The Daily Orange

AUG. 2, 3:12 P.M. - An unknown, private firm recently contacted Syracuse University with plans for a new football stadium, SU athletic director Daryl Gross confirmed to The Daily Orange in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

JULY 31, 11:28 A.M. -- Gary Gait will be the next coach of the Syracuse women's lacrosse team, a source close to Gait said Monday. Jen Adams, associate head coach for the women's team at Maryland and a former player under Gait when he coached at Maryland, was asked if she definitely knew Gait would be coaching Syracuse.

JULY 18, 1:25 A.M. - NEWPORT, R.I. - There's little to be ashamed about with the Big East these days. The football conference almost everyone seemed to write off just a few years ago was brimming with enthusiasm on Tuesday at the conference's annual media day in Newport, R.

JUNE 27, 12:26 A.M. - Gary Gait, a former Syracuse great who helped revolutionize lacrosse, will meet today with SU Director of Athletics Daryl Gross to discuss coaching the Syracuse women's lacrosse team, said men's lacrosse coach John Desko. Desko said Gross is still interviewing other candidates, although he declined to name them, for the vacant position.

JUNE 30 12:49 A.M. - After months of anticipation, and one long night of angst, Darryl Watkins finally knows where he'll be playing basketball - at least for the summer. On Friday, the former Syracuse center joined the Sacramento Kings as a free agent, less than 24 hours after being left out of Thursday night's NBA Draft.

JUNE 29 3:03 A.M. - Certainly Demetris Nichols didn't imagine his night would go this way. Not a chance he'd go as late as he did (No. 53). And then a trade to the team he dreamed of playing for? No way. But after a long wait to hear his name finally drafted at 11:45 p.m. Thursday night and then an early-morning trade, Nichols is a New York Knick.

JUNE 28 - The days leading up to Thursday should have been a time for Demetris Nichols to rest and recharge. He's earned it.

JUNE 26 6:13 P.M. - Former Syracuse women's lacrosse head coach Lisa Miller resigned Tuesday to take the same position at Harvard. Miller, the 2007 Big East Coach of the Year, is the only coach the SU women's lacrosse program has ever had in its 10-year existence. The team is coming off the best season in school history after Syracuse won 13 games and its first NCAA tournament game at Vanderbilt before losing to eventual national champion Northwestern in the second round.

A minor whirlwind of coaching changes blew over Syracuse in the past month. When the dust settled last week SU head coach Greg Robinson officially announced the new director of football operations and the final member of his coaching staff. Last week, Robinson appointed former Northwest (Md.

JUNE 6, 7:20 P.M. -- Turns out Perry Patterson's stint with the Philadelphia Eagles was shorter than even the most pessimistic Syracuse fan could have predicted. The former Orange quarterback was handed his walking papers by the Eagles on Wednesday less than 24 hours after he signed with the team.

JUNE 5, 8:28 P.M. PHILADELPHIA - Perry Patterson might not be the next Donovan McNabb, but at least for the next week and a half the two former Syracuse signal callers will share time on the same field. That's because Patterson signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday hours before the team convened for Organized Team Activities (OTAs) that will run through next Friday.

JUNE 1 9:24 P.M. - Syracuse officially announced Friday it will cut the men's and women's swimming and diving teams after the 2007-08 season and add a women's hockey program beginning in the 2008-09 season. Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross addressed the media on a teleconference call Friday afternoon and said the decisions were made based on research within the athletic department that concluded Syracuse needed to buy a new facility for the swimming teams-a financial project the university could not handle.

MAY 31 10:01 P.M. - Syracuse plans to cut its men's and women's swimming teams following next season, multiple sources confirmed Thursday. "It came as a shock to everyone," rising junior Catrina Roth said. "At first we were kind of upset because we thought our coach knew about it, but in reality he hadn't.

MAY 20: EVANSTON, Ill. - It started the same as last weekend. Against Vanderbilt, the Syracuse women's lacrosse team lost the game's opening draw and found quickly itself in a 2-0 hole. The difference last week was the Orange climbed out. Saturday marked SU's first ever appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals, having picked up its first NCAA tournament win last weekend with a 16-10 victory over the Commodores.

MAY 16, 11:45 A.M. - A source close to Steven Brooks told The Daily Orange recently that the Syracuse midfielder will undergo back surgery sometime this summer. Syracuse head coach John Desko declined to speak about the specificity of Brooks' injury and whether he is having surgery out of respect for Brooks' privacy.

MAY 14: NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Draw controls had become an issue for the Syracuse women's lacrosse team. SU got a fight from Rutgers and was blown away in the category by Georgetown at the Big East Championship. Neither situation came back to haunt Syracuse, with the Orange winning both bouts en route to the Big East Tournament title.