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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (12/29/2008)

This Monday morning just has a different feel to it. With the opening game of the Big East regular season set to tip-off at 7 PM tonight when Georgetown and Connecticut square meet on the court, all the preseason hype is brushed aside and the real season begins.

Marquette and DePaul finished off their pre-conference schedules yesterday with easy wins at home. Rutgers started of a brutal week with a loss at North Carolina, and now must prepare for Pitt and UConn.

South Florida gets dealt some bad injury news as a talented guard is lost for the season. The Bulls and Notre Dame are two schools on the list of Ohio State transfer Anthony Crater.

Rutgers will have a couple visitors for their Big East opener that they hope are part of next year’s team. Louisville is still waiting on Edgar Sosa to become the final piece of their puzzle and it was a much different Christmas this year for Eric Devendorf.

Rutgers began their challenging week with a loss in Chapel Hill as No. 1 North Carolina Beat Rutgers 97-75 (mycentraljersey.com) in the Dean Dome.

By the end of the week, RU will be able to tell the rest of the country if there are any challengers to UNC this season as the Scarlet Knights host third ranked Pittsburgh on Wednesday and travel to No. 2 Connecticut on Saturday.

As for Sunday night’s match-up with UNC, freshman Mike Rosario was very impressive (leaving Roy Williams gushing about him after the game) in scoring 26 points and Corey Chandler found some of his offense (14 points) that has been MIA for much of the early season. In the end, UNC was too good and, although RU hung in there a bit, never really threatened by the Knight.
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Marquette had an easy time with Presbyterian in their final pre-conference tune-up as the Golden Eagles Keep Ball Rolling (Journal Sentinel) in an 84-45 rout.

Lazar Hayward had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Wesley Mathews added 21 points to lead MU on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Supporting Cast Adds Boost for Marquette (OnMilwaukee.com), something they will need more of in the Big East. Maurice Acker had 10 assists and four steals in just 16 minutes and Jimmy Butler added 8 points off the bench as well.

On another Marquette note, many of the Golden Eagle fans got an early preview of their future point guard when Junior Cadougan and his Christian Life teammates of Humble (TX) defeated Wauwatosa East 63-51 in the Wisconsin Basketball Yearbook Shootout at the Al McGuire Center Friday night on the MU campus as the Top Recruit Stands out in Prep Tourney (J-S). With Dominic James looking on, Cadougan scored 19 points and was credited with 8 assists in the game.
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DePaul got 25 points from Dar Tucker and 19 points and 13 rebounds from Mac Koshwal as DePaul Routs Alcorn State to End Non-Conference Schedule (Chicago Tribune) by the score of 90-67 Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena.
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Besides the opening Big East tilt between Georgetown and UConn, Cincinnati is in action when they travel to Memphis and Villanova hosts Temple in a Big 5 match-up.
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Just when you thought things could not get much worse for Stan Heath and his South Florida Bulls, they did get worse! South Florida is Dealt a Blow (FoxSports.com) when it was determined that Mike Mercer had torn his ACL in a loss to Wright State recently. Mercer is done for the season after playing in just four games after becoming eligible in December after transferring in to USF last December from Georgia.

The Bulls over the last few years have tried several different avenues to become competitive in the Big East and accepting transfer students has been common at USF. Although some have had some individual success (Kentrell Gransberry, Jesus Verdejo are examples), the roster seems to be in constant flux and that is not how a team can gain footing in the unforgiving Big East.

With the news that Ohio State freshman point guard Anthony Crater is to Transfer (Columbus Dispatch) following this weekend’s loss to WVU, it looks as though the Bulls are throwing their hat into the ring of another transfer student. Besides the Bulls, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas were other schools mentioned by Crater’s AAU coach in the Columbus Dispatch article as schools he would be interested in transferring to.
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Edgar Sosa continues to be quite the enigma for Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. After recently referring to Sosa as the final piece of the puzzle for the Cards realizing their potential, the junior guard played sparingly in Saturday’s win over UAB at Freedom Hall, proving once again that the Final Piece of the Puzzle is Still Puzzling (Louisville Courier-Journal) to his coach.
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Also on the recruiting trail, Rutgers will be hosting (at least) a pair of interested observers on New Year’s Even when they open Big East play against Pittsburgh.

NYC native and current Patterson (NC) School point guard Vincent Council will Visit Rutgers (ZagsBlog.net) for the game as well as UNLV transfer Beas Hamga, a 7-footer who is a native of Cameroon.

Council is also scheduled to visit UCF in the near future and has Providence on his list of options. The Scarlet Knights are in definite need of a PG recruit in this class, not so sure how much the Friars are in need with a commitment from Johnnie Lacy, a highly touted PG attending Notre Dame Prep this season. Also, Sharaud Curry will be a senior next season.
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Here is a Syracuse Post-Standard story on the experience of Eric Devendorf, the Syracuse junior guard who had to perform community service over the holidays to be reinstated to the University after a verbal altercation with a female student earlier in the fall. It was a Different X-Mas for Devendorf this year.
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