BIG EAST NEWS & NOTES (3/26/2008)
Syracuse can close the curtain on their season with one final collapse, now all their fans have their eyes set on an upcoming decision from Donte Greene on his future. The Providence College coaching search continues, but the names involved seem to stay about the same.
Villanova, West Virginia continue to prepare for this week’s Sweet 16 match-ups.
Several recruiting notes including fallout from Rutgers big week and will it sway players like Devin Ebanks and Dominic Cheek to give RU a closer look? Frank Ben-Eze has narrowed his list this spring to five schools. Gary Flowers’ list might be expanding to include up to three Big East schools. A 2009 JUCO has interest from UConn. Dalton Pepper has a pair of Big East schools at the top of his list. Tyreke Evans is not the only unsigned McDonald’s All-American with Big East schools hoping to sign him this spring, Scotty Hopson is in the same boat.
Greg Auman of the St. Petersburg Times continues to uncover new recruiting information on South Florida and other Big East programs. Today, Auman updates the recruitment of recent Harvard de-commitment Frank Ben-Eze. The USF Bulls are in the Hunt for DC Center Ben-Eze (St. Petersburg Times) along with Pittsburgh, Stanford, UCLA and Connecticut, which makes up his final list of five schools.
Ben-Eze played at Bishop O’Connell in Arlington (VA), where he was coached by Joe Wootten, son of legendary Virginia prep coach Morgan Wootten. Ben-Eze missed the end of the season with a knee injury, but that has not stopped some of the elite schools in college basketball from getting involved.
Auman also updated his blog at St. Petersburg Times with notes on coveted power forward from Chipola College, Gary Flowers. USF remains in contention for Flowers, with Seton Hall as another top contender; Flowers is also considering Maryland, West Virginia and Kansas State, according to his former AAU coach. Flowers originally enrolled at Oklahoma State out of high school before being dismissed from the school, would have three years of eligibility left. He averaged about 12 points and 7 rebounds for the Chipola program this past season.
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A possible 2009 JUCO target to keep an eye on is Will Coleman of Miami-Dade Community College. The Former Glenwood HS Star is Receiving Division 1-A Interest (Columbus Preps Blog) from Clemson, Missouri, Minnesota, UConn and Tulane, among others, according to his former high school coach, Dusty Perdue.
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With Greg Echenique and Austin Johnson’s verbal commitments to the Rutgers program, some serious shockwaves were sent throughout New Jersey. Adam Zagoria takes a look at What’s Next for Rutgers and Seton Hall (zagsblog) amidst the Echenique, Johnson fallout. Zags explores the possibility of it having an impact on Devin Ebanks and also takes a look at Seton Hall’s recruiting efforts with Chris Turner and Gary Flowers. He also takes a look at how good Austin Johnson is.
Zagoria also provides readers with a Dominic Cheek Update (zagsblog) where his high school coach Bob Hurley believes Rutgers definitely helped themselves with the addition of Echenique and Rosario, cheek’s teammate at St. Anthony’s already coming in. In addition to Rutgers, Hurley also mentioned Seton Hall as being right in there and the article mentioned Villanova and Wake Forest are heavily involved, among others.
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The McDonald’s All-American game is tonight and Tyreke Evans, who is down to Memphis, Texas, Villanova and Connecticut, is not the only big-time unsigned senior competing as University Heights’ (KY) Scotty Hopson is still an uncommitted senior. Hopson Will Show Skills in McDonald’s Game (Louisville Courier-Journal) and then the former Mississippi State verbal commitment will begin thinking about where he will attend college next fall. Hopson has told reporters in Milwaukee this week that Tennessee, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Louisville, Texas and perhaps Cincinnati are possibilities.
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Dalton Pepper had a big season for Pennsbury High School as he was the catalyst for the Falcons’ 30-3 season where he averaged 23 points and nearly 10 rebounds a game. Pennsbury advanced to the PIAA Class AAAA State Final Four. Yesterday, his season work was appreciated and his improvement honored with a Big Step for Pep (Phillyburbs.com) as he was named to the Pennsylvania All-State Class AAAA 1st team, along with American Christian forward Tyreke Evans, Schenley forward Deandre Kane, Chester forward Nasir Robinson, Moon forward Brian Walsh and Roman Catholic guard Maalik Wayns.
As for recruiting, Pepper is open, but four schools stand out currently, West Virginia, Wake Forest, Villanova and Miami.
Core Fisher and Corey Stokes came to Villanova under much hoopla, but their season has not been all highlights as the Wildcats finished just 9-9 in the Big East and suffered the end to their Big 5 win streak with a blowout loss to St. Joseph’s. However, Jay Wright’s team is just one of three Big East squads still playing in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 and The Two Corey’s Help Nova Roll (Courier Post) on late.
The story of Corey Stokes in the last month or so has been a very positive one. The Time Finally Has Come for Stokes (Philadelphia Daily News) after he spent much of the first half of the season trying to find his place in the Villanova rotation. A player who barely got minutes the first half of the Big East was scoring 20 points in an NCAA 2nd round victory sending the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 and a date with Kansas.
Could Kansas guards Mario Chalmers and Sherron Collins have some extra motivation when they lace them up to face Jay Wright and his Wildcats in the Sweet 16? Both Collins and Chalmers did not make this past summer’s USA Pan-Am team which Wright was the head coach. According to Chalmers the Snub is ‘In the Past’ (Lawrene Journal-World) and they know it is a committee decision, a committee their head coach Bill Self is part of.
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West Virginia senior and ex-Radford High star Darris Nichols is excited to be in his third Sweet 16 in four seasons as it means Another Week for Nichols (Roanoke.com) in his college basketball career. West Virginia prepares to meet Xavier in the Sweet 16.
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Even with all his previous success as a college basketball head coach, including taking three different teams to the Final Four, Success is Still Sweet (Kentucky.com) for Louisville head coach Rick Pitino as he enjoys the process of taking the Cards to the regional semifinals.
Louisville’s Sweet 16 match-up against Tennessee is one of the highlights of the upcoming round and Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is Hyping No. 3 Seed Louisville as the ‘Better Team’ (Maryville Daily Times) in this match-up.
Eric Crawford takes a look at the two head coaches as Pitino, Pearl are a Lot Alike, But Different and Crawford has spent plenty of time covering both to know.
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For Syracuse, the Orange’s 14th Loss More of the Same (Post-Standard) ol’, same ol’ for this team as the coughed up a 54-32 lead in front of an energetic 20,000 fans in their Carrier Dome over the last 14 minutes. The generics sound familiar to other disappointments, but this was the second time this season they lost to UMass, who also beat them in the Dome on November 28th.
It was one Final Collapse (Post-Standard) for the Orange who turned the ball over 19 times in aiding the UMass comeback.
Arinze Onuaku had 20 points for the Orange and Donte Greene scored 18 and grabbed 9 rebounds in what could be his last effort in the Orange uniform as Greene is Ready to Mull his Options (Post-Standard) as the 6’11 freshman is projected to be as high as a late lottery pick in this year’s draft.
Apparently, internet rumors have swirled that Paul Harris also could be leaving school, but Harris definitively seemed to put those to rest following the game:
“I know for a fact that I’m coming back,” Harris said. “Even if I was a lottery pick guy, it’s hard to leave a place like Syracuse that I love and where I never got an opportunity to say I can win an NCAA championship.”
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With the NCAA Tournament moving toward a climax in the next couple weeks, the Providence College coaching search continue to move forward and Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal believes the next PC Coach Can’t be Shy of the Spotlight that will shine bright in the Big East.
As for candidates, Phil Martelli of St. Joe’s seems to be talked about the most along with Jim Larranaga of George Mason. Others who will be considered include Craig Robinson (Brown), Jim Christian (Kent State), Tim O’Shea (Ohio University) and Bob McKillop (Davidson) as headliners of the list of coaches PC is known to be asking questions about.
Impressive NCAA Tournament showings by Siena coach Fran McCaffrey and Western Kentucky’s Darrin Horn (a former Marquette assistant) have opened some eyes as well.