My Preview part 2: the Schedule

[SWC75]

NOVEMBER

(Most of this information is from The Sporting News pre-season magazine and the rest if from the websites of the schools.)

Tuesday 11/1/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome: Cal State LA
This is the first of two exhibition games against Division II teams. The Golden Eagles are coached by ex-SU star Stevie Thompson and JB likes to give Stevie’s team an occasional shot at the Orange. They were also the opening act two years ago when James Southerland burned them for 5 of 6 three pointers, his best ever game, (in an exhibition, naturally). They are picked to finish 5th in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Last year they got off to a 10-2 start, then fizzled to a 5-11 finish. They had a well-balanced team with all their starters in double figures but lost their two leading scorers. They have a big center, 6-9 277 Carl Hoffman, a strong forward in 6-5 225 Chris Robinson, a solid guard in 5-11 Ryan Wetherall and a good sixth man from last year in 6-6 210 Leland Jones. It should be an easy win for the Orange but the Le Moyne game two years ago is still fresh in the minds of some. You’ve got to make the plays needed to win the game, even in an exhibition.

Tuesday 11/8/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome: St. Rose
Speaking of Le Moyne, we are, for some reason, not playing them in this second exhibition game but their fellow Northeast 10 Conference member St. Rose out of Albany. They are no pushover. Four years ago we were only able to beat them 80-71 in another exhibition in the Dome. Last year they went to the Division II NCAA tournament and made it to the Eastern Regional Semi-Final, fishing with a 22-9 record. They have an excellent backcourt back in Andre Pope and Rod Gutierrez, who averaged 30.4ppg between them. It will be the type of game where we will want to get out front early and not let them back into the game. It doesn’t count but you don’t want to lose another one of these exhibitions. One was enough.

Saturday 11/12/11 TBA (time To Be Announced)) at the Carrier Dome: Fordham
Now it counts but the early opposition is rather weak. The Rams have fallen on hard times. They won 3 games three years ago, 2 games the next year and then shocked people last year with a 6-4 start, including an upset of St. John’s. They then went 1-17 the rest of the way. Chris Gaston, 6-7 220 is one the country’s top rebounders at 15.9ppg, 11.3 rpg. He’s had 36 double-doubles in his career. 6-3 Branden Frazier scored 11.0ppg and 6-4 Alberto Eastwick 10.1. They’ve added 6-1 Bryan Smith, “a prototypical New York City Guard” who averaged 28 a game in high school. They will probably be improved, but like most of these early teams not in a position to exploit our primary area of uncertainty: the big guys.

Monday 11/14/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome Manhattan (Pre-season NIT)
The Jaspers were 6-25 last year. They and the next opponent are designed to make sure SU gets to the Garden for the “real” tournament: the semis and finals. New Coach Steve Masiello, off Rick Pitino’s Louisville staff. will try to rebuild around his backourt. George Beamon and Mike Alvarado scored 27.5ppg between them last year. The days when they almost derailed our national championship team in the first round seem like along time ago now.

Tuesday 11/15/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome Albany or Brown (Pre-season NIT)
The Great Danes were 16-16 last year. They lost their leading scorer and best player. They also have a good backcourt. Logan Aronhalt and Mike Black scored 26.9ppg between them. Brown was 11-17 last year and lost three seniors. Point guard Sean McGonagill was the Ivy League rookie of the year and forward Tucker Halpern was honorable mention All-Ivy.

Saturday 11/19/11 4 or 7PM in the Carrier Dome Colgate
SU takes a break for the pre-season NIT. The Orange hasn’t lost to the Red Raiders since February 24, 1962. Last year the halftime score was 46-8, the final 100-43. Colgate wound up 7-2. Their best player is named Yaw Gyawu. I kid you not. He averaged 12.6ppg. 6-10 Nick Pascale had 43 blocks.

I think it’s entirely possible that St. Rose will be the toughest opponent we had to this point in the season. We should be going to New York with a 4-0 record, (not counting the exhibitions), none of them close. If we struggle at all in those first four games that would be a bad sign.

Wednesday 11/23/11 TBA IN Madison Square Garden (pre-season NIT semi-finals vs. Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech or Stanford)
At last some real completion, although none of these teams is the kind of first class national power we’ve played in New York in recent years, (last year Michigan State, the year before North Carolina). Oklahoma State has given us some hard times in the past, (beat us in an 8-9 NCAA game in 1999, 61-69, beat us in the Garden 12/7/04, 60-74 and again 12/5/06 68-72), and I think they will be the best of the other three teams in New York. They were 20-14 last year and brought in one of the nation’s top recruits, LeBryan Nash, 6-7 230 and the winner of the slam-dunk contest at the McDonald’s All-American game. They are talking about him being a “one and done” player and this will be a major national showcase for him. They also brought in a top point guard, C.J. Guerrero, who won a three point shooting contest for high school players at the Final Four. 6-11 270 Philip Jurick almost averaged a triple double for one of the top JUCO teams in the country, (10/5ppg, 12.6rpg, and 9.5 blocks), Coach Travis Ford already had his starting backcourt, Keiton Page and Paul Olukemi back and says they are going to go back to his preferred uptempo style of play this year.
Virginia Tech, a former Big East and future ACC rival, has had a frustrating run. Three times in the last four years, the won 20+ games and had a winning ACC record but, (in their view) were “snubbed” by the NCAA tournament. A big factor has been their \weak non-conference schedule and this tournament is an attempt to upgrade it. They lost three seniors from a 22-12 team but get back Dorenzo Hudson, a big guard at 6-5 220, an explosive scorer who missed last season with a foot injury. He averaged 15.2 two years ago and his replacement, Erick Green averaged 11.6 last year. Also returning from being injured last year is 6-6 225 forward JT. Thompson and 6-9 238 Cadarian Raines. The three of them, (with Hudson) are the equivalent of a recruiting class. Whether the team has enough outside shooting after being 9th in the league in three point shooting and losing leading scorer Malcolm Delany is an issue.
Stanford was national power at one point under Mike Montgomery. In three years under Johnny Dawkins, they are only 49-48, including 15-16 last year. The Sporting News: “Stanford helps make up the muddle middle of the Pac 12 Conference, where parity and mediocrity duel for dominance….Dawkins’ recruiting approach, with its focus on skilled wings who can execute his perimeter-oriented style, has left the Cardinal lacking when it comes to a physical post presence. Stanford is too skinny, as nobody on the projected roster weighs more than 230 pounds. Most teams have at least one big man in the 250 range, which makes Stanford vulnerable to getting manhandled.” Their best players are 6-8 230 center Josh Owens, the only returning double figure scorer, (11.6ppg, 6.5rpg), 6-9 227 forward Dwight Powell, 6-6 200 swing man Anthony Brown.

Friday 11/25/11 TBA at Madison Square Garden (pre-season NIT finals vs. Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech or Stanford)
See above.
I don’t think any of the teams in New York will be the type of team with a strong front court that we could be especially vulnerable to.

Tuesday 11/29/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome Eastern Michigan
Another bad team. Rob Murphy is taking over a 9-25 team from last year that lost it’s best player, Brandon Bowdry, who led the MAC in both scoring and rebounding. They have no returning double figure scorers. Murphy has gone the transfer route to try to build up the program, brining in not only Dashonte Riley from Syracuse but also 6-7 power forward Glenn Bryant from Arkansas and 6-6 Wyoming forward Daylen Harrison. The problem is, none of them can play until next season. Riley appealled to the NCAA to waive the transfer rule in his case because he’d red shirted last year due to his injury but he was not granted the waiver. We might someday see Riley vs. SU because Boeheim likes to give his ex-assistants games against SU, (see Stevie Thompson and LA State).

 

[SWC75]

DECEMBER

Friday 12/2/11 6:30PM at the Carrier Dome Florida (Big East/SEC challenge)
This is the best team we will face prior to the Big East Season. We’ve played the Gators several times in recent years. Back in 2005, we’d just blown out Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech team, 81-46 in Madison Square Garden in something called the “2K College Hoop Classic”. we figured a rebuilding Florida team would be quaking in their boots. But they beat us, 70-75 and went on win the next two national championships, making that look like a pretty darn good showing. But in 2008, we beat them, 89-83 and beat Kansas 89-81 in overtime in something called the “O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic” in Kansas City. It was quite a coup because those schools had, at that point, won the last three national championships. We beat them again the next year in the first round of this multi-year “Big East-SEC challenge down in Tampa, 85-73.
This year’s Florida team looks to be their best since the national championship years. Last year they won the most games since their title years, going 29-8. They are the #8 team in the preseason writer‘s poll and the #10 team in the coach’s poll, (SU is #5 in both). Billy Donovan has lost his entire frontcourt but used a lot of players. Athletic 6-9 forward Patrick Young is expected to emerge as a star. He also has 6-10 Erik Murphy, 6-9 Cody Larson and 6-7 Will Yeguette. He has an outstanding backcourt back in Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton who scored 28.8ppg between them. Both are outstanding three point shooters. Donovan has recruited the Gatorade national High School Player of the Year, 6-3 Brad Beal, “a great scorer, solid all-around player and terrific athlete“. Donovan may go to a three guard line up to get Beal on the court. He has another good shooter in Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario who score 16.2 as a freshman and 16.7 as a sophomore in the Big East. How about a four guard line-up? Can Donovan figure out how to use all that backcourt talent? Can the big guys up front mature quickly? It seems like a great match-up with the Orange, who seem to have the similar strengths and questions.

Tuesday 12/6/11 TBA at the Carrier Dome Marshall
Marshall is an under-rated program. They have a solid history and have won 46 games in the last two years. They have four starters back from a 22-12 team. Per The Sporting News, they could be “one of the country’s sleeper teams this season”. Tom Herrion is one of those young coaches who can suddenly find himself a national celebrity with a good post season run. He had a successful tour at College of Charleston and a was an assistant to Jamie Dixon at Pitt and you know our problems with Dixon’s teams over the years. Coming off the Florida game four days before, this could be a “trap” game.
6-4 DeAndre Kane was the Conference USA freshman of the year after averaging 15.1 points and 5.6 rebounds. Senior pint guard Damier Pitts averaged 16.2 points and 4.7 assists. Herrion recruited two power forwards, 6-9 240 Robert Goff and 6-8 215 Dennis Tinnon to go with skinny 6-10 Nigel Spokes (220 pounds).

Saturday 12/10/11 4 or 7PM at the Carrier Dome George Washington
This team has improve from 9 to 10 to 16 to 17 wins in the last four years. Nonetheless they fired coach Karl Hobbs and replaced him with Mike Lonergan, the Vermont coach, who won 126 games in his six years there after taking over for Tom Brennan, who beat in the NCAA‘s back in 2005. Lonergan used to be a Maryland assistant and knows the area well. He’s taking over a 17-14 team and has top guard Tony Taylor, (15.0 points, 4.6 assists). 6-8 Nemanaja Mikic hit 44% of his three point shots. This is an Atlantic 10 team and they always have a little extra motivation vs. a Big East team.

Saturday 12/17/11 6:30PM at North Carolina State
An actual road game, against a future ACC rival, no less. The Wolfpack has terrorized our football team over the years, (we 0-6 vs. them) and the basketball team has given us plenty of trouble, as well. They beat us in the Dome the year before our national title, 68-82 with Julius Hodge, whom we had hoped to get, mocking out star, Preston Shumpert and creating a lot of hard feelings.
They’ve been mediocre in recent years going 86-78 under the now fired Sydney Lowe, who never made it to the NCAA tournament. Last year they were 15-16, going 5-11 in the ACC. Sophomore forward CJ Leslie was a McDonald’s All-American two years ago and scored 11.0 with 7.2 rebounds as a freshman. He’s 6-8 206. 6-8 261 Richard Howell averaged 6.5 rebounds in just 18 minutes a game. Lorenzo Brown shot 42% from three point range. The Wolfpack will want to “Welcome” us to the ACC.

Tuesday 12/20/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome Bucknell
The Bison dirtied up our resume in 2005 with a 69-75 upset in the Carrier Dome. They could do it again. Last year they were 25-9, winning 23 of 25 games until losing to eventual national champion Connecticut in the NCAA’s. They have four starters back from that team and had the Patriot league’s best 6th man, Cameron Ayers, who will now become a starter. 6-11 center Mike Miscala averaged 14.9 points and 7.3 rebounds.

Thursday 12/22/11 7PM at the Carrier Dome Tulane
SU plays the Green Wave in both football and basketball this year. It took a last second field goal to beat a bad Tulane football team in the Super Dome. That should be the case with a bad Tulane basketball team in the Carrier Dome. The Green Wave hasn’t had a winning record in four years. Last year they got off to an encouraging 12-3 start, then lost 14 of their last 15 to finish 13-17. They are projected to be the worst team in Conference USA.
Their best player is 6-5 Kendall Timmons, who averaged 17.0 points and 8.3 rebounds, a lot for a 6-5 player. Tulane loves to shoot the three, (which may be why a 6-5 player can rebound so well), and made 230 of them last year. 11 of their losses in that horrible stretch run were by 10 points or less so they may not be as bad as they seem.

Last year, the 13 pre-Big East opponents, (excluding exhibitions), had an average record of 21 wins and 12 losses the previous season. Only three of the had had losing records and two of them were 15-17. Nine of the teams had won 20 or more games,. Three of them 27 or more games. It seemed like a very tough non-conference schedule but we aced it at 13-0, even if we had some close ones early. After we crushed Michigan State in the Garden, 72-58 the team became more confident and rolled to an 18-0 start, our second best ever. In fact, our record in the pre-Big East games the last three years is 38-1 with the one loss being on a desperation 70 foot shot vs. Cleveland State, (who had a very good team that year). This year the early schedule consists of opponents and potential opponents that averaged 16-16, (actually they were 234-245), last year. I don’t really see a team that’s got the kind of big, veteran line that could give our young big men a lot of trouble. But look out for Oklahoma State, Florida, Marshall, NC State and Bucknell.

 

[SWC75]

THE BIG EAST- January

Wednesday 12/28/11 TBA at the Carrier Dome Seton Hall
Basketball is all about putting the ball in the basket. Some games you just can’t do it. Other games the other team just can’t miss. In 2006, a 19-9 Syracuse team traveled to Chicago to play an 11-14 DePaul team. The Blue Demons picked that night to make 16 three pointers. The lead just kept mounting and mounting it wound up the biggest loss of the Jim Boeheim era, 69-108. Last January, something similar happened in the Dome. SU had ripped off 18 wins in a row to open the season, then lost to Pittsburgh with Kris Joseph being out with a concussion, then lost to Villanova at home. But we were still 18-2 and had a breather vs. Seton Hall, who came in at 8-12. The Pirates made 10 of 17 three pointers, most of them early. They were hitting from 25-30 feet as if they were lay-ups. We had to break our defense and go out and chase them. It wasn’t as bad as DePaul but looked a lot like that game and we went down hard 68-90. The Pirates had a gunner, Jeremy Hazell, who hit half of those three-pointers and is gone now. But they have 6-8 236 Herb Pope who averaged a double-double two years ago before undergoing heart surgery. He came back last year and didn’t do as well but should be full strength this year. Guard Jordan Theodore is the leading returning scorer at 11.0. The Hall wound up 13-18 last year. The memory of last year’s game could be an asset to the Orange, not so much wanting revenge but just understanding that you can’t afford to under-estimate a Big East opponent.

Sunday 1/1/12 TBA at DePaul
Speaking of going to Chicago to play DePaul…the Blue Demons have been on the down elevator, going from 20 wins in 2007 to 11 to 9 to 8 to 7-24 last year. The days of nationally ranked teams under Ray Meyer are long ago. They were 1-17 in the conference last year- and the year before. They were 0-18 the year before that. But you never know.
Last year was Coach Oliver Purnell’s first. He’s got a reputation for rebuilding programs. He’s won over 400 games, including successful stints at Dayton and Clemson. If anyone can turn this around, he can, (although we maybe in the ACC before he does it). He has a young star, 6-8 forward Cleveland Melvin who was the Big East Rookie of the year last year after averaging 14.3 points. 6-3 guard stepped up when Melvin was injured for the last four games and scored at least 20 points in each of them, averaging 12.6 for the season. DePaul’s problem was defense. They gave the most points of anyone in the conference.

Wednesday 1/04/12 TBA at Providence
The Friars, once a major power in the East, hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game in 14 years. Their coach, Keno Davis was fired after going 15-17 but 4-14 in the conference. Their new coach is Ed Cooley. The Friars lost Marshon Brooks, easily their best player. He led the conference in scoring and was second in the nation with 24.6ppg. But they have three starters back, including 6-2 guard Vincent Council, (13.7). Still, a 3-0 conference start for SU is there to be had if we play up to our capabilities and the opposition doesn’t play out of it’s mind.

Saturday 1/7/12 TBA at the Carrier Dome Marquette
For years we seemed to own the Golden Eagles. We were 4-0 against them since they joined the league until we traveled to Milwaukee last January 29th at 18-4 to face the 13-8 Golden Eagles and got beat, 70-76, our 4th straight loss after the 18-0 start. We felt we’d get revenge when we were bracketed with them in the NCAAs but it didn’t happen as they ended our season, 62-66. So the Orange will be really interested in winning this one.
Guard Darius Johnson-Odom is the second leading returning scorer in the conference at 15.8ppg. 6-6 235 Jae Crowder killed us last year with 41 points and 14 rebounds in the two games.

Wednesday 1/11/12 7PM at Villanova
Jay Wright has had great success at Villanova playing pressure defense and using a wide-open offense, often with three guards and beat Jim Boeheim five times in a row before we finally got his at the Dome two years ago to grab the #1 national ranking. Last year he came to beat us in the Dome right after the Pittsburgh game, 72-83, before we responded by beating Wildcats in Philly, 69-64. He and JB are great friends and it’s become quite a rivalry. But last year Nova slipped to 21-12 after several years of high national rankings. They were only 5-11 down the stretch. They also lost three of their top four scorers, including the “two Coreys”, Fisher and Stokes, who averaged 30.5ppg between them. Maalik Wayns, still another guard, is the leading returning scorer at 13.8. They have a Mickey Dees forward from two years ago, JayVaughn Pinkston, (6-7 260), who was reinstated after some legal troubles.

Saturday 1/14/12 TBA at the Carrier Dome Providence
See January 4th. The Friars are one of three teams we play twice. The other two are Louisville and Connecticut.

Monday 1/16/12 7:30PM at the Carrier Dome Pittsburgh
We haven’t beaten the Panthers since the Gerry McNamara run in New York six season ago. We’ve lost to them 12 times in the last 15 games. We were 18-0 going into last year’s game, trying to go 19-0 and we did. After 8 minutes, we were down 0-19. We responded with an incredible 17-0 run before running out of gas and falling, 66-74. The scores over the years have had a metronome like quality to them: 54-55, 57-72, 62-75, 60-73, 67-65, 45-66, 49-46, 69-76, 67-80, 65-61, 66-74, 77-82, 60-78, 72-82, 66-74. They are physical on defense and deliberate on offense and JB‘s teams have trouble with that combination. I also think the refs tend to call what they consider to be unusual activity. If a team is normally hand-checking and bumping, (as Pittsburgh does), the refs won’t call that. They’ll call more blatant fouls. If a team normally just tries to stay in front their opponent, (as Syracuse does), they will call any sort of contact. Thus Syracuse and Pitt will be called for a similar number of fouls but Syracuse will have received a lot more physical contact than Pitt did.
Ashton Gibbs, a 6-2 point guard is the high scoring returning player in the conference at 16.8ppg. He hit an incredible 49% of this three pointers last year. He’s the only returning double figure scorer but this team plays defense so well they don’t need a lot of firepower to win. 6-9 freshman forward Khem Birch was a McDonald’s All-American.

Saturday 1/21/12 6PM at Notre Dame
Kemba Walker was not the Big East Player of the year last year. Neither was Marshon Brooks. Instead it was Ben Hansborough of Notre Dame, who led his team to one of their best seasons ever at 27-7, (14-4 in conference). He’s gone but 6-8 235 Tim Abromaitis averaged 15.4ppg and is one of the best three point shooters in the country. They have another 6-8 gunner in Scott Martin. Both were 43% from the arc last year. Unfortunately their best rebounder, Carleton Scott, jumped to the NBA.

Monday 1/23/12 7PM at Cincinnati
Mick Cronin took over in the aftermath of Bob Huggins abrupt departure and struggled for several years but he’s quietly rebuilt the program so they are now a formidable team. They are the only school in the six major, (BCS) conferences to increase their victory total in each of the last five years, going from 11 wins to 13 to 18 to 19 to a 26-9 record, including 11-7 in the big east last year. SU got ’em early, during the 18 game inning streak and beat them in the Dome, 67-52. But now we have to travel to the Queen City.
Their top returning player is forward Yancy Gates, (11.9 points and 6.9 rebounds. Guard Dion Dixon scored 11.6 and reserve guard Sean Kilpatrick scored 9.7 in just 20 minutes a game. The Bearcats led the conference in scoring defense with only 59.6 points given up per game.

Saturday 1/28/12 1PM at the Dome West Virginia
This may be the last meeting with the Mountaineers for a while as they are jumping to the Big 12 and threatening a lawsuit if the Big East makes them stay any longer. Bob Huggins has averaged 25 wins a year in Morgantown. His teams always play aggressive defense.
Four years ago we went after two recruits named Jones. We got Mookie. West Virginia got Kevin, a 6-8 260 forward who scored 13.1 points and got 7.5 rebounds. Ironically his weakness is bad shooting: 44% from the field, 30% from the arc and 60% from the line. If the two Jones could be blended together, it would be hard to keep up with them. Guard Daryl Bryant averaged 11.3 but only shot 33% from the field. They need firepower but could get it from freshmen Jabarie Hinds and Tommie McCune, a highly touted guard-forward combination.

 

[SWC75]

THE BIG EAST- Feburary

Saturday 2/4/12 Noon at St. John’s
Steve Lavin, the former UCLA coach, was hired to revived this once-proud program. He, in turn, hired his mentor, former Purdue coach Gene Keady, to be his assistant. Those two guys had 695 career wins between them, (of course our guy had 829 wins between him.) Lavin/Keady got the team back up to 21 wins and a spot in the NCAA tournament, their best season in nine years. They had nine seniors on the roster, however and have lost 965 of their scoring and 98% of their rebounding. But Lavin had a huge recruiting haul that had 6 top 100 recruits and a JUCO All-American. Unfortunately three of those players, forward Jakarr Sampson and Amir Garrett and center Norvell Pelle were declared academically ineligible. Lavin is trying to get them readmitted for the spring semester. That leaves him with 8 scholarship players and Lavin had a try-out for walk-ons to fill out the roster.
He’s got the wonderfully named God’sgift Achiuwa, a 6-9 240 forward who was the JUCO AA. 6-3 guard Nurideen Lindsay almost broke Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring record at Overbrook High in Philadelphia. Then there are guards Phil Greene and D’Angelo Harrison and forwards Maurice Harkless and another great name guy, Sir’Dominic, (one word) pointer. But Achiuwa and the 6-8 Harkless are the only two players over 6-7. It’s going to be a rough year in Queens but the future is still bright.

Wednesday 2/8/12 7PM at the Carrier Dome Georgetown
The saddest thing about the jump to the ACC is that this legendary series will be coming to an end, although we may be scheduling them for non-conference games. Still, it‘s not the same. The series was reinvigorated when John Thompson III became the coach in 2004. JB is 6-5 against him, including a 56-64 loss in the Dome last year. But it was a disappointing 21-11 team last year, one that got badly beaten by Virginia Commonwealth in the NCAAs. They lost either best player, Austin Freeman and point guard Chris Wright. Their other guard, Jason White hit 42% from three point range two seasons ago but fell to 35% last year. Thompson has brought in a class of five freshman for what should be a rebuilding year.

Saturday 2/11/12 1PM at the Carrier Dome Connecticut
This is another rivalry that would be tough to lose but I have a feeling the Huskies will wind up in the ACC when they go to 16. Last year Jim Calhoun won his third national championship. It was most unexpected as the Huskies had finished 9th in the conference with a 9-9 record. They had to win five games in five nights to win the Big east tournament, an unprecedented feat, (the McNamara run was 4 in four). They played tremendous defense down the stretch, giving up only 56 points a game in the NCAA tournament and holding Butler to 41 points on an anemic 19% from the field in the ugliest NCAA final ever. We beat this team 66-58 in their own place and lost to them in overtime in the Big East tournament, 71-76, so it was hard to watch them winning another national title. The Huskies may have been the “worst national champion ever” but I wouldn‘t mind it if someday SU was called that after coming out of the blue to win another one.
The Huskies no longer have Kemba Walker, who had another season of eligibility remaining but headed for the NBA instead. Walker, who averaged 23.5 points and was a great clutch player, can’t be replaced. But he wasn’t the only reason they won it all. 6-5 Jeremy Lamb scored 16.2 as a freshman and will now be the team’s “go-to” guy. Shabazz Napier was a defensive force at point guard. But the big thing was their big men, a youthful group, (much like SU’s three guys this year), who grew up in a hurry at the end of the season. 6-9 240 Alex Oriahki led the conference in rebounding and had a double -double in the national title game. 6-8 205 Roscoe Smith scored in double figures 12 times. There’s also 6-9 225 Tyler Olander. Calhoun also landed a top recruit, 6-8 195 forward DeAndre Daniels. If our young big men haven’t developed like Connecticut’s did last year, this is a team that could take advantage of it.

Monday 2/13/12 7PM at Louisville
Rick Pitino has owned Jim Boeheim in recent years, beating him 7 straight times, including our great 2009-10 team twice. Pitino was very vocal in his opposition to SU and Pitt leaving the conference, (even though Louisville is trying to get into the Big 12 themselves), and he will want to give us quite a send-off.
Last year an injury-plagued year ended with a 25-10 record, 12-6 in the conference. But it ended with a first round NCAA loss to Morehead State, (no jokes, please). Three starters return and a fourth who sat out last year with his injury. Peyton Silva is an excellent passer and defender. Chris Smith shot 40% from three point range. Kyle Kuric after burning SU for 22 points as a little-used reserve two years ago shot 45% from the arc and scored 15.1ppg in the team’s last 13 games. Jared Swopshire, a 6-8 forward comes back from a groin injury after averaging 7.5 points and 6.1 rebounds two years ago. He will give them a much-needed inside presence. They are also an excellent defensive team, holding their last nine opponents to 36% shooting and 61 ppg.

Sunday 2/19/11 1PM at Rutgers
They are another school that may resent the Orange’s move to the ACC ad yet may follow us there someday. They’ve never been very good at basketball since they joined the Big East. Last year they were 15-17 and 5-13 in the conference. But six of their losses were by 5 points or less and it took overtime for SU to beat them in the Dome. And their home court is one of the toughest places to play in the conference.
They have no double figure scorers returning but forwards Dane Miller (9.2) and Gilvydas Biruta, (9.6) were close and Coach Mike Rice has brought in a top recruiting class headed by 6-9 Kadeem Jack.

Wednesday 2/22/12 TBA at the Carrier Dome South Florida
The Bulls were brought into the conference to replace Miami in football and competing in basketball has been a struggle. Last year they were 10-23 and 3-15 in the conference. But they get 6 of their top 7 scorers back. But their point guard, Anthony Crater, was dismissed from the team for rules violations. Their best player is 6-10 245 Augustus Gilchrist, (13.4 points, 6.0 rebounds).

Saturday 2/25/12 9PM at Connecticut
See 2/11/12.

Saturday 3/3/12 4PM in the Carrier Dome Louisville
See 2/13/12.

Overall, I don’t think the Big East will be quite as good as last season. Last year we didn’t have any great teams but we had enough depth to set a record with 11 NCAA invites and to have the 9th place team win the national championship. I don’t think we will have that many NCAA worthy teams this year, (and there is likely to be a reaction against having eleven of them) and with SU with it‘s serious questions up front and Connecticut without Kemba Walker being co-favorites, I‘m not sure if we have a powerhouse team. But apparently you don’t need one to win it all any more. We’ve only won the Big East outright twice so that would be a reasonable goal. The post season, as always is a great unknown.

 

[arbitragegls]

once again...very good info and research...this is very well done and interesting...thank you for your efforts..as always

 

[longtimefan]

That Anthony Crater stuff is interesting. He played his first year at Ohio St, then transferred to USF for 2 years. Now he's going back to OSU? Is that possible?

 

[SWC75]

That Anthony Crater stuff is interesting. He played his first year at Ohio St, then transferred to USF for 2 years. Now he's going back to OSU? Is that possible?

No it isn't. I read "trasnferred from Ohio State" as "transferred to Ohio State". I've fixed it.