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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (11/17/2009)

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The much anticipated debut of Lance Stephenson took place on Monday night and it probably did not go quite as planned, but Cincinnati was able to rally for a victory. The Big East also picked up their first win against another power conference, courtesy of the improved South Florida Bulls. Villanova continued their Big 5 dominance and Notre Dame earned their second victory to start the season. UConn won their opening NIT Season Tip-off contest, despite a sluggish 1st half. UConn is back in action tonight.

Louisville opens their season against Arkansas tonight while DePaul hopes to begin the healing process over last year by opening at home tonight against an Ivy League opponent. Pittsburgh is in action, but will again be without the services of their lone returning starter. Georgetown meets Temple in a game coached by a pair of former Ivy League coaching rivals. Marquette looks to earn a second win against a team amongst the bottom of the 1-A ranks and St. John’s travels to upstate NY to meet St. Bonaventure.

In a couple other brief notes, Providence is resting after a 3-0 weekend and looking ahead to a date in SEC country on Friday. Syracuse heads to MSG this week to meet a highly touted Cal club. Seton Hall added a signed LOI to their 2010 class.

Read about all this below in today’s News & Notes links…

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MONDAY’S BIG EAST ACTION:

Villanova 103, Penn 65
–Villanova continued their dominance over Big 5 competition as ‘Nova Rolls over Penn in Big 5 Match-up (Philadelphia Daily News), 103-65. The Wildcats stretched their lead to as many as 48 points, 93-45, with seven minutes remaining in the second half.

Villanova Blasts Penn (Philadelphia Inquirer) from beyond the arc, connecting on 11 of 21 three’s, and they also dominated the glass, outrebounding the Ivy League foes 45-27 in the contest.

it was a balanced ‘Nova offensive effort, putting six players in double figures, led by freshman Philly native Maalik Wayns who scored 16 points. Wayns helped show observers that Villanova’s ‘Younger Guys’ are as Good as Advertised (DelCo Times) as the heralded recruiting class that also contains Mouphtau Yarou, Dominic Cheek and Isaiah Armwood have played well from the start.

Duke transfer Taylor King, junior Corey Stokes and senior Scottie Reynolds each added 14 points, while Corey Fisher added 13 points and 8 assists and Antonio Pena added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds on the night.
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Cincinnati 69, Prairie View A&M 62
–Cincinnati opened their highly anticipated season on Monday night by hosting Prairie View A&M out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It was also the college debut of UC’s freshman phenom Lance Stephenson. For a while, things did not look good for the Bearcats who trailed by as many as 15 points and were down by 10 with 16:36 left in the game before turning things around with a 14-0 run in which they held their opponents scoreless for nine minutes.

The Bearcats earned a 69-62 win in their opener, yet, Cincinnati’s Play in Opener makes Mick Cronin Nervous (Cincinnati Enquirer) as UC turns the ball over 17 times and shoots 39% in the game.

As usual, the Bearcats had Deonta Vaughn to point the way. The senior guard scored 12 of his team high 15 points in the second half. With the offense struggling, junior Larry Davis also provided a lift off the bench scoring 13 points in 20 minutes.

As for Stephenson, Lance was a ‘Nervous Wreck’ in the Opener (ZagsBlog.com), scoring just seven points on two of 10 shooting in 22 minutes.

Cincinnati tunes up against Toledo on Wednesday before heading to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational over Thanksgiving.
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South Florida 66, Virginia 49
–The Big East takes round one in a head-to-head match-up with another power conference as South Florida and Dominique Jones carry the conference banner in a win over an ACC opponent on Monday night. Jones Leads Bulls to an Easy Win over Virginia (St. Pete Times) by scoring a game-high 22 points on 10 of 18 shooting. Jones also grabbed seven rebounds, made four steals and added four assists in USF’s 66-49 win over the Cavaliers.

Also playing well for the Bulls was the frontcourt tandem of Augustus Gilchrist (18 pts, 8 rebs) and Jarrid Famous (12 pts, 8 rebs) as a strong frontcourt with balance is a new luxury for Stan Heath’s club.

USF now hits the road for three games in the Charleston Classic, starting with Davidson on Thursday night.
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Notre Dame 95, St. Francis (PA) 72
–Some encouraging signs continue out of Notre Dame very early in their season. While Luke Harangody got his norm, 27 and 9, last night in a win over St. Francis (PA), once again Tim Abromaitis Gives Irish a Lift (South Bend Tribune) off the bench. The junior, who was used very seldom previously in his career, scored 17 points in 27 minutes in last night’s 95-72 victory.

Ben Hansbrough continued to fill the shoes of graduated Kyle McAlarney by scoring 18 points and connecting on four of six from the arc. Hansbrough also added 7 assists. Tory Jackson stuffed the stat sheet with 9 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds.

As a team, the Irish shot 56% (34-61) from the field, 52% (12-23) from the arc and outrebounded St. Francis 40-21 in the contest. St. Francis did hang around with some hot shooting of their own, going 13-19 (68%) from the arc.
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Connecticut 77, Colgate 63
–Stanley Robinson had 18 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting, Kemba Walker had 16 points and six assists, and Gavin Edwards scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half to help Connecticut pull away in the second half for a 77-63 win over Colgate in an NIT Season Tip-Off game at Gampel Pavilion.

With just a one-point halftime lead, a visibly irked Jim Calhoun was ready to let his players hear about their effort at halftime. Luckily, it turns out the Huskies are Only Half Bad (New Haven Register) as UConn Brushes Back Colgate Upset Bid (Connecticut Post) with a better second half effort.

UConn is right back in action tonight when they host Hofstra as the NIT Season Tip-off continues. After the Huskies Were Sluggish in Win over Colgate (Waterbury Rep Am), heads may roll at the half if another slow start is encountered this evening.
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TUESDAY’S BIG EAST SCHEDULE:

Temple @ Georgetown, 4:00 PM
–Wright’s Play at Point Still a Question for Hoyas (Washington Times)

Home opener this afternoon as Georgetown hosts Temple at the Verizon Center. Temple is coming off an opening win over Delaware in which they led 40-19 at the half in their 76-56 win. Temple is coached by former Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who is very familiar with John Thompson III’s system when JTIII was at Princeton.
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Binghampton @ Pittsburgh, 5:30 PM
–Upstart Binghamption Decimated (Post-Gazette)
–Pitt Playing Host to Beleaguered Binghampton (Tribune-Review)
–Pitt’s Dixon Will Miss Next Two Games

In the preseason this had the makings of an interesting out of conference match-up for the young Panthers. However, Binghampton is down to just seven scholarship players after five players were dismissed from the program and head coach Kevin Broadus, a former Georgetown assistant, has been placed on administrative leave. Former Temple star Mark Macon will coach Binghamption against Pitt as the Panthers look to have an easier time than in their 63-60 opening win over Wofford.

Pitt’s only returning starter Jermaine Dixon continues to be sidelined by a foot injury. He is expected to miss at leas the next two games this week with Pittsburgh hopeful he can return and play next week in Kansas City when the Panthers take on Wichita State and either Texas or Iowa for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Classic games played November 23rd and 24th.
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Hofstra @ Connecticut, 7:00 PM
–see above as the NIT Season Tip-off continues

St. John’s vs. St. Bonaventure (in Rochester, NY), 7:00 PM
–New Look St. Bona to Take on St. John’s in Rochester (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle)
–Bona to Better Measure itself Against St. John’s (Buffalo News)

St. Bonaventure is coming off a 72-62 season opening win over Cleveland State and has hopes of an improved season in the A-10 this year. However, St. John’s even with their rash of injuries, is too athletic, big and deep for the Bonnies and with raised expectations for Norm Roberts’ club, this is a game they must be able to flex their muscles in.
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Arkansas vs. Louisville (in St. Louis, MI), 8:00 PM
–Pitino-Pelphrey match-up 20 Years in the Making (Louisville Courier-Journal)
–Cards Want to Avoid Another Slow Start (Louisville Courier-Journal)
–Friend & Foe (Times Record)

We will see how Rotnei Clarke fares against the Louisville defense. Last weekend Clarke erupted for a school-record 51 points while making 13-of-17 3-pointers in a win over Alcorn State. Tonight the task will be much tougher as Arkansas takes on Louisville in St. Louis as the Cards open their season. The season opening probably could not get her soon enough for coach Rick Pitino after a personal scandal rocked his summer. Now he opens against a team coached by John Pelphrey who was a member of Pitino’s first Kentucky team back in 1989. Pelphrey is also facing challenges with a short-handed team where many youngsters will be thrown into the fire tonight.
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MD Eastern Shore @ Marquette, 8:00 PM
–Game Two: Maryland Eastern Shore (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Marquette returns to action after their season-opening win over Centenary with a home date with Maryland-Eastern Shore of the MEAC tonight at the Bradley Center. UM-ES lost their opener, 75-57, to Stony Brook.
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Columbia @ DePaul, 9:00 PM
–DePaul Eager to Right a Season that Went All Wrong (Chicago Tribune)
–Heck of a Time to be DePaul Coach (Daily Herald)

DePaul looks to begin putting their 9-24 season of 2008-2009 completely behind them and, for at least one night, Columbia offers them a golden chance to do so. The Blue Demons head for the Paradise Jam following tonight’s game.
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MORE BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES:

After three wins in three days for Providence College to start the season, next up is a trip to Tuscaloosa (AL) and a Friday night date with the Alabama Crimson Tide. With such an inexperienced group of players at the Division 1-A level, Keno Davis and his team was thrown into the fire early with three games in the World Vision Classic. While the competition was not daunting, it was tricky and finding the right Offenisve Line-up is a Likely Challenge for the Friars All Season (Providence Journal) and Friday’s game with the Alabama of the SEC will be another challenge to that task for Davis and his staff.
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Syracuse ventures to the Big Apple this week for the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. The Orange will meet No. 13 Cal in Thursday’s first semifinal and Syracuse is Comfortable in the Garden for Cal (SNY.tv) as it is a very familiar place for the Orange.

Cal, 2-0 on the young season like the Orange, was picked to win the Pac-10 conference after returning four starters and 94 percent of its scoring from last season. SU will hope their zone defense, which forced 60 turnovers in opening wins of Robert Morris and Albany, causes Cal problems on the perimeter.
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According to the Phillyburbs/AP, guard Jesse Morgan has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Seton Hall next season.
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