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MONDAY’S PASS THE ROCK AROUND THE BIG EAST (12/7/09)

by RAY MERNAGH

Wow, some tough results for the Big East over the weekend (particularly Saturday). Lets take a look back and delve into some specifics, plus look ahead to some huge early-season games that are almost upon us.

First up, a look at the weekend results.

The Good: Villanova handled Maryland last night in DC 95-86 in a pretty fun game to watch. ‘Nova hit 16-39 three-pointers with the two Coreys doing a lot of the more efficient damage. Corey Fisher played a wonderful game, making good decisions all night especially knowing when to go to the rim and finish. He finished with 20 on 6-13 shooting (4-6 from deep and 4-4 from the line) plus added 2 steals and 4 rebounds in 30 minutes. His ‘brother’ Stokes might as well start going by Corey Strokes, because the young man’s stroke from deep looks to be the smoothest on the East Side of the country. Stokes finished with 18, also on 6-13 shooting (5-11 from the arc) along with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Scottie Reynolds went for 25, shot 7-18 (3-10 from deep) dished out 8 assists but turned it over 5 times. Antonio Pena continued to do work inside by grabbing 11 boards (6 offensive). Taylor King let it fly 17 times (whoa there brother) with 3 of his 5 makes coming from deep. Jay Wright got steady play out of his younger guards Dominic Cheek (6 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists) in 16 minutes plus a huge steal down the stretch and Maalik Wayns (3 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 9 minutes). Nova killed Maryland on the boards by +12 (42-30) with 20 of the 42 being offensive rebounds. Defensively I thought Nova really turned it up and got stops down the stretch…but they also fouled a lot late in the game. Most impressive thing about the win (which is an impressive one nonetheless as the Turtle is going to be good this year): Maryland got big games from three different guys and it still didn’t matter. Maryland’s Freshman big, Jordan Williams, was a load inside with 19 and 12 (he hits his FT’s too). Sean Mosely had 26 and his backcourt mate Eric Hayes had 20. Nova did a great job limiting Greivis Vasquez, Maryland’s emotional one, to 12 points before he fouled out. Really solid win for the Wildcats. The three-point shooting might not always be there for them, but their relentless pursuit of the ball off the glass will pay dividends all season long, as will their depth (and they don’t even have Reggie Redding back yet).

The Not So Bad/Promising: St. John’s loss to Duke @ Duke 80-71. First loss of the season for the Red-men was a valiant effort in an extremely hostile locale. Norm Roberts was working as hard on the sideline as his players were on the court (kind of cool to see). D.J. Kennedy has been a model of consistency for Roberts. For the season this Pittsburgh kid is averaging 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4.5 assists in right around 30 minutes a game. Against Duke he scored 18 with 4 boards and 9 assists. The 6-6 wing has brought it every night so far and he’s done it efficiently too. Kennedy is 79% from the line, 44.8% from deep, and 55.4% from the field. He has 27 assists to 17 turnovers.

Below are Kennedy’s scoring/rebounding/assist totals so far this year in the first seven games.

16-7-2
18-2-3
15-2-3
23-6-5
15-5-2
19-5-3
18-4-9

The Bad: UNC-Charlotte beat a guard-depleted Louisville team 87-65 in Freedom Hall. Charlotte hit 10-24 three-pointers and Rick Pitino wasn’t pleased with his clubs lack of understanding/comprehending the scouting report. The thing that’s scary about this to me though, the worst loss at home for a Louisville team under Pitino, is the interior play. Freshman forward Chris Braswell went bananas for Bobby Lutz’ 49′ers, getting 21 points and 14 rebounds. The Cards were out rebounded by 14 (49-35).

NC State beat Marquette 77-73 at Marquette. Marquette had a great run to start the season but losses like this hurt, especially at home. After winning the first half by nine, the Golden Eagles were decimated in the second by a 52-37 count.

Providence lost a 16-point second half lead to Rhode Island (at Rhody) and lost to their in-state rival 86-82. Again, the second half killed the Friars as they were outscored 51-33 by the Rams. Providence has failed to close out games in each of their three losses as the Friars held leads in the final 2:30 against Alabama, Boston College and Rhody.

The Ugly: I wrote a column about the Pittsburgh/New Hampshire game so I’m letting that go, plus it was a win for the Panthers (although it certainly fits into the category of ugly). Luckily for me there’s always the DePaul Blue Demons people. They lost at Vandy 67-54 which isn’t a bad result really because Vandy is good…BUT, looking at the numbers for the starting five one stat in particular got my attention. How many assists do you think the starters for Jerry Wainwright had? Let me give you a hint — if you guessed 1 you guessed too many. That’s right, the starting five had 0 assists in a game where the Bluer than Blue Blue Demons shot a robust 35.7% from the line. Michael Bizoukas came off the bench and played the role of Magic Johnson, dishing out the only 2 assists (versus 11 turnovers) DePaul had on the day. Ladies and gentlemen, come out to the next home game in Rosemont — where passing doesn’t happen!

Rutgers rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to beat a win-less Colgate 76-67 in a game that saw the Scarlet Knights shoot 38 free throws (29 makes) and Colgate shoot 12. Just saying.

Games to Check Out This Week: UMass @ Seton Hall tonight. Butler vs Georgetown and Indiana vs Pitt at MSG tomorrow in the Jimmy V Classic. Wednesday gives us Kentucky vs UConn as part of the SEC/Big East Invitational with the event concluding Thursday with Syracuse vs Florida!! Friday is an upset watch/possibility as Miami (OH) visits the so-far-so-really-good Cincinnati and Saturday we’ve got Marquette (and I bet Vander Blue in the crowd) rolling into Madison to take on Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin.

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