Big East Tournament, Cincinnati News, Connecticut News, DePaul News, Matt Whitfield, Providence News, Ray Floriani, Rutgers News, Seton Hall News, St. John's News, USF News

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT COVERAGE: DAY ONE RECAP

by RAY FLORIANI and MATT WHITFIELD

NEW YORK CITY – The first round of the 2010 Big East Tournament is in the books. Four games, one upset with St. John’s over UCONN in a surprisingly lopsided contest . The scores:

South Florida 58, DePaul 49

St. John’s 73, Connecticut 51

Seton Hall 109, Providence 106

Cincinnati 69, Rutgers 68

—Be sure to visit NBE’s 2010 Big East Tournament home page (HERE!) for the full schedule and links to get tickets to each session—

Ray’s ten points of emphasis from this first day:

1. Loved the attitude of South Florida coach Stan Heath. His Bulls defeated DePaul and are 20-11. Rather than discuss the bubble Heath simply tells his players to keep playing. “We win we get to keep playing,” Heath said, “and that takes care of itself.” Bulls jumped out to a 30-15 halftime lead and outside of a late run fueled by DePaul’s Will Walker (20 points), did a good defensive job.

2. Impressed with the team play of Dominique Jones. The USF star scored 20 but took five shots the second half. As Heath noted the DePaul zone paid extra attention to Jones who was content to look for his teammates. “He (Jones) does not care about his points or shots,” Heath said, “he just cares about winning.

3. USF shot 0 for 8 from three. As Heath noted if they lost it would be a concern . Not in this case. The USF mentor did admit making a few treys would help in the next round against Georgetown.

4. In over two decades of watching or covering Connecticut, sad to say the players did not give an effort. Not even a half-hearted effort, Several NBA scouts had disparaging words for the play and work ethic of Stanley Robinson and Jerome Dyson.

5. The last note is not to discredit a St. John’s team that came out hard, competed and out hustled UConn. “St. John’s came out with a purpose,” Husky coach Jim Calhoun said. “They played hungrier.”

6. Sean Evans was a force inside with 19 points 10 boards. Justn Brownlee came off the bench to add 13 points and four blocks in a big win that may have saved Norm Roberts’ job. Here’s hoping that is the case as Roberts and his staff are among the nicer people in the college game.

7. Calhoun said he and his staff will meet to discuss a possible NIT bid. The UConn Hall of Fame respects the NIT and noted winning the tournament in 1988 jumpstarted the Husky program. But as he notes, “it’s been a tough year. We had eight games decided by four points or less and lost them all. We have been up and down the whole year.” For now, Calhoun noted, any immediate practices are on hold.

8. It wasn’t the equal of last March’s six OT epic but Seton Hall’s 109-106 win over Providence was one for the books. That was a regulation score, the only time in Big East Tournament history both teams hit the century mark in a regulation game. The Hall led by 29 points (76-47) with just over thirteen and a half to play. Providence coach Keno Davis implored his team to finish strong and not give up. “Once we got it to a manageable 12 or 14 point deficit we decided to press,” Davis said. “We got some turnovers off the press scored some more and our confidence grew.”

9. Providence knocked down a few threes but the bulk of the damage was done by sophomore forward Jamine Peterson with 38 points 16 boards. Peterson (10 offensive rebounds) cleaned the glass and came up huge in that rally. After two missed free throws by Jeff Robinson with seven seconds to go Duke Mondy had a good look from three but his shot missed and the Hall, ‘survived and advanced’ in classic style.

10. while the Hall game was the pace of a break dance, Cincinnati-Rutgers was almost a waltz. Especially the first half as the Bearcats found Rutgers zone bothersome to break down. In a closely contested game Mike Rosario of Rutgers tied it with a three-pointer under defensive pressure with seconds to go. On the other end Lance Stephenson of Cincinnati was fouled with just over a second left. NBE’s Big East Freshman of the Year (also so honored by the conference) hit one of two to send the Bearcats into the next round.

MATT’S QUICK QUOTES FROM SHU/PC GAME:

–”Coach told us your gonna have to come out and jump them from the beginning and that’s what we did,” said Jeremy Hazell after the game. “Second half we came out first minutes and put it on them, but last ten minutes they got it rolling.”

–”I’m not interested in it,” said Bobby Gonzalez of the recent New York Times article. “I’m not interested. I’m immune to those things.”

–”We have 19 wins with no bad losses,” said Gonzalez when asked about his team’s NCAA Tournament chances. “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.”

–”I thought Jordan Theodore was sensational. Herb Pope was spectacular and Jeremy Hazell had a very good game, I took him out. He made didn’t get into a rhythm as much as the other two, but right now we are playing our best basketball and again were just happy to survive and advance.”–Bobby Gonzalez

Be Sociable, Share!

•