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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (1/20/2009)

There is a TON of Big East material to go over on this very special Inauguration Day. Luckily, there is a light schedule in the conference tonight (USF/DePaul – preview coming a bit later) and two games from last night to go over, so we can fit everything in today.

Hopefully many of you were able to follow along with our Live Blog Updates from the Spalding HoopHall Classic and Big Apple Basketball Invitational. Jeff Borzello was in Springfield and kept readers up to date on what was happening at in Springfield while Zach Smart was doing the same in NYC yesterday. Both will file complete event recaps that will be posted here at NBE very soon. Zach already has his (very) in-depth report from Saturday at the Big Apple Basketball Invitational. While in Springfield, Jeff got the chance to have DeAndre Kane Clarify his Recruitment and it looks like a final decision for the 2009 shooting guard has yet to be made. All of that info was on top of our 1/19 NBE Big East Power Poll which also featured our daily news and notes from around the league. Later today, we will have Matt Whitfield’s detailed recap of Saturday’s Dann Finn classic from Jersey City and Anthony Jaskulski’s weekly Big East stock report.

And, in the meantime…here is today’s News & Notes around the Big East which includes recaps of last nigth’s action with Pittsburgh and Providence coming out as winners as well as other notes from several teams around the conference and a plethora of recruiting notes from sources all around the country.

Hopefully you have a little time to digest it all…

LAST NIGHT IN THE BIG EAST:

Pittsburgh and Syracuse met last night at the Peterson Events Center for Big Monday showdown of top 10 teams. Following their first loss of the season over the weekend at Louisville the Panthers are Back to Business in Win over Syracuse as the Orange are Flattened (Post-Standard) by Pitt, 78-60.

After SU grabbed a brief 35-33 lead early in the second-half, Pitt dominated the rest of the way, outscoring the Orange 45-25 to close the game. Sam Young scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half as Young and Pitt are Able to Bounce Back (Tribune-Review).

In his previous three games, Young was just 15-49 from the field, including a 6-20 performance in the 69-63 loss to the Cards on Saturday. Pitt’s Young Breaks Mini Slump (Beaver County Times) with a 7-12 performance from the field including two second-half threes that pushed Pitt forward down the stretch.

It was a stark contrast for Pitt from Saturday’s game as the Pitt Poster Boys Dominate SU (Post-Standard) with DeJuan Blair scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds after being limited to just 20 minutes because of fouls at UL. Young rebounded from the 6-20 effort with 22 points and Levance Fields directed the Panther attack with an effecient 15 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, bouncing back from his season-high six turnovers and 3-14 effort against the Cards.

Pitt also locked down the SU perimeter with Jermaine Dixon and Brad Wanamaker making life difficult on SU star Jonny Flynn, limiting Flynn to just two points until the final seven minutes when Pitt already had a substantial lead. Defense Has Dixon at Home (Post-Gazette) in a city known for it (see Steelers, Pittsburgh).

Andy Rautins hit five three’s and scored 17 for SU and Flynn finished with 12. In the Big East, there is No Time to Sulk for SU With Cards Up Next (Post-Standard) in another pivotal conference match-up.

Notes:

-SU center Arinze Onuaku was 0-5 from the line and is now 1-14 in his last three games and 6-32 (19%) in Big East play this season. Overall, Onuaku is 29-82 (35%) on the season. He finished with 8 points and 9 rebounds. Onuaku actually shoots twice as better (nation’s best 70%) when being guarded from the floor than he does unguarded from the line (35%).

-Paul Harris was issued a technical foul for the third consecutive game. The ‘T’ also counted as his third foul in the last minutes of the 1st half and Harris never got going in the game, finishing with just 9 points and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes before fouling out.

-Pitt has now beaten SU six of their last seven meetings and 11 of 14. As mentioned on the ESPN telecast, no Big East team has had such a successful run against the Orange since the dominant Hoya teams of the mid-80′s.

-Ben Roethlisberger, Jeff Reed and Santonio Holmes of the Super Bowl-bound Pittsburgh Steelers were in the ‘Pete’ last night to take in the action.
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The Big East snuck another game onto Monday night’s schedule as Cincinnati and Providence completed their home and home series. The result was very familiar to the first meeting on January 7th as the Friars Bear Down and come out on top, this time by a 72-63 score.

Senior Randall Hanke Fuels Friars’ Second-Half Charge past UC (Providence Journal), scoring 11 of his 15 points after intermission. With the score kntted at 38-all with 14:38 left, the Bearcats Fade in Second Half (Cincinnati Enquirer) as Deonta Vaughn can’t get on track offensively while the Friars finally do.

PC made Vaughn the focal point of their defensive scheme and Deonta Can’t Have Way (Enquirer) and was held to just six points on 3-9 shooting and he committed five turnovers.

Also supporting Hanke was Jonathan Kale with 14 points and 7 rebounds and Geoff McDermott stuffed the stat sheet full with 7 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 5 blocks.

Mike Williams led UC with 21 points, but with Vaughn and freshman Yancy Gates (6-17 from the floor) struggling, the Bearcats did not have enough offense and fell to a disappointing 2-4 in the conference.

The win pushed the Friars to a 4-2 mark in the Big East.
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MORE BIG EAST NOTES:

After a conference opening hiccup, which resulted in an 11-point home loss to Georgetown, Connecticut has stormed back to win five in a row as the Huskies Offense Has Had Variety (Norwich Bulletin) to mask some inconsistencies from players they were hoping to lean on more often. However, that is just an illustration of the deep talent on the UConn team that can have AJ Price light it up from the perimeter, or Kemba Walker put on the jets in the transition game, Jerome Dyson slash to the basket or the inside power of Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien carry the load when need be.

With the Big East, there is always a difficult stretch around the corner and UConn is Still in Search of Perfect Game (TheDay.com) with free throw shooting an area in need of improvement with tough games coming. It did not matter much against Seton Hall on Sunday, but it might against other teams, as UConn was just 8-18 from the foul line.
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The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has theirWeekly Golden Eagles Report focusing on Buzz Williams’ 5-0 (in conference) Marquette squad. MU hosts 0-5 (conference) DePaul on Saturday.
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Before the season started, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino publicly claimed this could potentially by the most talented team he has had since becoming the Cards’ coach. Previous teams included a run to the Final Four and last year’s Elite 8 team, so that statement got our attention.

The Cards scuffled along in out of conference play, losing on neutral courts to Western Kentucky and Minnesota before bottoming out in a home loss to UNLV (who was without their best player, Wink Adams). However, Big East play brought new life and after a heroic shot by Edgar Sosa to beat Kentucky, UL has ripped off four in a row in conference play including last week’s home sweep of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh which has the U of L Men Jumping up to No. 9 (Courier-Journal) in the country.

As everyone knows, there is no rest in the Big East. Up next for the Cards will be an ornery SU team that is coming off a loss and will likely have close to 30,000 fans ready to cheer on the Orange. The Cards will need their Super Subs, Super Stoppers (Courier-Journal) in Andre McGee and Preston Knowles off the bench to help slow down the SU perimeter attack led by Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins.
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When Bob Huggins got the head coaching job at his alma mater, West Virginia, when John Beilein made a ‘bee-line’ for Michigan, you had to wonder what would happen to many of the players that were a fit for the old system under Beilein as Huggins would institute his own. Afterall, the styles are nearly night and day and there was possibly just a handful of players on the roster Huggins would have likely recruited himself. However, the players and the new coach seem to have found a balance and players like senior Alex Ruoff has Come a Long Way the Last Two Seasons (Register-Herald) and made the transition a very successful one.

WVU will need Ruoff and other veterans to come even more as the young and undersized Mountaineers enter a tough stretch in their schedule with WVU in Need of Some Answers (Charleston Gazette). How tough is their stretch? Beginning with a Thursday night date at Georgetown, seven of West Virginia’s next nine games are against ranked teams with the No. 12 Hoyas, No. 4 Pitt (Sunday in Morgantown), at No. 9 Louisville (Jan. 31), at No. 8 Syracuse (Feb. 4), at No. 4 Pitt (Feb. 9) and home games with No. 20 Villanova (Feb. 13) and No. 19 Notre Dame (Feb. 18).

Good luck!
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BIG EAST RECRUITING NOTES:

Playing on a high school team with Villanova-commit Malik Wayns could lead one to be overshadowed and over-looked. However, Roman Catholic junior guard Rakeem Brookins is also using the opportunity of playing with a high-profile recruit to his advantage. After the 5-foot-11 guard poured in 29 points against a loaded Mater Dei squad at the City of Palms Tournament in Florida back in December, the word is out as Roman Catholic’s Brookins is Getting Notices (Philadelphia Inquirer) and leads the Cahilites in scoring at a 20 a game clip. With a 3.5 grade point average is receiving interest from Georgetown, Clemson, Stanford, Penn, James Madison, Delaware, George Mason and Davidson.
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Lawrence North High school in Indianaplis is simply known by those in the region as LN. Pretty soon, it might be known as Louisville North with the amount of success Rick Pitino and his staff has had mining the Indiana power. Pitino Likes LN Star (Indy Star) senior Stephan Van Treese, a 6-foot-9 F/C who will be the first arriving among the newfound pipeline from Indianapolis to Louisville.

Lawrence North junior Justin Martin and sophomores Ryan Taylor and Michael Chandler have committed to the Cardinals, leaving highly touted junior Dominique Ferguson Hearing All About Cats-Cards (Courier-Journal). Ferguson is a verbal commitment for Kentucky. How strong is the LN program? Yet another player, forward Jeff Robinson, is committed to Purdue.
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Northstar Basketball has an update on Akeem Richmond‘s Recruitment. The 2009 prospect is wide open and with an impressive string of high school performances he is hearing from more and more schools, including South Florida out of the Big East which he indicated to Northstar that he has an offer from.
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2010 shooting guard prospect Gerard Coleman is quietly building quite a following of interested schools on the recruiting trail. Playing on the highly successful BABC AAU program and now moving on to prep school, West Roxbury’s Coleman Settles in at Tilton (Boston.com) School in New Hampshire. BABC teammates Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel star for the prep power, but Coleman has a package of skills that shine through in any environment on the basketball court.

Boston College, Providence, Clemson, Miami, Kansas, Louisville, and Connecticut have expressed interest in recruiting Coleman for the class fo 2010. PC has made him one of their top priorities in the class.
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Syracuse might have identified their future Andy Rautins in the Class of 2011 Recruit Trevor Cooney Takes in Syracuse Game (Grassrootsballin) at the Dome against Notre Dame. The 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Sanford (DE) holds offers from Wake Forest, Syracuse, Delaware, Rutgers, St. Joseph, Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia. Others showing interest include Georgia Tech and Notre Dame amongst others.
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In the Recruiting Blurbs from Illinois Prep Bulls-eye, there are several Big East related notes…here they are:

6’1 Lavonte Dority from Foreman High School in Chicagohas seen increased interest from the Ohio State staff recently. The 2010 point guard prospect Dority also has received scholarship offers from Indiana, Marquette, Baylor, DePaul, Iowa State, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Xavier and New Mexico among others.

2009 Chicago Marshall uncommitted guard Darius Smith has a long list which includes schools such as Marquette, DePaul, Indiana, Kentucky, Arizona, Arizona State, Iowa, Oregon State, Washington State, Southern Illinois and UAB among others.

Prep Bulls-eye also believes Marquette will go all-out in their recruiting effort with respect to class of 2010 post prospect Phillip Jackson from Providence-St. Mel High School in Chicago.
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