IBC

The college hoops season is about to heat up with some great non-conference matchups, followed by the beginning of conference play in January.

Pitt-Duke at MSG on Thursday night should be a great matchup. I watched Pitt handle Ok. State this weekend, and they looked terrific. Definitely a different, and much more athletic, team w/ freshman DaJuan Blair in the paint rather than Aaron Gray. It's really amazing how they're competitive every single season (first under Howland, and now under Jamie Dixon). Dixon seems to be luring better talent to Pitt these days so we'll see if they can take the next step from "dangerous" to "contender" in the next few years. MSG has typically been a pro-Duke crowd when the Blue Devils have played there before (even against St. John's on their home court). Like Pitt, Duke is much more athletic this year after losing a big slow white guy who was the focus of their team on offense (McRoberts). I like Pitt's chances if they can dictate tempo and get some outside shooting from someone like Ronald Ramon to open up the middle for Blair and Sam Young.

Georgetown @ Memphis on Saturday - as a Hoyas fan I can't wait for this one. For college hoop fans, the #3 and 4 teams in the country facing off is as good as it gets in December. Very tough to decide who's got the edge here, as the Hoyas haven't really been tested yet this season. The Hibbert/Dorsey matchup in the middle should be interesting. I think the Hoyas can have success if their patient and efficient offense leaves Dorsey chasing cutters and puts him in foul trouble. Memphis isn't the same team defensively without his monstrous physical presence in the middle. Jon Wallace, though no longer the primary ballhandler, needs to do a better job of handling the ball than he has thus far. Memphis has the athletes to burn you in transition and to get easy baskets off turnovers.

Jeremiah Rivers is the Hoyas' best perimeter defender, and it's absolutely crucial that he limit Chris Douglas-Roberts's open looks. That'll be tough since CDR has a bit of a size advantage. I'll be interested to see how JTIII gameplans to slow down CDR and Derrick Rose, especially if the team gets behind and can't afford to have Rivers on the floor over a better offensive threat like Sapp, Wallace or one of the freshman guards (Freeman and Wright).

Big East notes:

- Marquette is a much better team than I thought, as Crean has them operating much more efficiently than last year (avoiding Dominic James and Wesley Matthews launching bad 3's all the time). Jerel McNeal is one of the best defensive guards in the country. If they continue to get solid inside play from Lazar Hayward and Ousmane Barro, they have a great shot at contending w/ G'town for the Big East title. Once they get into the meat of their BE schedule we'll see how their bigs hold up having to go on the road and bang around w/ some of the league's big men.

- I whiffed on a couple of teams I liked a lot in the preseason, Louisville and Syracuse, though both have been ravaged by injury.

For the Cardinals, Edgar Sosa has been disappointing after he raised expectations w/ his 31 pt. outburst against A&M in the tourney. Palacios still injured, Padgett injured (again), and Derrick Caracter suspended (again) have all contributed to sinking a team that a month ago many (myself included) though had a realistic shot at reaching the Final Four. Earl Clark has played well, averaging 12 and 12 so far, but their strength was the depth of their talent (like the old Pitino UK teams), and that's gone. I think they'll get Padgett or Palacios back, which should make them a bubble/tourney team, but nowhere near the force they were expected to be.

Injuries might derail the season for the Orange. Losing their best perimeter shooter (Andy Rautins) to a season-ending ACL injury before the season really began stung, but Boeheim still had another upperclassman in Devendorf that he thought he could depend on for decent production from outside. Now that Devendorf (who was averaging 17 ppg) has also gone down for the year w/ an ACL injury the Cuse will have to count on sophomore 2/3 Paul Harris maturing into the go-to-guy sooner than expected. Harris is unbelievably talented, but it'll be tough to place the load on him to lead an extremely young (though talented) team. I think Harris, Johnny Flynn and Donte Green are a good enough trio to keep Syracuse on the bubble and maybe earn a tourney bid, but losing both Rautins and Devendorf means they're not likely to make as much noise in the BE tourney as they have in years past.

- Wow. WVU fans hit the jackpot when Huggs came home to Morgantown to replace John Beilein (who's off to a tough start at Michigan). Huggins has shown himself to be a really excellent basketball coach, which should quiet a lot of critics who always attributed his past success (at Cinci) more to recruiting skill than to X's and O's. This was supposed to be a rough season with Huggins struggling to get Beilein's "system guys" to play Huggs's tough D and rebound - something the Big East coaches must have thought impossible given their preseason ranking of WVU as the league's 10th best team. In an amazingly short time Huggins has taken a team that had very little instruction as far as defense and rebounding, and doubled their blocked shots pg upped their steals pg by 50%, and increased their rebounding by almost 10 pg. All of this without suffering any apparent offensive dropoff (though we'll see how they score in league play). Huggins is the early national leader for coach of the year.

- I don't know if anyone saw that Villanova-LSU game, but words cannot describe how ridiculous the Wildcat comeback was. Down 21 with less than 8 minutes, and their only lead was the final score after they won on a shot w/ 5 secs left, 68-67.

- I don't know what to make of Providence. Still without Sharaud Curry, which has undoubtedly hurt them, but they were impressive in wins vs. Arkansas and @ old BE rival Boston College. Then they get blown out by in-state rival URI (who deserves credit b/c they have a good squad this year) followed by a 1 point loss to South Carolina when Weyinmi Efejuku missed a potential game-tying free throw w/ .2 seconds left. I still believe that this is asolid tourney team. While Curry coming back will stabilize the backcourt, I think the key for PC is getting a more consistent effort out of Efejuku, who is their most explosive offensive player going to the basket. He filled up the stat sheet in the win @ BC (21 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast), and showed what he's capable of w/ consistent effort and good decisions as to shot selection, etc. However, he disappeared in the losses @ URI and vs. South Carolina (8 pts and 6 pts respectively). Tim Welsh needs to figure out how to more consistency on offense out of the Jr. SG if the Friars want to climb into the upper tier in the Big East this season.

I agree, West Virginia im very impressed with this year. They had 1 tough loss to Tennessee but If they can get on a little roll in the big east they might be near the top 10 by the end of the season. As far as Marquette is concerned I'm not sold on them yet. They had a good win against a descent wisco team and lost a tough one to duke, but their wins against sub-par schools have been to close for me. Might have a few bad loses down the road. I was impressed with the way Seton Hall started off this year by beating #23 Virginia on the road by 13, and were on the verge of cracking the top 25 but lost a hard game on the road to an above average St Mary's and then lost on the road at Penn st.

I was never sold on 'cuse this year and now that devendorf has the ACL injury you might as well kiss the season goodbye. Louisville started the season at number 5, I hope they can turn it around, but usually a team who puts up a lot of offense only scored 47 vs Miami of Ohio. Cincinnati I dont know what really happened to them, but they look real disappointing this year. Notre Dame and Providence I never know what to make of them until the season is half way through. And UCONN Im not sure what on earth happened to them, but they had a dismal season last year and they literally got no recruits this year. All in all it looks to be another successful season for the Big East, It seems as though the conference as a whole has taken a slight downhill turn over the past 2-3 years where they had the opportunity to get as many as 8! bids and were making a run with the ACC as one of the best basketball conferences. Hopefully the Big East gets 5 bids this year id be real happy if they pulled out a 6th.

The Big East should have 7-8 bids every year. 5 would be a monumentally awful season.

- UConn only brought in one recruit this year (Donnell Beverly) b/c their entire team last year was freshmen and sophomores, so they had no scholarships. They put up a good effort against Memphis and Gonzaga (both losses), but they are definitely improving offensively from last season. I'd expect them to be a tourney team by season's end, and if everything breaks right, a serious contender next season.

- Cincinnati was already supposed to be bad after their best player (fr. Devean Downey) transferred to South Carolina. Mike Williams, a transfer PF from Texas looked like a difference-maker in preseason/practice, but ruptured his achilles and was lost for the year, which killed them inside. Mick Cronin has 2 very good recruits for next year though in Yancy Gates and Cashmere Wright, so they'll be back.

- I think SHU is a bit of a sleeper. They returned their 3 best players from last year (Eugene Harvey, Brian Laing and Jamar Nutter) and Bobby Gonzalez is a quality coach. Eugene Harvey's just a sophomore, so if he cuts down on turnovers and continues to improve he could be one of the league's best guards at season's end. I think they could sneak in to the tourney this year.

As of right now, Joe Lunardi has 8 Big East teams in the tourney according to his "Bracketology." Obviously it's early, and we'll have a better idea once we get into conference play, but as of today he's got these 8 IN:

Georgetown
Marquette
Pittsburgh
WVU
Villanova
Syracuse
Providence
Notre Dame

I'd expect UConn and SHU to be in the mix somewhere by the end of the year, but 8 teams would be a solid average season for the league.

UC has sucked ever since Huggins got canned.

Syracuse doesn't even have Paul Harris anymore. He didn't show up to practice all last week, so Boeheim said he's not playing again this year.

Jake, I wouldn't look too much into Louisville scoring 47 against Miami. They're a team that always shoots with 5 seconds or less on the shot clock. It may be boring to some, but I enjoy watching them play, moving the ball around, ect. That's why I fell in love with West Virginia the past 3 years. I was sad to see Beilien go to Michigan because I really thought he had the guys in place to make a strong run this year. I haven't seen them play any but I hope they can go far.

The Big 10 Network is really screwing me over. Best IU team since the early 90s and I've seen 2 games. They looked really good against UK. My main worry is still a lack of front court depth. DJ White is really the only scorer. Mike White can rebound and do dirty work but he can't score on anything other than putbacks. The big kid they got that was a JUCO guy, his name is escaping me right now(partially because I've been drinkin) impressed me, but I don't see how he'll be a scoring threat cause he just throws the ball at the backboard. With their guard play, if DJ White stays healthy and out of foul trouble, IU's got a shot at a title run

i loved taquan dean when he played for Louisville.

Terrific basketball being played in the G'town/Memphis game on ESPN right now, if you're not watching already.

Watching Louisville-St. John's and they just reminded me of one of the all-time great college basketball nicknames - former Cardinal Daryl Griffith, a.k.a... "Dr. Dunkenstein."

Huge win for Connecticut at IU today. Memphis had a nice win over Gonzaga as well. Memphis is definitely deserving of the #1 ranking right now.

Yeah IU played like crap, trying to go one on one on ever possession for half the game. I'm worried the weak nonconference schedule is going to bite them in the butt come March

Wow. Rutgers starts 0-6 in the Big East, then beats Nova at home by a good margin and goes INTO Pitt and knocks them off. Could hear a pin drop at the end of the game. Up next: WVU beating GTown.

Crazy that UConn is a Roy Hibbert 3 and OT (okay maybe stretching a bit) away from being tied for tops in the Big East. Big road wins vs Cincy and Indiana, we'll see if they can win Monday at Louisville, if they can, they should make the tourney. And to think a week or so ago I was worried about them not making the Big East tourney.

That was goaltending at the end of the WVU game. The ball was on the way down and the fact that they didn't even review it is crap

I don't think you can review goaltending? It was definitely goaltending though. Just very close. Usually you expect to get those calls at home, too bad Huggins didn't go a little more Huggins on the refs. I didn't hear what he had to say after the game, but I would hope he draw a fine.

I thought they could look at anything at the buzzer. I could be wrong, I'm not exactly sure. The ball had just started to go down though, it was goaltending. I could understand if the refs didn't call it at Georgetown, but its at WVU, and its the right call

1. Gtown made their free throws late in the game and WVU didn't.

2. It may have been a goaltend but it was close enough you can't really get on the refs for not calling it to decide a ballgame (on anyone's home court). The shot didn't look like it was going in anyway.

UConn looks like a very composed basketball team against Louisville, which bodes well for them. I thought this would be a very tough game for them to be competitive in b/c of fatigue and short-handedness, and w/ Louisville playing so well lately. UConn has looked like a much more confident team since the win @ Cinci (and even in the loss to G'town).

Fatigue could still be a factor late in the game when Louisville's still pressing and UConn doesn't have perimeter quickness off the bench.

Kelly and Beverly have both looked competent given additional minutes thus far. Interesting that Kelly's seeing more minutes and Adrien's on the bench.

Watching some ESPN classic, first double OT big east tourney game, Pitt and Nova in 98. Blasts from the past: Vonteego Cummings and Rafel Bigus for Pitt, Zeffy Penn and Malik Allen for Nova and Lappas coaching.

I love when ESPN broadcasts these semi-old games

I haven't had ESPN Classic in about 4 years, but isn't all they show now bowling and poker

No, weekday afternoons are usually random entertaining but not special games. I've seen quite a few Big East tournament games during this timeslot. Before this was something on the Highland Games. They show a lot of the original American Gladiators though.

Dodgers wrote:No, weekday afternoons are usually random entertaining but not special games. I've seen quite a few Big East tournament games during this timeslot. Before this was something on the Highland Games. They show a lot of the original American Gladiators though.

I always tune in when March rolls around b/c they'll have a bunch of tourney games, and there's ALWAYS a replay of the '96 UConn-G'town BE tourney final w/ Ray Allen vs. AI. That game's a lot of fun to watch. That Hoya team had future pros AI, Othella Harrington, Don Reid, Jerome Williams (JYD! one of my all-time faves), Jahidi White (who spent about 6 hrs a day eating in the dining hall when I was at school there - no surprise) and Jaren Jackson (I think).

Excellent win for an undermanned UConn team at home against a more undermanned Pitt team. The fact that they played so poorly early (at one point in the first half they turned the ball over on something like 8 straight possessions) and managed to collect themselves and turn it around in the second half bodes well. With Dyson out, Price going to the basket later in the game was important. They also have been making their free throws, which is a must for an athletic team w/ few 3-point threats because they go to the basket so much they will win and lose games from the stripe. A terrific roll for the Huskies, who should break into the top 25 on Monday.