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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (12/15/2008)

Sunday had four more Big East contests, with the conference victorious in three as South Florida suffered a bad home loss, by 15, to Niagara. Villanova, Rutgers and St. John’s came out on the good end of scores.

Three games on the docket this evening with Connecticut in action with the fans getting a chance to welcome back Stanley Robinson who will come off the bench in their contest with Stony Brook. Syracuse is in the middle of a very active stretch when they host Cleveland State, a pretty good team, and Cincinnati looks to rebound from their weekend rivalry defeat when they host Charleston Southern.

Also, a look at Rob Kurz’s early NBA career and stories on Pittsburgh just getting off a one-week layoff and West Virginia heading into a one-week break.

Your home for ALL the Big East action this week!

Villanova completed a demanding week with a 70-59 win at Big 5 rival LaSalle. Guards Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes led the offensive output, but overall, it was Villanova’s Defense that Keyed Win Over LaSalle (Philadelphia Daily News) on Sunday.

The Wildcats held their hosts to just 37.5% shooting fromt he floor and forced 15 turnovers.

Villanova’s offense remained a little spotty, but a 20-1 spurt in less than a five minute timeframe midway through the first half wrestled control of the game to ‘Nova’s favor and allowed them to coast home from there.

Stokes Leads the Way with 18 for ‘Nova (Inquirer) and Reynolds added 13 as the lone Wildcats to reach double figures in scoring.
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St. John’s continued their early season winning ways as St. John’s Cruises to Victory (Newsday), 77-59, over Bethune-Cookman at Carnesecca Arena.

Sophomore Sean Evans had game-high marks of 18 points and 8 rebounds, continuing his strong play this season. The Versatile Evans Propels St. John’s to 8-1 Start (Five Boro Sports) on the season and helped them get out of the gates by scoring the first nine points of the game by the Redstorm.
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The Latest Loss is a Slap in the Face (Tampa Tribune) for South Florida as the Bulls were humbled on their homecourt by Niagara, 70-55.

The game was supposed to be one to watch for the anticipated debuts of highly regarded transfers Mike Mercer and Augustus Gilchrist in USF uniforms. Both players started, and Mercer played 39 minutes, but the result was more of the same for USF as they dropped their third straight game, and only 2,577 bothered to show up to see it.

We saw a team that was a little discombobulated, didn’t have a clear understanding of their roles and the intensity level we need to play at,” Bulls coach Stan Heath said in the St. Pete Times game article. “Niagara exposed that and took advantage of that.”

Jesus Verdejo led the Bulls with 20 points. USF was outrebounded (45-39) and turned it over 17 times against the Purple Eagles.

Mercer scored 12 points, bit was just 6-16 from the field. Gilchrist added 8 points, but 5 turnovers in 25 minutes.
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Poor Rutgers, even when they win they are drilled by the press. In Breaking Down Rutgers’ Win over Delaware State at NJ.com the first question posed by the Star-Ledger staff is:

How did Rutgers beat an 11-loss team by only five points?

Fair question on the heels of RU’s 60-55 win over Delaware State.

Afterall, DSU has played six other high-major caliber programs, losing all six by an average of 28 points. In their previous meetings with Big East teams, WVU smashed the Hornets 76-42 and UConn blasted them 79-49.

For long stretches, RU was pretty dominant. After getting started (Delaware State actually had an 18-8 lead), the Scarlet Knights closed strong in the first half and stretched the lead out to as many as 17 in the second half, but another example of Why Rutgers Needs a Point Guard (ZagsBlog.com) is their inability to close teams out with smart play.

Anthony Farmer led RU with 17 points, shooting six of seven from the floor. The rest of his teammates continued to struggle putting the basketball through the hoop, shooting just nine of 35, but they were able to make free throws (28-10 scoring advantage from the stripe) on their home floor.

Mike Rosario added 15 and Corey Chandler 12 in the game.
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It has been 11 days since Connecticut barely escaped Buffalo with their undefeated record intact. Tonight, the Huskies are ready to Get Back on Track (TheDay.com) when they host Stony Brook.

Tonight’s game also is the comeback for Stanley Robinson as Robinson Returns (TheDay.com) from a one-semester hiatus from the school to, for all intents and purposes, sort out his head. Robinson practiced with the club yesterday and will come off the bench tonight.

So, with Robinson Back in the UConn Fold (Hartfourd Courant), attention now turns to Ater Majok as the Huskies continue to await the NCAA Clearinghouse’s decision on his eligibility status.
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Syracuse is back in action tonight at the Carrier Dome as they host Cleveland State in a non-conference match-up. The Orange win over Long Beach State on Saturday kicked off a stretch of five games in nine days, highlighted by Saturday’s trip to play Memphis. Undefeated Syracuse is Taking Advantage of Deeper Reserve Corps (Rochester D&C) to rest some of the regulars. Also, depending on the outcome of Eric Devendorf’s appeal of a student judiciary board’s decision to suspend him from school, that depth could be challenged more temporarily, if Devendorf’s suspension is reduced, or permanently if the suspension is upheld.
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Also tonight, Cincinnati looks to bounce back from their loss in the crosstown shootout to Xavier on Saturday night when they host Charleston Southern.
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West Virginia has battled through a tough three-week stretch and a Timely Week Off for WVU (Register-Herald) before next Saturday’s match-up with Miami (OH) comes at the right time for the Mountaineers who will concentrate on getting guards Alex Ruoff and Joe Mazzulla healthy and some rest for the freshmen as WVU has been Working In Different Line-ups (Daily Mail) holding things together.

As the Mountaineers’ line-up got more athletic and deeper in the front court, there was a definite question on how Cam Thoroughman would fit in. It looks like he has found a role in that Thoroughman is the Resident Tough Guy for WVU (Times West Virginian) this season.
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Much like their rival to the south, Pittsburgh has had their share of bumps and bruises to get over early on and used their recent week off to get closer to full health, especially LeVance Fields and Gilbert Brown. The Panthers Score High During Finals Week (Post-Gazette) as Pitt is nearly at 100% health and conditioning for the first time this season.

Siena is next to be Stepping into Panthers Pitt (Times-Union) on Wednesday night. On Saturday, Pitt blew out UMBC 91-56 at the Peterson Events Center in their first game following their one-week exam layoff.
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At times, it is pretty clear that Notre Dame has not been able to replace the contributions of power forward Rob Kurz who graduated after last season. How undervalued might Kurz have been? On Friday night, the NBA rookie scored 10 points and had three blocks for Golden State against Yao Ming and the Houston Rockets.

Kurz Has Been Around the Block (South Bend Tribune) already in his brief pro career, but the fundamentally sound basketball player can produce.
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