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HOOP SKILLS BIG EAST MEDIA DAY SCUTTLEBUTT

Some notes that were being bantied about at the Big East’s Media Day gathering yesterday

While most of the talk since last season has centered around true freshman Brandon Triche taking over at point guard for Syracuse and replacing Jonny Flynn, Antonio Jardine should not be counted out. ‘Scoop’, who redshirted last season, averaged 5.5 points, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals in over 19 minutes as a freshman in 2007-2008. He played much of his freshman season bothered by a leg injury that was later diagnosed as a stress fracture. The word circulating at media day was that Jardine has the early leg up on the starting position………….At West Virginia they have gone from no point guards in the program to a neck and neck race for the starting job between redshirt junior Joe Mazzulla and sophomore Daryl ‘Truck’ Bryant. Mazzulla began last season as the starter, but played in just seven games before a shoulder injury forced him to take a medical redshirt. Bryant took over the duties and filled in admirably as a true frosh pressed into action. Both were placed on indefinite suspension over the summer because of multiple incidents in their time at WVU, but both are back for a season of high expectations for the Mountaineers. Mazzulla’s 2.4:1 assist to turnover ratio of last season, albeit in limited duty, might be the deciding factor in him seeing the ball in his hands more as the season progrsses………Louisville has a major void to fill in their line-up with the graduation of do-everything forward Terrence Williams. Despite playing just 5.5 minutes a game in 28 contests as a junior last season, Reginald Delk has the inside track to start at the ‘3′ position over sophomre Jared Swopshire. Delk started 59 of 65 career games at Mississippi State, averaging 9.5 ppg as a sophomore before transferring to UL. He sat out the 2007-2008 season per NCAA transfer rules………The expected DePaul starting five is Will Walker, Mac Koshwal, Ohio State transfer Eric Wallace, Devin Hill and JUCO transfer Mike Stovall. Expect them to also use a lot of either Mike Bizoukas and Jeremiah Kelly at the point to free up Walker to carry the scoring load off the ball on the perimeter………At Cincinnati most of the talk regarding their newcomers is centered around Lance Stephenson, who was picked by the Big East coaches as the conference’s preseason player of the year. However, fellow freshman Jaquon Parker has been looking great early on in practices and the 6-foot-3 guard is pushing redshirt frosh Cashmere Wright for minutes in the backcourt next to senior Deonta Vaughn………….Jarrid Famous, a JUCO transfer from Westchester (NY) CC, has quickly established himself at South Florida as their starting center.

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