On Top of the RPI

RealTime’s RPI listing was adjusted Tuesday morning, in light of Monday’s road win at Notre Dame. And for the first time that I know of, Cuse held the number one RPI ranking in the nation. Strength of schedule is number seven, and Cuse is credited with ten quality wins, two of them high quality wins – victories over West Virginia and California away from the Dome.

I was talking to PH yesterday, claiming that I did not want to see the Orange climb to number one in the national polls. I think they need to be reminded that they are not invincible, so they don’t become complacent. Even at number five, I fear that the air may be too thin. But the RPI is a different thing altogether. No one is voting; it’s not a popularity contest of any kind. RealTime has their formula; they measure everyone’s strength of schedule; and they give credit for road wins – two in the Garden – one in Florida – and now four in the conference, including Saturday’s win over West Virginia. They’re not playing at home in March, and they won’t be playing in Albany either, so learning to win on the road is a big deal.

The road trip reinforced the perception that on this team, someone different can step up in each game. (In my very last conversation with Dr. P, the night of his birthday -- and of course what else would we discuss other than basketball? – he said the very same thing; someone different plays well each night.) Rautins, Triche and Wes Johnson played key roles over the past three games. Also, the Notre Dame game showed how an opponent that relies on one or two stars has a tough time against the Orange, who have all that balance. Any one of the top seven, including Joseph and Jardine off the bench, can make the difference for the Cuse on any given night.

It’s still January, two months from the tournament. Way too early to celebrate anything. But clearly, the recent road trip has raised expectations for this year’s team. I’m of the mind that another couple losses will be good for the team – think about Lemoyne. PH says that’s negative thinking, but I’m trying to be practical. Also, I’d like to see more games go down to the wire, because you know in March, no matter who they play, they won’t be walking away with double digit wins. And if we’re composing a wish list, then let’s ask for no injuries.

Marquette on Saturday and Georgetown on Monday. (Just to be clear, I’d hate to see one of those two losses be to G-Town.) In the Big East this winter, it doesn’t let up. Go Orange.

An Unpeated Caol Ila

Here's something new, and different. I was in Whitehouse recently, and Ben had saved a bottle of ten-year old Caol Ila, cask strength, unpeated. Now we all know Caol Ila as one of the classic Islay malts. Maybe it's not as buttery as Lagavulin, nor quite as briny as Laphroaig, but it has a rich smoky flavor, full of peat. So what in the world was Ben talking about -- an unpeated Coal Ila whisky?

After attempting to research this on line, the best I can figure is that this ten-year old is a first-fill whisky. A friend of ours came back from a trip to the UK with a bottle of Glenlivet, first fill. I had never heard that term before, but apparently it means the first Scotch whisky that matures in a particular barrel. Of course, all Scotches age in barrels that were once filled with bourbon, so the term, 'first-fill' doesn't mean exactly that. Anyway, it seems that before they make the Caol Ila that we all know so well, the distillers season the barrel for ten years and make what tastes very much like a light-bodied Highland malt. In fact, this whisky is so light that it almost straddles the border between the Highlands and Lowlands - like the Tullibardine that we recently discovered. I've always liked the rich malty highlands like Macallan and Aberlour, much more so than say a Glenmorangie. But these light bodied whiskies are easy on the pallet, and very flavorful in their own way. They're also a reminder of how varied Scotch whisky can be. The distance between this ten year-old, and Caol Ila's classic 18 (Danny and I once tasted a 25 when we were traveling in Canada, but that was off the charts, and it's unfair to compare anything to a 25.) is a couple orders of magnitude greater than the entire width of, let's say, the rye whisky spectrum. All those rye whiskies, even Potrero, have a distinctive rye flavor. You could make an old-fashioned with any of them, and it would be an old-fashioned. But not so with Scotch.

I'm skipping the whole thing about its color and its nose, or that because it's not chill-filtered, it gets cloudy when you add water, and you need to add water because it's close to sixty percent. Never mind all that stuff. The bottom line is that it's delicious, and I think I need to go back and get a refill. And since it's not on the shelves any more, Ben having sold his small allotment to his regulars, I think that after I get that refill, I'll have to hide this bottle at the back of the cabinet and forget about it for the next few weeks. Otherwise I probably would drink the whole damn thing up. Wouldn't that be a shame?

Cold Front Passes

It was cold in the Cuse last Saturday, and I don't mean out on the quad. Everyone went cold inside the Dome as the Orange went one for umpteen from three-point range, and lost to Pitt by ten. Rautins couldn't buy a basket; Triche played like a freshman, tentative and intimidated; Jackson apparently hadn't set his alarm clock to wake up before noon; and everyone aside from Wes Johnson mostly stood around and let Pitt beat them to loose balls, and to position under the boards. By the time it was over, Cuse had lost for the first time since Lemoyne, and it was clear that every Big East game was going to be a battle.

Tonight, in the first half, it seemed like the cold front had stuck around, as the Orange trailed Memphis for much of the half, and managed to top thirty points only when Rautins hit a long three with seconds on the clock. But as they have in many games this year, Cuse stepped up in the second half, and pulled away to win by double digits - 17 at the final buzzer. Johnson had his customary all-around game, leading the team in scoring, and contributing everywhere on the court. Kris Joseph, after a mostly invisible first half, ended up with fifteen points, and seemed to energize the second half offense. Five guys scored in double figures, excellent balance considering that the team only put up 74 points. But most importantly, the defense seemed to come alive in the second half. The zone extended out on the Memphis guards, who had hit seven threes in the first half, but couldn't seem to get good looks in the second half. With about a minute or so to go in the game, the defense had allowed only 19 second half points. And when the defense is active, and generating turnovers, the offense gets some easy hoops, which are even more important in a low scoring game like tonight's.

Still, even winning by seventeen, the Orange committed seventeen turnovers, many of them unforced. Boeheim said it looked like they were trying to pass to Memphis. From one perspective, that's worrisome, because seventeen turnovers against Georgetown or Villanova will probably be fatal. On the other hand, if they protect the ball better, there's obvious room for improvement. Cut down on turnovers and make layups, even without great outside shooting, and they'll be in much better shape for conference play.

All things considered, the good news is that, at least for the time being, even though it continues to snow up here, and they're now predicting a big storm for the end of the week, which I hope doesn't interfere with our travel to the Dome on Sunday, last Saturday's cold front seems to have passed.

An Exercise in Nostalgia

This posting is apropos of nothing, and entirely unrelated to any of the nominal topics of this blog, or even the surrogate topics that occur seasonally. Such as all the recent posts about the Syracuse Orange, Wes Johnson et al. But as I'm the sole author of the blog, with unlimited discretion about what to publish, allow me to tell you about what's been taking up my time of late:

I recently acquired a turntable with a digital output. For the techies among you, it's an Audio Technica model whatever whatever, with a USB plug. It came with a couple software programs, and the one that works with Susan's MacBook is Audacity. It's a bit complicated to install, and we needed John's expertise to get it up and running. But once installed, it's pretty easy to use. Put the LP on the turntable; start recording; export the digital file as an MP3; and then copy to ITunes. That's it. Once copied into ITunes, the songs can be downloaded to the IPod; and then incorporated into playlists; all the usual stuff.

So for the past couple weeks, I've not only been making digital recordings of all these old LPs, but have been revisiting my teenage years in the process. I went through all the old Lovin Spoonful albums, all of which I had bought when in high school, and compiled a Greatest Hits thing. Then I went through the old Stones albums, I mean the really old ones, and pulled a few gems out -- stuff that didn't quite make it to the CD collections. Susan and I had saved some 45s from way back in the day, and we even recorded the best of the 45s, scratches and all.

Today, I went through three Dave Van Ronk albums, most of which I hadn't heard for more than two decades. In college, Van Ronk was playing pretty much all the time, in one room or another in my fraternity. And even though we had seen Van Ronk a couple years before he died, and even though we listened to him endlessly all through college, somehow I seemed to forget how good he was. His voice; his phrasing; his wonderful guitar playing. How many hours did I spend listening to Dave Van Ronk? And why hadn't I figured out some way to listen to him in the past twenty years? I mean, why didn't I get any CDs? Anyway, once I finish with the other albums, I'm making one playlist from all his albums, and then I'm planning to sprinkle his songs through all the other playlists.

I've got tons more to do - the Dylan bootleg albums; Mississippi John Hurt; Jimmy Smith singing Hoochie Coochie Man; the Fugs. Once I'm done, I feel like I'll have a soundtrack to my youth. And in the process, it's great fun revisiting those old days.

Spice Tree

So much good whisky, and so little time. John came home recently for the holidays, with a couple new bottles, recommendations from Joe Howell, the whisky manager at Federal Wine & Spirits in downtown Boston. Joe's recommendations are always right on point, and this time was no exception. One was a Bladnoch, soon to be our favorite lowland malt, as soon as the world's supply of Rosebank disappears. But the Bladnoch posting will have to wait for a while; after all I've previously posted about the Signatory bottling of Bladnoch which I found right here in Rochester. Joe's second suggestion, and the subject of tonight's post is Spice Box, one of the new blended malts from the Compass Box label.

I don't know much about Compass Box, other than the fact that Joe sold Chipper a bottle of Peat Monster, and that their whiskies are attractively packaged, catching the eye as they sit on the shelves, next to the other blends. But honestly, I never spent much time looking them over. A few years ago, when I was at the bar at Max one night, a liquor salesman urged me to try something called Pebble Beach, which looked nice, but which I quickly concluded was all show and no go. Just a pretty package with not much inside. So since then, I've been disdainful of offerings that smack of too much input from the marketing department.

But, I'm pleased to report that the Compass Box folks, even if they are guilty of attractive labeling, have done a great job with the whisky inside the bottle. Spice Tree doesn't taste like a blend, at least not like any of the currently popular blends. It has the character and distinctive flavor of a single malt. In fact, although it's apparently blended from highland malts, it reminds me of whisky from the islands. It has a peppery quality, not unlike Talisker; but more than that, a hint of ginger or cinnamon, or who knows what. (I'm never much good at picking out the different flavors in wine or whisky.) John and I thought it would work best after dinner, so that the big flavor did not tend to overwhelm the meal, or the wine. Like the Islay malts, Spice Tree fills up the palate, leaving little room for anything else, except perhaps the smoke of a good cigar. And it has a much longer finish than any other blend I know of.

Joe: thanks for the suggestion. And Johnny, thanks for the gift. If I had more room in the liquor cabinet, I think I'd try a couple more of these Compass Box offerings, because I was most impressed with Spice Tree.