Around the Big East...

[sutomcat]

Big victory by Cincinnati over Pitt at Petersen this weekend. If there was any doubt, the Bearcats are legit. The big goal for the regular season for Syracuse is to secure a spot in the top 16 high enough to get seeded in Philly for the first 2 games (and hopefully DC for the next 2). Pitt is one of the teams that might be capable of taking that slot from us. Everytime they lose, it is a good thing for the Orangemen.

Pittsburgh has looked much improved albeit against a really weak OOC schedule. They have beaten Oakland at home by 10, lost to a good Michigan team in NYC by 5 and beat Detroit by 13 at home (did a better job with them than we did). The rest of their opponents are really not worth mentioning.

UConn continues to look surprisingly competitive. They opened with a win over Michigan State in Germany, beat a bad Wake Forest and lost to New Mexico in the USVI, lost to NC State in the Garden in a close game, beat Harvard and Washington at home by 8 points, then lost to Marquette on the road in heart breaking fashion. Napier was outstanding last night. I am tentatively reserving a spot for him on my BE all conference 1st team.

Providence came into the season hoping to be the best team in New England and to secure an NCAA bid. They beat Mississippi State at home in the BE-SEC Challenge, but have already lost to UMass, Penn State and in their last two games, lost to on the road to Boston College and then lost to Brown. At 8-4, they are in disarray. However, their AA guard Kris Dunn didn't start to play until December 18th (he had 13 assists against Colgate) and big man Arizona transfer Sidiki Johnson just started playing on 12/22/12, so there is hope things will get better.

Marquette has been really inconsistent. They lost to Butler and beat USC in Hawaii, got destroyed by Florida in Gainesville in the BE-SEC Challenge, beat Wisconsin at home, lost to Green Bay on the road, beat LSU at home and were fortunate to beat UConn at home last night.

Notre Dame lost to St Joes in Brooklyn early, but beat BYU there, beat Kentucky in South Bend in the BE-SEC Challenge, and beat Purdue in a game played in Indianapolis. They look pretty solid.

Louisville has been very impressive, beating Missouri at a neutral site, Memphis on the road, and Kentucky at home. They have only lost to Duke and that was when Dieng was injured.

Georgetown beat a bad UCLA team and lost to Indiana in Brooklyn, beat Tennessee 37-36 in one of the worst played college basketball games of this millenium, beat Texas easily in NYC and barely beat a bad Towson team 46-40 at home. They are not a good offensive team but they play good defense

Won't mention the also rans except for Rutgers, since we play them tonight. Rutgers lost to St Peters at home to start the season, got killed by Ole Miss on the road in the BE-SEC Challenge, and barely beat GW and Boston U at home. HC/Madman Mike Rice was recently suspended for 3 games for inappropriate behavior and abusive language. He is being forced to attend anger management and sensitivity training classes and has an independent monitor attending all practices to try and prevent him from going off again. Very Rutgerian. Their OOC schedule might be the weakest I have every seen a Big East school play.

 

[arbitragegls]

Terrific write-up...sets the court very well insofar as BE games. Got to watch a bit of Cincy vs. Pitt...and either team will give 'Cuse a fit if we continue to play as inconsistnatly as we have displayed.

 

[realorange]

Our old friends at Georgetown are the ones that are interesting to me. Because they play decent defense, they seem to have the ability to make their opponent look bad, frustrated, whatever. By doing this I think they can hang around with just about anyone and if there is a let down (Detroit, anyone?) you could be in trouble. The kind of team you want to get to early and keep up the pressure.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Terrific write-up...sets the court very well insofar as BE games. Got to watch a bit of Cincy vs. Pitt...and either team will give 'Cuse a fit if we continue to play as inconsistnatly as we have displayed.

Pitt is back to being Pitt again this year, despite the loss to Cinci. They are going to be very tough. Georgetown will be a rock fight, probably the ugliest games we will play this year, and a fitting way to exit the Big East.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Can Pitt ever be Pitt again with the new officiating emphasis on moving screens? Isn't that Dixon's whole offensive gameplan?

There may be "new emphasis", but I'm seeing moving picks in every game I've watched so far this year.

 

[moqui]

SU gets a fairly easy start - Rutgers, at USF, at PC, then home vs. Nova.

but after that comes a gauntlet of five games that could define the season - at Louisville, Cincy, at Pitt, at Nova, and Notre Dame. All five of those games are losable (Nova is not very good, but it is a Big East road game and if the team is in a swoon, then . . .)

I don't think the Orange are going to hit their peak until late in the year, so this is a dangerous stretch. Lose 3 or 4 of those games and it will be very difficult to nail down a protected seed in the East bracket.