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2010 BIG EAST TOURNAMENT COVERAGE: WEDNESDAY PRIMER

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After a thrilling doubleheader Tuesday to close the first day of action of the 2010 Big East Tournament, we roll on into Wednesday with four more games as the action will continue to heat up into the weekend at Madison Square Garden.

Here is Wednesday’s schedule (and your chance to get tickets to the games):

9) South Florida vs. 8] Georgetown, Noon.
13) St. John’s vs. 5) Marquette, 2 PM.

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 3 March 10 2010 (USF vs GTown & SJU vs. MU)

10) Seton Hall vs. 7) Notre Dame, 7 PM.
11) Cincinnati vs. 6) Louisville, 9 PM.

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 4 March 10 2010 (SHU vs. ND & UC vs. UL)

The rest of the schedule this week (and your chance to buy tickets to see the action live at MSG):

QUARTERFINALS: THURSDAY, MARCH 11th:

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 5 March 11 2010

1) Syracuse vs. GTown/USF, 12 noon.
4) Villanova vs. MU/SJU, 2 PM.

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 6 March 11 2010

2) Pittsburgh vs. ND/SHU, 7 PM.
3) West Virginia vs. UL/UC, 9 PM.

Semifinals, Firday March 12th:

Session 7:

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 7 (Semifinals) March 12 2010

Championship, Saturday March 13th:

Session 8:

Big East Basketball Tournament Tickets – Session 8 (Championship) March 13 2010

South Florida (9) vs. Georgetown (8). Noon.

–Georgetown Hopes for Consistent Effort vs. USF in Big East Tournament (Washington Post)
–South Florida-Georgetown Preview (Sporting News.com)
–USF Bulls Top DePaul, Seek NCAA Tournament Big (St. Pete Times)
–USF’s First Tournament Win a Suitable Start (Fanhouse.com)

The Bulls earned their fourth-consecutive win, and 20th on the season, with yesterday’s Big East Tournament opening 58-49 win over DePaul. In a season of firsts for the USF program in the Big East, yesterday’s win was their first in a Big East Tournament game.

Stan Heath’s club will look for a season-sweep over the Hoyas today at noon in a game that could be enough to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid in nearly 20 years. The Bulls won in DC on February 3rd behind 29 points from Dominique Jones.

“He (Jones) does not care about his points or shots,” Heath said yesterday, “he just cares about winning.

The NCAA Tournament carrot is a tempting one to concentrate on, but Heath understands the Bulls can only control one thing right now, their play.

“We win we get to keep playing,” Heath said, “and that takes care of itself.”

The Hoyas have lost four of their last six and enter the contest with a 20-9 record. Playing one of the nation’s toughest schedule, John Thompson III’s club has secured a position in the NCAA Tournament’s Field of 65 as an at-large team, but desperately wants to enter the Big Dance with some momentum and a better seed than they might on a late-season slide.
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St. John’s (13) vs. Marquette (5), 2 PM.

–St. John’s Routs UConn; Advances to Face Marquette (NY Daily News)
–Familiar Tourney Route for Marquette (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
–Norm Roberts Will Keep His Job For at Least Another Day (NY Magazine)

The Red Storm sent UConn packing yesterday and now will take on the Golden Eagles, a team that beat SJU in overtime two weeks ago in Carnesecca Arena. Norm Roberts and his squad have a golden opportunity to but a disappointing season behind them, playing on their secondary home court in MSG to make some noise this week.

The Golden Eagles have locked up an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, barring a complete meltdown by the Selection Committee, but you know that Buzz Williams’ team will still battle as hard as anyone. Should be a good, tough game.
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Seton Hall (10) vs. Notre Dame (7), 7 PM.

–Seton Hall Survives Wild Night, Notre Dame Looms (Fanhouse.com)
–Offense Leads Way as Seton Hall Moves On (NY Times)
–Seton Hall Keeps Tournament Hopes Alive (SNY.tv)
–Friars Bow Out with Some Fight (Providence Journal)
–Irish Look to Keep Rolling in Big East Tournament (WSBT.com)
–Minus Star, Irish Salvaged Season (ESPN Chicago)

There is quite a bit riding on the first game of the night time doubleheader tonight in the BiG East Tournament. Most bracketologists believe the Irish are ‘in’ the NCAA Tournament and the Pirates are just ‘out.’ However, a lot can change between now and Sunday, and tonight’s result could have the biggest impact.

”We have 19 wins with no bad losses,” said Gonzalez when asked about his team’s NCAA Tournament chances last night. “We beat Notre Dame at our place, a lot of people are saying they’re in. We know it’s a big game, if we win all of a sudden we swept Notre Dame and we have 20 wins. So we’ll leave it up to the people that make the decisions, but we just want to keep playing.”

SHU remains in the discussion after holding on for dear life as a Duke Mondy three-pointer was off the mark in the closing seconds as the Pirates defeated Providence 109-106. With 13:30 left in the game SHU was up by 29 points. These two teams met February 11th and SHU almost blew a big lead in that one, hanging on for a 90-87 win at the Prundential Center. In that contest Luke Harangody suffered a bone bruise on his knee and missed five consecutive games before returning to play a reserve role in ND’s regular season ending 63-60 overtime win over Marquette. The Irish ride an impressive four-game winning streak into tonight’s contest while SHU has won seven of their last nine, but still are looking for some resume enhancing wins. Their hot streak has come at the expense of seven opponents with a combined Big East record of 35-91 (.277).
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Cincinnati (11) vs. Louisville (6), 9 PM.

–Jerry Smith’s Thumb Only Bummer for Louisville heading into Big East Tournament (Louisville Courier-Journal)
–Bearcats are Born Again (Cincinnati Enquirer)

On the floor that he had won so often before freshman Lance Stephenson did it again last night. With the game tied in the final seconds the player nicknamed ‘Born Ready’ on the courts of NYC in his youth drove to the basket, drew the foul and calmly sank a free throw to give the Bearcats a 69-68 win over Rutgers in a 1st round game of the Big East Tournament. The win salvaged the UC season…at least for another day.

The Bearcats likely need four wins here in NYC to get into the NCAA Tournament, which seemed like a realistic goal and destination back in December. Now they take on former Conference USA rival Louisville in a second round game. Mick Cronin is a former assistant of Rick Pitino and will try and better his mentor once again.

The Cards look to be without Jerry Smith for the tournament and are coming off an emotional closing win at Freedom Hall over then No. 1 Syracuse. The win virtually locked up a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the Cards and now they will have to get back up emotionally against a UC team that is playing for it’s season.
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