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BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (2/2/2010)

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Lots of good stuff to get to today. Big Monday action last night had two teams with much need for a win and Louisville held serve and defeated a slumping UConn, 82-69. Tonight features Villanova (against Seton Hall) and Syracuse (against Providence) in action on their home courts looking to defend their lofty national rankings. Rutgers looks to build momentum following their first Big East win of the season from over the weekend and deal a damaging blow to St. John’s season tonight at the RAC.

In other Big East news, speculation on Pitt moving to the Big 10 looks to be WAY TOO premature. Right now, the Panthers are looking to stay positive and shake themselves out of a rut that has led to three losses in four games, but things get tougher with WVU on the schedule next. Notre Dame looks to be in a slide that is very familiar to Irish followers of a year before.

In recruiting, Pitt and Providence are involved with a young Chicago prospect, Anthony Wroten Jr updates his top five schools and Justin Coleman also lists his favorites. Adam Zagoria also has a very nice story on Rice HS junior guard Jermaine Sanders and his handling of a personal tragedy from last fall.

Also, it might be another month and a half 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. The Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden is an event Big east fans must experience when they have the opportunity and here is your chance to get your tickets early before they become harder, and more expensive, to find. 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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MONDAY’S BIG EAST ACTION:

Louisville 82, Connecticut 69

A season ago Louisville and Connecticut were college basketball heavy weights, each earning a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, entering last night’s contest, both needed a win as their NCAA Tournament resumes are looking pretty thin as college basketball heads towards the stretch run.

Before 19,655 fans in Freedom Hall on Big Monday, Louisville Defeats Connecticut 82-69 (Louisville Courier Journal) behind a balanced scoring attack and improved defense that limits UConn to 37.5% shooting and forced 17 turnovers.

The Cardinals (14-8, 5-4 Big East) bounced back from their last-second loss at West Virginia behind a team-high 15 points from senior Edgar Sosa, who added 8 assists, and 14 from from senior backcourt mate Jerry Smith. Samardo Samuels added 13 before fouling out and Reginald Delk scored 10 in the win.

The Cards will look to build some momentum this weekend when they host Rutgers Saturday in Freedom Hall. Louisville then finishes up Big East play with five or their final eight on the road as they continue to fight their way onto the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Rick Pitino’s squad raced to a 48-34 halftime lead, holding the Huskies to less than 30% shooting in the opening half. Still without head coach Jim Calhoun, the Huskies made a few runs in the second half under the direction of George Blaney, but never put the pressure on UL who has had trouble holding some leads this season.

The Huskies Woes Continue as the 13-point lsetback makes it Three Losses in a Row for UConn (Hartford Courant) following their win over then-No. 1 Texas.

Jerome Dyson had a game-high 18 points, but was just six of 17 from the floor. Kemba Walker added 15, Stanley Robinson posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Gavin Edwards added 13, but the rest of the Huskies added just nine points (8 from Alex Oriakhi) as the Bench is No Help to UConn (Courant) once again.

The loss knocks UConn to 3-6 in the Big East and into 13th place in the league standings. They are now 13-9 overall with DePaul visiting on Saturday.

The game was also a reunion of former NY Gaucho AAU guards as Old Friends Sosa and Walker Reunite in Freedom Hall (The Day.com) with Sosa and the Cards getting the better of the match-up.
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TUESDAY’S BIG EAST GAMES:

Seton Hall (3-5) at Villanova (8-0), 7 PM.

–No.2 Villanova Blocking Out Distractions With High Rankins as Seton Hall Comes to Visit (Star-Ledger)
–Big Night for Seton Hall, Rutgers (mycentraljersey.com)
–Philly’s in a Warming Trend over No. 2 Villanova (Philadelphia Daily News)
–Villanova Hosts Seton Hall Tonight (Philly Daily News)

The Wildcats look to continue their best start in school history tonight when SHU comes to town. Senior Scottie Reynolds is 7 points away from 2,000 for his career and Corey Fisher needs 17 to reach 1,000. Both teams can score points, averaging over 80 points a game each and in the top 6 in the country. ‘Nova is likely the better defensive team and that should provide the edge as SHU still looks to make their case as a NCAA Tournament team and look to avoid falling back in the standings.
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Providence (4-5) at Syracuse (8-1), 7 PM.

–Orange Scouting Report: Syracuse vs. Providence (Syracuse Post-Standard)
–Syracuse Wary of Giving Up Early Leads (Syracuse Post-Standard)
–PC’s Davis Says There is no Better Team in the Country than Syracuse (Providence Journal)
–Capsule Preview: PC at Syracuse (Providence Journal)

The Orange, 8-1 Big East, 21-1 overall, look to keep pace with ‘Nova atop the Big East standings and get off to their best start in school history with the Friars come to the Dome tonight. PC begins a gauntlet of five games against ranked opponents in six outings and have not won in the Carrier Dome since 1/12/1999.
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St. John’s (2-6) at Rutgers (1-8), 7:30 PM.

–Basketball Preview: SJU at Rutgers (newjerseynewsroom.com)
–Big Night for Seton Hall, Rutgers (mycentraljersey.com)
–Beatty Developing into a Reliable PG (mycentraljersey.com)

The Red Storm have lost three consecutve games, all to ranked opponents, and now face the Scarlet Knights at the RAC after RU picked up their first conference win of the season over the weekend. Both programs were hoping to move up in the Big East standings this season and a loss here would put the Red Storm in a heap of trouble.
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MORE BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES:

With Pittsburgh losing three of their last four and things not getting any easier when they travel to Morgantown Wednesday night to take on No. 6 West Virginia, Pitt Tries to Stay Positive (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and get back to playing their signature style of basketball. With Pitt’s Jamie Dixon Still the Same Coach (Post-Gazette) that has guided the Panthers to a surprising Big East start this season, things will likely get better, but a big help would be a healthy Jermaine Dixon. The Panthers best perimeter defender and most experienced starter missed the loss at South Florida because of an ankle injury and Dominique Jones went off for 37 points. Remember last season, Dixon was used to shut down the opposing team’s top player, that talent could have come in handy against USF and will be needed against WVU’s talented forward duo of Devin Ebanks and Da’Sean Butler Wednesday.

Of course, the recent losing of the Panthers was hardly the news surrounding the Pittsburgh program that was sweeping the information super highway by storm yesterday. Wild speculation that the Pitt program was on the verge of leaving the Big East grew legs and overwhelmed the rumor mill yesterday. Pitt to Join Big 10? Not So Fast (Chicago Tribune) a source at the Big 10 conference reiterated to the Chicago Tribune on Monday. The Big Ten will adhere to the timetable it laid out in December — a 12- to 18-month period of analysis to determine if expansion is appropriate and what team, or teams, would be invited.

All representatives at Pitt either denied or scoffed at the speculation that had an announcement coming as early as this Thursday. For the sake of the Big East conference, which was jolted by Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech leaving during the ACC raid a few years ago which led to the creation of the New Big East that we know now, the conference should begin to be proactive and find out their options rather than waiting to see what happens.
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During their height of yesterday’s Pitt to the Big 10 talk, a recruiting update was forwarded to me on Chicago-Simeon freshman (class of 2013) forward Jabari Parker. According to ChicagoHoops.com, Jabari Parker Adds Big East Scholarship Offers From Both Pittsburgh And Providence To His Fast-Growing Collection. Parker has already picked up a long line of high-major scholarship offers including Illinois, Northwestern, DePaul, Florida, Kansas, Oregon State, Washington and Brigham Young to name a few. Kentucky assistant coach Rod Strickland was on hand last week when Simeon played Chicago Julian.

Jabari’s father, former NBA star Sonny Parker confirmed to ChicagoHoops.com the scholarship offers from Pittsburgh and Providence.

While Keno Davis and his staff are well-tied to the Midwest, specifically Michigan and Chicago, this was a new area of interest being shown by the Pitt staff. With all the Big 10 talk yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder of a coincidence, ha ha!
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Adam Zagoria has a terrific story about Rice guard Jermaine Sanders, who told NBE recently that Villanova, St. John’s, Pitt, Miami, Virginia Tech and others have offered scholarships, in how he has dealt with the murder of his cousin earlier this fall: Sanders Feels Presence of Late Cousin (SNY.tv)
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Notre Dame has lost four of five and three in a row on the road, culminating in Saturday’s shocker against Rutgers. This Irish Slide Looks Familiar (South Bend Tribune) to the slump of last season that began in mid-January and lasted nearly five weeks as a 7-game losing streak derailed the Irish season a year ago that began with high hopes. This year, at15-7 overall, 4-5 in the Big East, the Irish have a steep hill to climb just to get back in the mix of the NCAA Tournament talk with a nose-diving RPI currently sitting at 71.
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Here is a recruiting update from over the weekend on Huntington Prep senior guard Justin Coleman. The native of Virginia is one of the top unsigned players in the class of 2010 as Coleman’s Hot Hand (Charleston Gazette) has the star’s stock is on the rise with college recruiters.

Coleman starred for Henrico High School in Richmond, Va., before transferring to Huntington Prep for his senior season.

The 6-foot-5, 215-pound swingman indicated to the Gazette that his current list of favorites includes Louisville, Arkansas, Marquette, South Florida and Kentucky.
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When elite 2011 guard prospect Anthony Wroten Jr made it known he intended to play football for Seattle Garfield High School this fall, eyebrows were raised. The concerns were realized when he tore his right ACL in the opening football game of the season. Now, the 6-foot-5 junior is back on the practice court less than five months after his September 21st surgery and Wroten is Hoping to Return to the Court This Season (Seattle Times).

His father is taking a more conservative approach. Anthony Sr., who tore an ACL his senior year at Hazen High School and went on to play football at Washington and in the NFL, told the Seattle Times he hasn’t told his son that he definitely won’t play this season in part because he hasn’t wanted to dampen the younger Wroten’s spirits and gung-ho approach to recovery, which is well ahead of schedule.

Wroten Jr. told the Times that he is not close to making a college choice, but has a top five: Syracuse, Villanova, Connecticut, Tennessee and Washington.