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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 59038, member: 289"] 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. [/QUOTE]

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