem* casual advice below.

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So those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I'm the reason we lost the game yesterday. Despite Syracuse losing every time I've been there, I decided to go to Sign of the Whale to watch the game, and the curse continued. My bad. From now on I will either be watching from home or from a different bar. SotW is lame anyway.

So I was feeling bad about letting down the Orange Empire when voteprime and MBorkowski chimed in and let me know that they too had broken from the usual gameday rituals. And I'm sure it wasn't just us. For a team as good as the Orange to let Pitt go on a 19-0 run to start the game, there must have been a lot of bad mojo floating about.

So what did you do that led to yesterday's loss? Socks on the wrong feet? Hat on backwards? Sacrificed the wrong goat? Come clean in the comments, pray for Boeheim's forgiveness, and that should give us a clean slate to beat 'Nova.

Hey there! Here's the highlights from my Syracuse memorabilia collection. The lead shot includes the limited edition Nike Dunks that were given out to outstanding fans during the 2008 basketball season. Let's take a closer look at what else is there:

First up is a Syracuse trombone slide cover, as featured on the newly designed MySlice website. This style was discontinued my senior year, so I borrowed one to decorate my closet door with.

A 1991 London Monarchs trading card featuring our infallible leader, Doug Marrone. Look at those thighs at work in their prime! I bid on this in an eBay auction I found via the Three Idiots' site. Things get even better on the back...

C'mon guys. Is that really the best picture you could find to put on there? Some interesting nuggets: Marrone made the first-team All-World League in '91. He was also co-player of the game in a losing effort for the Orangemen at the 1985 Cherry Bowl.

And finally, my personal pièce de résistance, a piece of the backboard that Arinze Onuaku shattered at the 2007 Midnight Madness. I was lucky enough to be mere feet away from AO when he did it. If you watch this video and look for the band director sitting on the endline, you can see my reactions go from "Woo!" to "OH MY GOD DON'T HURT ME!" to "That was amazing!!!!" Then before it could all be swept up, I grabbed the biggest piece I could find, which was only about an inch long. My housemates and I also claimed the net from that rim, but I'm not sure what became of it.

I had to compile all the initial (over)reactions on twitter as Vermont was announced as our opponent.  I had never seen the twitterverse explode quite like this:

Knick620 Noooooooooooooooo!

menottiM NOOOOO VERMONT!!!!

brendoh FUCK VERMONT

sportzbelle oh no!

BH_Orange44 VERMONT. MOTHER FUCKERS.

DanKelley44 Vermont...... Oh noes.

SUMeg06 NOOOOOOOOOOOO

PaulieDars NOOOOO!!!!!

jbren Vermont! Ha!

PJASchultz NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

PaulieDars Not VERMONT!!!!

HoyaSuxa That is not a funny joke.

calcagnino Vermont??!?!?!?!?

orange_runner FUCK YOU SELECTION COMMITTEE!!! NOT FUNNY!!!

TheSportHump OMFC - Vermont, eh?

PJASchultz VERMONT AGAIN???

idiotsonsports Oh sweet jesus - vermont.

darry2385 Rematch with Vermont? Are you kidding me

menottiM IS THIS SOME KIND OF CRUEL JOKE? VERMONT!? Bringing back bad memories.

Knick620 YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!

jeff_wiseman411 Vermont.... really

AxemanBlog VERMONT! You gotta love it!!

Alexander_O Nooooooooooooooooooooo! Not Vermont!

erinleighhunter Vermont? VERMONT? Are they joking?

MBorkowski VERMONT? Is this a joke?

AxemanBlog REVENGE! REVENGE!

SUMeg06 FUCKING KILL ME

PJASchultz Now I have to ask for reelz who the fuck is this selection committee???

blackknight76 Vermont's our 16? Really?

scottieSU YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME

idiotsonsports Tom Brennan, while retired from coaching, can still suck it

menottiM Selection committee isn't supposed to play f*cking games like this. No matter, we will smoke Vermont. It's just not funny.

MBorkowski Even with a #1 seed the committee finds a way to screw us.

scottieSU Redemption time

VOTL It's ok. Terrance Roberts' dumb ass can't help Vermont with an ill-timed technical foul this time around.

jbren I joked last night with @BH_Orange44 about Syracuse playing Vermont. We have some demons to exorcise.

SUMeg06 I CANNOT TAKE THIS. Fuck UVM and their bandwagon fucking fans in this awful excuse of a state.

So John Calipari is being honored by Maker's Mark by his own limited-edition bottles of the whiskey.  Weird.  I think that it's totally inappropriate for a college coach to be a spokesperson for a liquor company, let alone putting his face on the bottle, but then again, I don't approve of a lot of things that Coach Cal has been a part of.

So this got me thinking... What kind of product should be graced by Jim Boeheim's lovely visage?

He is a big proponent of nasal hygiene, so this might make the most sense.

Then there's another one of Boeheim's most well known talents: mackin' it.

Any other ideas?

Ed. Note: I am speechless.  Fantastic work.

Living in DC, I have to deal with Georgetown fans on nearly a daily basis, a fate that would make Guantanamo detainees say "Hey, maybe this waterboarding thing isn't so bad."  It was a relief on Thursday night to be surrounded by like-minded Orange fans for a change as Boeheim's boys defeated the Hoya hooligans.  It inspired me to take action.  It inspired me to stake a claim for the Orange Empire right in the middle of the Georgetown campus

Unfortunately, I underestimated the size of the wall just a bit.

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With all the hubbub around the new uniforms this topic has come up yet again, and I'm getting sick of the misinformation out there regarding our school colors.

There is no "war on blue." At least not in the way that people here are interpreting it. It's true that the main Syracuse University website has seen its blue disappear, but the athletics department is not affected by this whatsoever.

And if you won't take my word for it, here's a DO article for you.

The SU Athletic Department will not be affected, said Sue Edson, assistant director of athletics for communications.

One glance at the SU fields and athletic merchandise conclude that blue is here to stay.

However, this is not a push for elimination of blue, said Vice Chancellor Eric Spina. Syracuse will still see the same orange and blue tandem.

"Orange is clearly the emphasis, but blue will continue to be seen as the primary accent," Spina said.

So basically, very little has changed. Orange is still our only official color, blue will still be used as the primary accent, and the athletics department gets to do whatever they want because they're the athletics department.

As for the grey on the basketball jerseys, I'm pretty sure it's there because Nike really likes that color combination. Take a look through their website and you'll see a lot of orange and grey together. Should they be imposing their corporate identity on a school's uniforms? Probably not, but it's not there because Nancy Cantor or Daryl Gross or anyone else decided they hate blue.

The war on blue is a myth, but would it be so bad if it were true? You guys are always harping on people to wear orange to the games anyway. Why not get rid of the blue merch?

Go Orange.