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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (3/5/2009)

In the Big East on Wednesday, Pittsburgh rolled past Marquette with a devastating run that took a lot of the fight out of the undermanned Golden Eagles. Louisville was able to send off their seniors and Earl Clark with a victory party as the Cards blasted Seton Hall. Also, West Virginia extended DePaul’s misery with an easy win.

Elsewhere, there are a few Big East Awards articles to take a look at, as well as a look at South Florida and if they are in the right place in the Big East. There is a look at the Big East Tournament seeding and a story on the Cincinnati Bearcats limping to the finish line, again.

For Pitt, a Knight to Remember (Post-Gazette) as Pitt Retires Brandin Knight’s Jersey (Tribune-Review) in a surprise ceremony before Pittsburgh hosted Marquette in a Big East conference game with post-season and Big East regular season implications.

Knight, who wore uniform No. 20, is Pitt’s all-time leader in assists (785) and steals (298) and scored 1,440 points from 1999-2003 and is the player widely considered by Pitt followers as the key to the programs resurgence of the last eight years. Knight is also a member of the NBE Big East All-Time Top 50 Players and a current Panther assistant coach under Jamie Dixon.

All that and a game as well as No. 3 Pitt Runs Over No. 13 Marquette (Tribune-review), 90-75, before a Peterson Events Center sell-out crowd of 12,508. It was the 20th consecutive home win for Jamie Dixon’s club and a school-record 14th Big East win in a season.

After taking a 43-36 lead at halftime, Pitt forgot there was another 20 minutes to play as the Golden Eagles stunned the Panthers with a lightning quick 21-5 run in under four-minutes to take a 57-48 lead. Pitt answered…and asnwered again…and again…leaving Marquette Feeling Down and Out (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) after their third loss in a row as they have played without injured Dominic James in all but four minutes of those three games against Pitt, Connecticut and Louisville.

Pitt quickly knotted the score at 57, with a 9-0 spurt of their own that took all of two minutes. After a Lazar Hayward three-pointer gave MU a lead at 60-57, Pitt them embarked on a 28-5 run over 10 minutes to give them an 85-65 lead with 3:20 remaining and chants of ‘We Want UConn’ echoed through the ‘Pete’ as fans began to look forward to this Saturday’s showdown with the No. 1 Huskies.

All told, after Marquette’s run to take the 57-48 lead, Pitt responded by outscoring MU 37-8 over the next 12:40 of the game in a barrage as impressive to see as it sounds. DeJuan Blair (23 points) scored inside, Sam Young (18 points) scored in transition, Levance Fields (17 points, 10 assists, 2 turnovers) orchestrated the attack with key buckets by Gilbert Brown (11 points) and Jermaine Dixon (13 points) came when necessary. Besides the five players who scored in double figures, Pitt managed to shoot 63% from the floor and owned a sparkling 2:1 (22 to 11) assist to turnover ratio.

The Panthers Win May Secure a Top Seed (Post-Gazette) or at least the Big Win Moves Pitt closer to No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament (Post-Gazette) ahead of the showdown with UConn this Saturday.

The Golden Eagles may not be so lucky when it comes to their NCAA seeding. While losing to Pitt, UConn and Louisville has no shame, the question will certainly be asked of Marquette if they can win without Dominic James. Their next chance to answer that question positively comes Saturday at home against Syracuse in what will be an emotional senior day for the Marquette program. It will be the last home game for Jerel McNeal, Wesley Mathews and Dwight Burke and also a chance for their crowd to say ‘thank you’ to Dominic James as well. However, the hard truth is, James is lost for the season and James’ Absence is Expected to Lower Eagles’ Seeding (Journal-Sentinel) for the NCAA Tournament, unless they can do a quick about-face starting against the Orange and into the 2009 Big East Tournament next week.

McNeal led MU with 23 points at Pitt, shooting 8-24 from the field. Hayward added 22 points and 10 rebounds and Mathews added 16. Marquette, which started 9-13 from three-point range, missed 12 of their final 13 from the arc as Pitt assumed control of the game.
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Louisville fans got to send out seniors Terrence Williams, Andre McGee and Will Scott, as well as junior Earl Clark, in style as the Cards Rock a Couple of Halls (Louisville Courier-Journal) with a 95-78 win over Seton Hall last night in Freedom Hall.

Earl Clark had a career-high 27 points and added 14 rebounds, Terrence Williams finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks and Williams surpassed the 500-assist mark in the game, making him the only player in U of L history to reach 1,400 points, 800 rebounds and 500 assists. Rounding out the night’s honorees was Andre McGee added 11 and Will Scott chipping in two points.

The win allows the Cards to keep pace with UConn for first place in the Big East and with a win Saturday night at West Virginia Louisville will finish with no worse than a tie for the Big East regular season crown depending on the outcome of the Huskies date with Pitt earlier in the afternoon.

Seton Hall fell to 6-11 in the Big East and will close the regular season at Cincinnati Saturday before heading over to New York City for the 2009 Big East Tournament (& Tickets) beginning on Tuesday. The Pirates got 24 points from Robert Mitchell in the loss.
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DePaul moves one-step closer to completing their Big East 0-fer as they fall in Morgantown, 82-63, at the hands of West Virginia Wednesday night.

With the win, WVU Clinches a Bye in the first round of next week’s Big East Tournament as they improve to 10-7 in the Big East and 21-9 overall on the season. With a date with Louisville for an ESPN Primetime affair Saturday night at 9 PM and the conference tournament ahead, Cultivating a Seed is WVU’s New Aim (Charleston Gazette) as their sites are on the post-season.

On Wednesday, senior Alex Ruoff Leads WVU Over DePaul (Times West Virginian) in his second-to-last home game with 20 points, connecting on six of nine from beyond the arc and, in doing so, he tied Kevin Pittsnogle’s school record with 253 made three’s in his career.

Junior Da’Sean Butler added 16 points and 10 rebounds and freshman Devin Ebanks also added a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds as the Mountaineers owend the boards with a 48-30 advantage over the Blue Demons in the rebounding department. Ebanks and his classmates, Kevin Jones and Darryl Bryant, showed once again the very bright future that WVU has. jones added 13 poins and 9 rebounds in 25 minutes while Bryant contributed 12 points and 6 assists in the win.

For DePaul, it was more of the same as the majority of their previous 16 straight Big East losses before last night. They were outrebounded severely, got little production from the interior or bench and struggled shooting the basketball. Will Walker did pour in 31 points and Dar Tucker added 18. The duo combined to shoot 11-17 from three-point range, which helped keep the Blue Demons relatively close for the first 2/3′s of the game.

The Blue Demons will look to complete their 0-18 Big East season Saturday at Georgetown. Maybe they will be able to start anew on Tuesday when they tip-off the 2009 Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
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Jerry Carino of the Courier News kicks off the Big East awards season as he unveils his Big East Awards and Notebook (HoopsHaven). His choice for conference Player of the Year: Terrence Williams of Louisville.

Adam Zagoria also posted his Big East Awards on his ZagsBlog this afternoon. Zags’ Big East Player of the Year pick is DeJuan Blair.

Both writers chose Keno Davis as the Coach of the Year in the Big East and Samardo Samuels as the Freshman of the Year. They are also unanimous in their selections of Defensive Player of the Year (Hasheem Thabeet), Most Improved Player (Dante Cunningham) and Comeback Player (Sharaud Curry).

NBE will be passing out their awards on Monday…
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Last year, Cincinnati lost their last seven regular season games to go from a hopeful of getting into the NCAA bubble discussion to a spot in the CBI. This season, the Hurting Bearcats are Fading Fast Again (Cincinnati Enquirer), losing four of their last five, to move from possibly on the right side of the bubble to a likely NIT invite. UC has a date with Seton Hall to close out the regular season. They will need to win that game as well as show some life in the Big East Tournament, Where UC is in Line for a 9-Seed (Enquirer) to get themselves back into the consideration.
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The Syracuse Post-Standard takes a look at the seedings If the Big East Tournament Started Today.
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Here is a story, originally from Tampa Bay Online, taking a look at the place of South Florida in the Big East basketball conference. In their fourth season in the conference, they have reached their highest level of success, and that, so far, is four conference wins. This leads to the question, Are The Bulls out of Place in the Big East? (MSNBC.com).
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