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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (12/17/2009)

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Jerry Wainwright’s tenure at DePaul might be on life support after last night’s embarrassing loss at home to 1-8 American. It might be the worst loss suffered by a Big East team since the league examped to 16 teams five seasons ago. American came in ranked 339th of 347 teams according to realtimerpi.com and beat the Blue Demons on their home floor. OUCH!

Cincinnati also suffered a tough loss, falling to former C-USA rival UAB on the road just days after dropping their Crosstown Shootout in double overtime to Xavier. Mick Cronin wants to hear nothing of a letdown, afterall, the Big East will offer plenty of chances for back to back tough tests.

Elsewhere, South Florida and Louisville bounced back from disappointing losses to pick up wins last night. On the recruiting front, the Jeronne Maymon transfer from Marquette should not impact the status of Vander Blue and his commitment to MU. UConn checks out a JUCO PF as Louisville and Cincinnati are also expressing interest. Jayvaughn Pinkston is living up to the lofty expectations placed on him as the #1 player in NYC this year. Reggie Redding is preparing to return to the court this weekend for ‘Nova, Keno Davis is coaching and selling at PC and a look at the rumors of Big 10 expansion and the early success of the Big East, is it real or an illusions…

Also, it might be three months away, but our 2010 Big East Tournament & Tickets page has the links needed for Big East basketball fans to purchase tickets to any or all of the 2010 Big East Tournament sessions. With all the excitement recently at Madison Square Garden, Big East Tournament tickets could make a great holiday gift for any Big East fan on your shopping list. Stub Hub and the Big East conference have teamed up to provide fans with quality tickets and you can get tickets to any Big East conference or non-league game by following this link: StubHub.com – The Safe Way to Buy & Sell Tickets Online

Read on below for all of today’s News & Notes…

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Somehow, Jerry Wainwright survived an 0-18 conference record last season at DePaul. However, last night’s loss to lowly American might have topped that embarrassing mark.

According to realtimeRPI.com, American University entered last night’s match-up with the Blue Demons with the 339th best RPI of the 347 Division I basketball teams. Their lone win came against 1-8 Howard. Well, now they have two wins as American Surprises DePaul, 62-57 (Washington Post) at Allstate Arena.

Nick Hendra hit a go-ahead 3-pointer, and Vlad Moldoveanu, in his first game being eligible after transferring from George Mason midseason a year ago, scored 26 points in his season debut off the bench as American upset DePaul.

A three-pointer by Will Walker with 2:49 left game the Blue Demons a 57-56 lead as DePaul trailed by as much as 10 in the first half. It was their last points of the contest and Hendra answered with a three of his own as the Late Shot Helps American Stun DePaul (Daily Herald) in front of a meager 1,500 fans.

Moldoveanu looked like a star in his first game this season after averaging just 2.3 points and 2.1 rebounds at George Mason last season before transferring. With Mac Koshwal or without, this is a game Jerry Wainwright’s team had to have, but when your down four in the last half minute and you resport to running a play for walk-on transfer Jimmy Drew after a time out, things are bad. Drew, who came over from Southeast Missouri State, was just cleared days earlier by the NCAA and was taking the biggest shot of the game for the Blue Demons just days later. Ouch!

DePaul was out-rebounded in the game by a margin of 39-27.

Devin Hill scored 16 to lead the Blue Demons and Walker added 13. The loss drops their record to 6-4 ahead of their home date with Texas State this Saturday. DePaul finishes their pre-conference slate with a road game at Florida Gulf Coast on 12/22 and then opens Big East play at Pittsburgh on Monday December 28th.

Let the coaching rumors ensue as even the Chicago media just isn’t in it any more as Lindsey Willhite of the Chicago Daily Herald says that I’d Like to Blog About DePaul, but….
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Following the emotional and intense crosstown shootout loss Sunday night at rival Xaiver, seeing a letdown of sorts from Cincinnati Wednesday night when they faces UAB was expected. However, this effort was more than a letdown as the Bearcats Suffer a Setback at UAB (Cincinnati Enquirer) in a 64-47 loss.

The Bearcats can almost certainly kiss good-bye their top 25 ranking and head coach Mick Cronin does not want to hear any excuses because of their previous game.

“One team was humble and hungry to win,” said UC coach Mick Cronin following the game in the Enquirer. “The other team was overconfident and uninterested.”

UAB Had Something to Prove Against No. 25 UC (Birmingham News) as the Blazers raced out to a 34-19 halftime lead and outrebounded the Bearcats 29-14 in the opening 20 minutes.

“We played like we had no energy,” Cronin told the Enquirer. “Whether that comes from Sunday night, we’d better grow up because we play in a conference where you’ve got to play tough games every game.”

Cincinnati, now 6-3, closes out their pre-conference schedule with Lipscomb and Winthrop at home before hosting Connecticut on December 30th to open Big East play.

Before conference play begins, UC will need to find a way to get senior Deonta Vaughn playing better. After struggling in the loss at Xavier Sunday night, Vaughn was just 2-9 from the field against UAB and committed five turnovers. After averaging over 15 points a game in his first three years as a Bearcat, Vaughn is averaging just 10 points a game this year and seeing his shooting percentages drop to career lows as well. If UC is going to challenge in the Big East like many believe they can, Deonta Vaughn will need to be producing at, or near, his previous levels.

Dion Dixon led UC with 13 points in the loss at UAB as the entire Bearcat club struggled offensively. Cincinnati shot just 32% (19-61) from the field in the game and 3-22 from three-point range. Add in 17 turnovers and it was a recipe for disaster for the Bearcats.
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South Florida rebounded from their disappointing loss to Central Michigan by riding the strong offensive play of junior Dominique Jones on Wednesday night as the USF Bulls Defeat Central Florida, 69-65 (St. Pete Times).

Jones Scored 27 in the win over UCF (Tampa Tribune) in front of a Sun Dome crowd of 4,627. USF fared better in their second game without leading scorer Gus Gilchrist, who is out four to six weeks with an ankle injury.

Seniors Chris Howard, who had 14 points and a team-high six assists, and Mike Mercer, who scored 12, also picked up some slack offensively. JUCO transfer Jarrid Famous had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, responding to Stan Heath’s public challenge following the loss to CMU for the big man to step up. Famous had five points and just one rebound in the previous game.

USF plays San Francisco in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic on Saturday.
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The perfect remedy for what has been ailing Louisville of late was found in Oral Roberts visiting Freedom Hall Wednesday night. The cure was aided by a stern pregame speeck from coach Rick Pitino. Pitino’s Challenge, Louisville gets ‘Real’ in Rout of Oral Roberts (Louisville Courier-Journal), 94-57.

After being called ‘fakes’ and ‘imposters’ by their coach, Louisville Pounds ORU (Tulsa World) behind 18 points from Edgar Sosa and 17 from Samardo Samuels. The Cards shot 52% from the field and connected on 12 of 32 attempts from beyond the arc in the rout.

With Western Kentucky coming to Freedom Hall on Saturday and a date with arch nemesis Kentucky (1/2) looming, UL fans will hope last night’s effort proves the Cards are Back on Track State-Journal) with the meat of their schedule ahead.
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With the recent decision by Jeronne Maymon to quit the team at Marquette, many fans have wondered what that would mean with the commitment of Maymon’s friend and former high school teammate Vander Blue, who signed with the Golden Eagles back in November. Blue is a highly rated guard out of Madison (WI) Memorial who chose MU after de-committing from rival Wisconsin earlier. Reached by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Rita Blue, mother of Vander, told the newspaper that the Blue Commitment is Solid and the Maymon situation will have no impact on Vander’s future plans to attend Marquette.

“Whatever the decision the Maymon family has made, it has no direct effect toward my son Vander and our family,” Rita Blue told the Journal-Sentinel Tuesday night. “Vander will be at Marquette, and that is the end of the story.”

For more on Maymon, check out Ray Mernagh’s recent NBE column as Maymon Done Before He Began as a Golden Eagle.
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Ricardo Ratliffe of Central Florida Community College is widely considered as the #1 JUCO prospect in the country. With the early signing period behind us, many programs will turn their attention to the JUCO ranks to fill holes in the spring signing period and the 6-foot-8 power forward and native of Virginia has the attention of several Big East schools. Recently, Connecticut came and watched a recent game as the UConn Huskies Join the Hunt for JUCO Star (Blue Grass State Basketball). While he is not currently concentrating on his recruitment, Ratliffe told allKYhoops.com that both Kentucky and Louisville are still calling and he is still looking at several other options including Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Clemson and Missouri.
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Villanova will be getting a lift shortly as Reggie Redding said Tuesday he was looking forward to being back on the court with his teammates, after he was in court Tuesday and allowed to be placed on a special probationary program for first offenders. Nova Hoop Star Redding Gets ARD on Pot Rap (DelCo Times). He had been suspended for the first semester of the 2009 basketball season from his arrest last summer after campus security spotted a small amount of marijuana in his parked car on campus, but said yesterday that he is now back with the team and is looking forward to playing in Saturday’s game against Fordham University.
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Here is a good article from out in Iowa on Providence coach Keno Davis as Davis Doesn’t Just Coach his team at Providence, he Sells it (GazetteOnline).
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The NY Post takes a look at Villanova-commit and Bishop Loughlin star forward Javvaughn Pinkston as Pinkston is Living Up to Lofty Expectations as NYC’s top player this year.
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Mike Miller on MSNBC takes a look to see if the Big East is Great, or an Illusion (MSNBC.com) with their early success here in December.

Miller also talks a little bit about Big 10 expansion and says that Pitt is Perfect to Add to Big 10 and that should be the conferences target. Get used to this kind of talk as several Big East teams (Rutgers, Syracuse, etc) will be mentioned from time to time.
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