Tuesday, March 27, 2012: C-NS star Stewart dunks twice at Jam Fest

   Leading off today: Cicero-North Syracuse senior standout Breanna Stewart brought the crowd to its feet Monday by twice dunking during the McDonald’s All-American Game Jam Fest in Chicago.

   The 6-foot-4 UConn recruit slammed a two-handed alley-oop on her first attempt and followed with a one-hander, again on an alley-oop.

   Stewart qualified for the final of the dunk contest but missed on her next four attempts. Shabazz Muhammad, the consensus boys player of the year from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, was the winner.

   Click the YouTube video at the top of the right column or follow this link to See Stewart's dunks.

   Milestone alert: Wellsville baseball Coach Denny Miles picked up the 600th win of his career Monday with a 32-7 victory over Letchworth. Miles has had only one losing season since he started coaching in 1976.

   Calling all hoops helpers: For over four decades, the New York State Sportswriters Association has selected the all-state boys basketball teams. The NYSSWA's Steve Grandin has begun work on assembling the 2012 edition and is once again looking to media members and league chairmen to help in the process.

   Please forward your all-area team, as well as any all-section, all-class or all-league teams to Steve, who is also seeking specific information (height, weight, grade in school, statistics, honors) for leading players in each of the five state classes.

   Reporters are asked to nominate players by class, also ranking players within the class. As was the case last year, we will not be choosing players by position since roles are often so fluid on the basketball court.

   Please forward info to Steve via email no later than April 8. Although your all-area team may not have been released by that date, it's likely selections will have made by then; the NYSSWA will keep all-area picks confidential prior to publication by your paper.

   Calling it a day: After 26 seasons in charge and 258 career wins, Jim Guccione has retired as wrestling coach at New Rochelle. His last two squads finished second and third, respectively, in the Section 1 tournament.

   Also stepping down is Bill Twardy, Carmel's coach since 1994.

   Gross lapse in judgment: As someone who's followed Syracuse University football through thick and thin for four decades, this sort of crap ticks me off to no end.

   It's bad enough that the athletic administration has moved attractive home games in upcoming seasons to the Meadowlands (including vs. Southern Cal on Sept. 8). Now, though they've decided to play a pair of home games on Friday nights during the heart of the high school season as colleges continue to infringe on an unwritten rule that served everyone rather nicely for decades -- Fridays belong to the preps, Saturdays to colleges and Sundays to the NFL.

   The Orange will host Friday night games Oct. 5 vs. Pittsburgh and Oct. 19 vs UConn.

   While it's true that both colleges and pros have played frequently on Thursdays, that's not a major night for high school action except to avoid conflicts with the Jewish

More N.Y. postseason coverage All sports • NYSSWA site for brackets of tournaments from the past and present seasons. Boys basketball • Road to Glens Falls for scores and stats. • Federation tourney brackets • NYSPHSAA tourney brackets • Current state rankings. Girls basketball • Road to Troy for scores and stats. • Federation tourney brackets • NYSPHSAA tourney brackets • Current state rankings. Ice hockey • NYSSWA site for tournament brackets. • Final state rankings.

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holidays. And NFL games on Monday nights don't cut into anyone else's turf, nor do the occasional Saturday pro games in December after colleges have wrapped up everything except their bowls.

   But Friday night college games -- especially home games -- will cut deeply into the Central New York prep scene. Many of the 40,000-plus fans who'll be at the Carrier Dome those nights would have otherwise been at scholastic contests; others will likely be watching at home on ESPN. There'll be fewer local TV news highlights of scholastic games at 11 o'clock on Friday and less space in the Saturday papers for the Section 3 roundups because the Orange will be nudging the high schools aside.

   And for what? So SU can stuff its pockets with a few more TV dollars -- and then turn around and charge fans $10 to park at high school games at the Carrier Dome in November?

   What an absolute disgrace, but certainly on par with the mostly Mickey Mouse performance of the football program as a whole for the past 15 years.

   Section 3 and the NYSPHSAA wouldn't dare to protest too loudly because they need the Carrier Dome for the playoff games in November, but fans of high school football shouldn't be bashful about letting SU officials know that this is reprehensible.

   And as Georgetown fans are quick to remind us, you can't spell "suck" without S-U.