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MONDAY’S PASS THE ROCK AROUND THE BIG EAST & NATION

by RAY MERNAGH

Today’s opening thoughts are brought to you by the “alarmingly unathletic” Duke team that undressed Connecticut and its superior athletes in a game that wasn’t as close as the final spread of nine points (67-58) made it appear to be.

Is Duke as athletic as UConn?

No.

Is Duke a better basketball team?

Right now, on the last day of November in 2009, alarmingly better — especially when you consider Kyle Singler had an off night.

Is Jon Scheyer a better athlete than he gets credit for being because he’s white?

Yup.

Now that we’ve cleared that all up, let’s look at my “Super Six” coming out of a week when a lot of BE-ast squads tested themselves in neutral site tournaments.

1. Villanova — Won the Puerto Rico Tipoff without Yarou (and Redding) while finding out they can count on Antonio Pena and Taylor King to man up. The Wildcats also handled Big Five opponent La Salle 81-63 after returning home. Deep, deep team.

2. West Virginia — Won the 76 Classic in Anaheim, California. More importantly, they got Dev Ebanks back so now he and tourney MVP DaSean Butler can commence to beasting folks on a nightly basis.

3. Cincinnati — Bearcats lost in the final on Maui to the Zags 61-59. Loved their depth, intensity and the effort they made to get the ball inside to Yancy Gates while on the Island.

4. Syracuse — Impressive as all get-out with that win against Carolina. Still, Carolina isn’t close to a top-ten team right now (and any gambler with any sense made a fortune off their game vs Nevada yesterday). The ‘Cuse might be a top-ten team, but I need to see a little more than a Garden party to put them higher than 4 in the BE-ast right now.

5. Marquette — Ran out of gas last night in the final of the Old Spice Classic, in large part due to Florida State waking up in the second half coupled with 4-5 bad possessions. Says here Lazar Hayward will be first team all Big East come March. Johnson-Odom, Butler and Buykes are fearless. Got to think Buzz wanted Hayward to touch the ball on that last possession.

6. UConn — Paging Stanley Robinson…Mr. Robinson, please report to the court. Mr Robinson, where are you? 10 points and 4 rebounds in 35 minutes. Robinson might want to pay extra attention to this post-game quote from Jim Calhoun per ESPN.com: “They banged us inside, and you got a choice,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “You bang back and get the ball or get banged. That was the cause of it. They’re a physical team. They go after the loose ball. A few times when they were up 18, they went down to the floor to get the ball and we didn’t.”

UConn can be a special team, but they need Robinson to come up with better efforts than 10 and 4 on the big stage to be so.

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Recruiting News: Brad Beal, a 2011 guard from St. Louis — we’ve chronicled him here on NBE in the past — reportedly announced his college decision late this morning for Florida. The 6-3 guard also considered Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. Beal is a top-ten guard in the 2011 class who starred in international competition this summer. Will this commitment have any impact on Austin Rivers? Or is ‘Billy the Kid’ loading up in the backcourt in the 2011 class?

Rakeem “ROC” Christmas, a 2011 post we’ve been in love with for a long time now, has cut his list to Georgetown, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas and FIU. No shock here that four of those are Nike schools — last I checked FIU wears Adidas. How about FIU making the final five for a top-five kid? WOW! At first blush, the absence of Villanova was a surprise to NBE. However, a well placed source reminded us that Christmas is not a native of Philly (Virgin Islands?) and could be looking to move to a warmer climate. The presence of family in Florida also could influence his future decision. Could the Gators be preparing for a superpower arms race with SEC rival Kentucky on the recruiting trail?

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