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AROUND THE BIG EAST: 11/28/2009

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I hope all the readers of the NBE Basketball Report and their families had a great Thanksgiving holiday! There has been so much going on around the Big East basketball conference, we have decided to take a tour of the 16 teams in the conference and try to get everyone caught up. We will add a few observations along the way on what we have seen early on…

Cincinnati (4-1)

–The Bearcats earned impressive victories over Vanderbilt and Maryland while reaching the finals of the Maui Invitational. The came up just short in the championship game, losing in overtime to Gonzaga, 61-59.

Freshman phenom Lance Stephenson seemed to be finding his place in the college game a little better, scoring 15 in the final game. Mick Cronin turned to his frosh star in crunch time, over senior Deonta Vaughn. If they can find the right mix between the two, as they both are accustomed to having the ball in their hands, and not forget about Yancy Gates in the post, UC has shown they are going to be really tough.

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Connecticut (4-1)

–After somewhat sleepwalking through three wins to start the season, UConn blitzed LSU in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night to set-up the highly anticipated match-up with Duke in the finals. After their performance against LSU, many thought they might steamroll Duke, not so fast…

Duke comfortably beat the Huskies and the final score of 68-59 was not a representation of how competitive the game was as the Blue Devils led 58-38 before UConn made it more respectable at the end.

The question with the Huskies will be can they shoot. Against Duke, they did not as Jerome Dyson (6-20) and Kemba Walker (4-12) combined to shoot 10-32 from the field and 4-11 from the free throw line. As a team they were 0-4 from beyond the arc and 15-28 from the foul line.
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DePaul (3-1)

–The Blue Demons represented themselves well taking third place in the Paradise Jam this week. Jerry Wainwright’s club earned very solid wins over Northern Iowa and St. Joseph’s, falling to nationally ranked Tennessee, 57-53, in the semifinals.

DePaul still looks to be offensively challenged, averaging just 57.5 points a game, but their defense and ability to control the tempo of the game has improved early on.
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Georgetown (3-0)

–The Hoyas have a national ranking but the jury is still out as they have not been very busy early in the season. Games with ranked Butler and Washington loom on the schedule, so more will be known in the coming weeks.

In their lone challenge to date, many of the same shortcomings of last season seemed to still be there when they escaped with a 46-45 home win over Temple. The Owls missed key free throws and the Hoyas finally went inside to Greg Monroe to get the game winner. A lack of bench production (two points), long offensive droughts, poor shooting, getting beat on the glass and an assist to turnover ratio of 7 to 16 in that contest was a formula that led to many Big East losses last year.
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Louisville (4-0)

–The Cards opened the season by blitzing an undermanned Arkansas and have yet to be really tested in the young season. That should change tomorrow when UL travels to take on UNLV on Saturday.

Samardo Samuels is averaging 17.5 points and 8 rebounds a game in the first four contests and if the UL guards can continue to feed him the basketball, they should see very good results and it will open the perimeter as well.
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Marquette (6-0)

–Probably the surprise team of the national early on. After seeing Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Mathews graduate following last season, the Golden Eagles find themselves 6-0 after today’s 79-65 win over #15 Michigan at the Old Spice Classic. MU opened the tournament with a 10-point win over Xavier. On Sunday, Marquette will take on Florida State for the championship.

Lazar Hayward has led MU with 27 and 22 points in the two games to start the tournament and JUCO transfer guards Dwight Buycks and Darius Johnson Odom, along with junior Jimmy Butler, have also been consistent performers to date.
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Notre Dame (5-1)

–Like Georgetown, Notre Dame had a national ranking coming off a disappointing season and had yet to be tested in the early going. The Irish faced their first test of the season earlier tonight against Northwestern in the Chicago Invitational Challenge and failed. ND fell 72-58 as a familiar formula led to the loss.

Luke Harangody led the Irish with 21 points and 9 rebounds, but he did not have much help. The Irish only used seven players and did little defensively to disrupt the Wildcats. There is not much of a challenge on the schedule before Big East play, except maybe for a visit from UCLA, so it may be a while before we learn if this year’s Irish team is different from last year’s club that sputtered in the Big East.
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Pittsburgh (4-1)

–The Panthers are coming off a 78-62 loss to No. 3 Texas in the CBE Classic finals. Despite the final margin of victory, Pitt showed pretty well, leading the Longhorns at the half and until about the midway point of the second half before the depth, experience and athleticism of Texas took over in a 30-13 game-ending run.

Pitt is hoping that senior Jermaine Dixon, their lone returning starter from last year’s elite 8 team is available in the next 7-10 days. Junior Gilbert Brown, who started as a freshman for the Panthers, will return from a suspension for violating University academic policy December 18th, so while the current group is making strides, Pitt will look much different come conference time.
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Providence (4-1)

–Keno Davis and the Friars are off to a 4-1 start and take on Boston College tomorrow (Saturday) at home. Marshon Brooks is establishing himself as a big time scorer, averaging over 19 points a game thus far, and Jamine Peterson is putting up some big time numbers. Still, so many newcomers and not a lot of size will hurt this team come conference play. The will rely on the long-range shot and a quick pace to make-up for their lack of size. In their recent win over Vermont, 106-64, that style showed it can be effective. Will it win in the Big East this year, we might get a better idea after the BC game.
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Rutgers (3-1)

–A scary score comparison for RU fans: Vermont 77, Rutgers 71. Providence 106, Vermont 64. Yikes. Both games played on the home floor of the Big East team and within a week.

Despite the loss to Vermont, RU advanced to the pre-arranged semifinals of Legends Classic and defeated UMass 83-75 on Friday night. The Scarlet Knights will take on Florida, who upset No. 2 Michigan State, in the ‘championship’ game.

RU also has North Carolina on their pre-conference slate. The loss to Vermont showed the corner Rutgers was hoping to turn may still be up the road a little more…
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Seton Hall (3-0)

–After needed a last second, running prayer from three-point range from Eugene Harvey to defeat St. Peter’s in their opener, the Pirates have settled down with wins at Monmouth and at Cornell, who will likely represent the Ivy League in the NCAA Tournament this season.

We really do not expect to know a whole bunch about SHU until they open conference play against West Virginia and Syracuse just after Christmas as they face an abysmal non-conference slate before then. They are getting pretty much the contributions expected from transfer Herb Pope and junior Jeremy Hazell. They expect Keon Lawrence to return from a team suspension in the coming weeks and make his much-anticipated debut along with Memphis transfer Jeff Robinson after the first semester, so this is still a team looking to add some parts.
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South Florida (6-1)

–We have not even finished November and the Bulls have six wins already! The Bulls finished third in the Charleston Classic, losing to South Carolina in the semifinals, 69-66. USF picked up wins over Davidson and UNC-Wilmington in the event.

Augustus Gilchrist leads the team in scoring (19 ppg) and rebounding (7.5) while Dominique Jones fills the stat sheet averaging 17.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and a team high 4.7 assists and 2.3 steals. JUCO transfer Jarrid Famous is averaging 11.7 points and 7 rebounds. USF adds Ohio State transfer Anthony Crater in mid-December to the mix as well.
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St. John’s (4-0)

–The Red Storm impressed with a 77-68 victory over Siena in the Philly Hoop Group Classic on Friday night. DJ Kennedy led the way with 23 points. The victory over a tough Siena club followed narrow escapes against St. Bonaventure (69-68) and Brown (79-76), so this had to ease the minds a little of SJU fans. A better gauge of the team is likely to come following the Classic final meeting with Temple on Saturday and next week’s meeting at Duke. SJU is also looking to get 5th-year senior Anthony Mason back into the mix in the coming weeks.
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Syracuse (6-0)

–While we might have given the nod to Marquette above as the surprise team of college basketball, many have placed that honor on the Orange with their winning of the 2K Sports Classic last weekend. SU earned the championship by going to Madison Square Garden unranked and routing No. 13 Cal 95-73 and No. 6 North Carolina 87-71. Suddenly, SU found themselves ranked #10 in the country, this, just weeks after losing to D-II LeMoyne in the Carrier Dome in an exhibition game.

Since the 2K Sports Classic championship Syracuse has collected easy wins over Ivy Leaguers Cornell and Columbia to move to 6-0. The Orange also have Florida in the SEC/Big East Challenge prior to Big East play.

While the Orange have been a major surprise, I think most knew SU would be good. They have proved to be good sooner than expected and Wesley Johnson has brought a new dynamic to the team as their leading scorer and rebounder.
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Villanova (5-0)

–The Wildcats, without Reggie Redding (suspended) and Mouphtau Yarou (sick) earned the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship last weekend my beating George Mason, No. 18 Dayton and Ole Miss. In order to do so, ‘Nova needed contributions from everyone on their roster and it was Isaiah Armwood, maybe the unlikeliest of heroes, that came up big with the winning basket in the final moments against George Mason that sent them on their way.

Villanova is going to be very good this year and they are still finding the right balance with their touted newcomers and key veterans. They have a very intriguing mix of high-potential freshmen and battle tested veterans.
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West Virginia (4-0)

–The Mountaineers got a big lift on Friday in the 76 Classic at the Anaheim (CA) Convention Center with the return of Devin Ebanks. The sophomore star had missed the first three games for ‘personal reason’ and returned to the team to make the trip west. Ebanks came off the bench to score 14 points and grab nine rebounds in the 73-66 win over Texas A&M. Da’Sean Butler scored a team-high 17 in the victory.

On Sunday the Mountaineers will face Portland in the 76 Classic finals. Portland beat UCLA by 27 on Thursday and then upset No. 21 Minnesota on Friday to advance to the finals.
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All told, the Big East is 68-8 so far this season. Not too shabby for a conference expected to take a step back this year!