The Orange are in Maui but they're not allowed to chill at the beach all day. There's work to be done.
The Syracuse Orange basketball team is off to Hawaii for the "actual" 2013 Maui Invitational. Technically, their win over St. Francis was part of the tourney, but, c'mon now.
The Orange have until Monday before their first game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. So what are the players going to do with their free time until then? According to them, they get to have a little bit of fun…but not too much.
SU coach Jim Boeheim, in a Tuesday meeting, reminded his players that they are not embarking on a Hawaiian vacation, that there is purpose to the week in paradise.
"He said we can go out," said SU forward Rakeem Christmas, "but we can't go out there and just lay out on the beach. We can wander around."
"Our time is very limited," Gbinije said. "Boeheim wants us off our feet, not in the beach area much."
Keep moving, keep stretching. Beaches weaken knees.
Of course, memories will be made one way or another. And two assistants on the coaching staff know all about what it's like to play in Hawaii.
"It was so hot,'' Autry said. "I remember us getting off that long flight and going into practice and everybody's tired and it was about 100 degrees in that gym. People were taking their shirts off. By the time we got to our scrimmaging part of practice, people were sliding all over the floor. It was so hot in there.'
Mike Hopkins relays the story of the time he and LeRon Ellis went bodysurfing following the final game of the tourney, which, you know, don't tell Boeheim...
One thing SU might want to work on this weekend…free throws. The perpetual thorn in the side of the Orange has reared its ugly head once again this year. It'll come along, says Jerami Grant. Sooner than later, we hope.
