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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (8/28/2009)

Taking a quick tour around the Big East to catch up on the latest news and notes shows that West Virginia has reinstated one of their two suspended point guards. Also, the Mountaineers part ways with a 2010 verbal commitment in the process. Also, a couple preview-related items, which include the latest Big East teams on CHN’s top 144 teams in 144 days and a pre-season power poll of the Big East.

Just when you thought things had quieted down on the Pitino-Sypher front, a Louisville televisions station (somewhat) and the UL coach (for the most part) bring the scandel back to the front page. On the recruiting front, an update on JJ Moore, Chane Behanan and a look at the Brett Roseboro situation at Marquette and at the Five-Star basketball camp legacy, whcih continues.

Read about these in our links below…

Also, don’t forget, you can follow NBE Sports on twitter at: http://twitter.com/NBESports

Also, for our Big East football fans, be sure to begin following the activity at the NBE Football Report. It is in the early stages, but the model will follow what we have created with the NBE Basketball Report over the years. Our 2009 football previews of Cincinnati and Connecticut are there to check out. More to come and we should have some recruiting tidbits as well over the weekend for the football fans to chew on!

West Virginia basketball point guard Joe Mazzulla, suspended since April after being charged with domestic battery, was reinstated Thursday by Coach Bob Huggins.

“Joe has done everything that has been asked of him on all fronts,” Huggins said in a statement released by the university’s sports information department. “I believe he deserves to be back on our roster and play for the Mountaineers.”

Huggins Reinstates Mazzulla (Daily Mail) after the junior played in only seven games last season after suffering a growth plate fracture in his left shoulder at Ole Miss. The April arrest was Mazzulla’s second in less than 12 months after he was charged in July 2008 with aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and underage drinking after getting into a scuffle with security at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during a Pirates’ game.

Muzzalla and sophomore Darryl “Truck” Bryant are the only true point guards on the Mountaineer roster. However, Bryant remains suspended after two traffic incidents, which resulted in a citation and an arrest, earlier this summer.
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Once again CollegeHoopsNet is running through their countdown of 144 teams in 144 days leading to the start of the 2009-2010 college basketball season. Here are Big East teams they have covered so far:

#98 Providence College (13th in the Big East)
#114 Rutgers (14th in the Big East)
#139 South Florida (15th in the Big East)
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Jason King of Yahoo/Rivals.com has his version of the Big East Preseason Power Rankings to give fans something to talk about in August…
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It truly did seem that the sordid affair between Karen Sypher and Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino had moved from the consciousness of college basketball fans recently. However, after a Louisville television station broadcast newly released police tapes of a Sypher police interview during their noon telecase, Pitino decided to respond with a press conference. While the Louisville station broadcast locally, the Pitino presser was aired nationally by ESPN and the bizarre, albeit brief, meeting with the media by Pitino put the issue back on the front page everywhere.

Jason Whitlock of FoxSports.com writes that Pitino’s Play Shows What a Playa He is.
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Brett Roseboro, according to our pal Alex Schwartz, has landed at St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 after parting ways with Marquette this summer. The recent Roseboro Saga Demonstrates Flows in Recruiting accoding to the Intelligencer/phillyburbs.com.
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The news above of Joe Mazzulla being reinstated and receiving a medical redshirt, putting him in the junior class for West Virginia has caused a mutual parting of ways, it seems, between 2010 verbal commit Bryon Allen and the Mountaineers. The Oak Hill guard re-opened his recruitment this week, citing the lack of scholarship available with Mazzulla’s reinstatement.

In other WVU Basketball News (Charleston Gazette) of the recruiting variety, among other prospects, West Virginia’s coaches are now after Chane Behanan, a 6-foot-7, 235-lb forward who recently revoked his verbal commitment to Cincinnati after moving from Aiken HS in Ohio to Bowling Green HS in Kentucky.
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The recruitment of J.J. Moore continues to come into focus for the 6-foot-5 small forward. Moore, who previously attended Brentwood High School on Long Island will take his game to South Kent (CT) this season. In the meantime, he is working on making a college decision and Moore Sets In-Home Visits (ZagsBlog.com) with Pittsburgh on Sept. 10, Providence comes Sept. 11 and Louisville and Marquette arrive on Sept. 12. Moore has recently made unofficial visits to Pitt and PC and will be heading to Louisville and Marquette in the near future as well.
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Many readers may have grown up in the same timeframe as myself, if you did and played basketball on the east coast you were certainly aware of the Five-Star basketball camps ran my Will Klein and the legendary Howard Garfinkel. Even in the age of the ‘shoe’ camps, Vegas week and AAU nationals dominating the July scene, Mike DeCourcy writes that Five-Star Camps Continue to Carve Niche in College Basketball Recruiting (The Sporting News) today.

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