Tip off at 7pm. Comment away before during and after.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Pitt up 39-31.

Syracuse’s big men are not doing anything. McNamara and Devendorf seem to be keeping them in the game.

Gray seems to be every other game or so with foul troubles. Right away you could see the extra pass and looking for the open guy. Lesson appears to have gotten through. Need to keep it up in the second half. Taking it inside a lot and drawing fouls. I think ‘Cuse have 3 guys with 3 fouls.

FINAL UPDATE: Pitt wins 80-67.

Krauser went off. Once again he set the tone. He gave up the ball early and the team took its cue making extra passes. Almost karma-like the way it came back. Krauser gave up some early chances to make sure everyone got involved and he scored a career high 32 points.He also had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 4 turnovers.

Pitt shot close to 45% while holding ‘Cuse to just under 40%. The big sign that Pitt was playing their game: A/B% was 76%. Pitt shared the ball and found the open look. It probably would have been a bigger blowout if Gray could have been dropping the basket inside.

As promised, here’s what Matt Glaude had to say in response to some questions. I’ll link when he posts my responses in an update.

UPDATE: My responses to Matt’s questions are here.

1. I’ll start with a question that has an extended preamble.

Going into the season, I saw Pitt and Syracuse as 2 similar squads: ” A point guard who has had a fantastic career, now the veteran leader expected to carry a large load with a squad around him that has questions and inexperienced, young talent. ” I gave the edge in preseason to Syracuse because of the coaching reputation. How did you see the teams going into the BE and how has it changed for you (if at all)?

Going into this season, I wasn’t sure what to expect from either Pittsburgh or Syracuse. I knew the Orange were going to have to develop some frontcourt presence to survive in conference, but I still anticipated around a 19 win campaign and a tournament birth. I’ve seen Boeheim take teams with less talent and still accomplish a great deal, and with McNamara and Devendorf potentially pacing the team, expectations were still fairly high.

As for Pittsburgh, I thought the jury was really out on them. I’ve never been a big Krauser fan, just because I think his bulldog mentality tends to limit his potential at times. With Taft and Troutman gone, I really thought the Panthers would struggle inside and as a consequence would suffer in the consistency department. This, of course, would end up being the worst assumption I’ve made since predicting a 6-6 Orange football campaign.

As it stands currently, I think Syracuse and Pittsburgh are teams that have started in different fashions but seem to be situated in a common predicament. Both appear to be struggling with finding a consistent modus operandi and have, at times, failed to find a true identity. Winning tends to mask some of these faults, but when things turn for the worse, they become a little more apparent.

Looking to the future, I see both Pittsburgh and Syracuse fulfilling preseason expectations of making the NCAA tournament. I’m not sure I expect either club to do much damage (which is about what I had anticipated preseason), but of course, things are bound to change, especially if someone gets hot in the Big East Tournament.

2. Right now Pitt looks to be the slightly better team by virtue of winning their tough non-cons and not playing Bucknell this year (taking the hit last year). At roughly 30% through the BE where do you see Syracuse and Pitt in the BE at this point and projecting to the end of the season?

At this juncture, I see Pitt and ‘Cuse sitting in that malaise somewhere behind Connecticut, Villanova, and West Virginia. Now, that’s nothing to scoff at. Those three aforementioned teams are potential Final Four selections depending on how their bracket is structured. However, with Pittsburgh and Syracuse stuck in that uneviable 4/5 spot with sleeping giant Louisville, that makes for a difficult run through the Big East Tournament in order to garner a reasonable NCAA seed.

I don’t really anticipate Syracuse or Pittsburgh really changing their position much to the end of the season. Neither squad has a particular fun road to close out the regular season and each team is fighting off some January/February demons right now. But still, being in the top five of this conference should be good enough to impress the selection committee come Selection Sunday, making for an interesting March.

3. Assuming Pitt keys in and try to stop McNamara first, what players need to have big games? What players coming off the bench need to contribute more?

If Pittsburgh were to stop McNamara (which is a distinct possibility given Gerry schizophrenic nature), Terrence Roberts and Demetris Nichols are both on the hook for carrying Boeheim’s Bunch. Nichols is probably the team’s most consistent outside threat, and if he can get hot, then Gerry can focus on distributing the leather instead of looking for his shot and taking the team out of its offense. Similarly, when McNamara is denied his shot, opportunities exist for Roberts to open up inside and carry some of the scoring load. He was able to do this in the second half against Villanova on Saturday. Of course, in the first half, he might as well have ridden the pine, because his play was borderline pointless.

Off the bench, it’s all about Arinze Onuaku. Onuaku has become the rebounding presence that this team has sorely needed this season. But, in classic Boeheim fashion, Onuaku has seen only sparse playing time because he’s a freshman. Should Roberts or Watkins fail to get the job done tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Onuaku in the game to give the team a spark.

4. Syracuse doesn’t seem to be going deep on its bench this year. The 5 starters taking up an average of 76% of the total minutes, and 3 players averaging more than 32 minutes. How do you feel that will play out over the rest of the season, and can the players handle the load? Does the team have much of a choice?

Boeheim has always working with a rotation of about 7 guys, so seeing McNamara, Roberts and Nichols chew up minutes isn’t too surprising. What I do worry about is seeing fatigue out of Roberts and McNamara down the stretch. Both spent the summer hooping for the red, white, and blue, and given the fact that the bench behind them is young, thin, and inconsistent, there is a strong possibility that they could run out of gas.

But who knows. I expected Gerry to fall apart last season after getting that groin injury and he still managed to put together 40 minutes a night.

5. Are you hoping that Andy Rautins and Levon Kendall aren’t on the court at the same time too often so as not to hear too much from the play-by-play folks about how they were on the Canadian U-21 squad together and coached by Rautins’ father? Or is that just me?

“I’m from Canadah. They think I’m slow, eh?”

I love the Simpsons. Just an interesting note on Andy Rautins: he was recruited by two schools – St. Bonaventure and Syracuse. And Syracuse came into the picture real late. Now, apparently, he’s the best shooter on the team. Just goes to show that recruiting is an inexact science.

Okay, looks like Pitt earned more respect than realized. That or a lot more people saw just how hard St. John’s played at home. In the AP and Coaches Polls, Pitt didn’t fall nearly so far. To number 12 in the AP and only one spot drop in the Coaches to #10. The top-8 in both polls — UConn #1 and ‘Nova #6. The AP moved WVU all the way up to #9 while the Coaches only bumped them up to #13. Syracuse remained in both polls (25 – AP, 24 – Coaches) and so did Louisville (22 and 23). Georgetown somehow failed to garner a single vote in the AP poll (27th in the Coaches).

In the all important Big East Blog Poll, Pitt came in at #4. I’m surprised because I actually voted them one spot lower. I gave Georgetown a lot of love for their win over Duke:

UConn — Nearly gave it to WVU, but UConn got the slight edge.
WVU — Now they are looking dangerous.
Villanova — Nearly blew it to Syracuse, but overwhelmed them.
Georgetown — Knocking off the undefeated #1 team deserves props.
Pitt — G-town’s win simply was the difference.
Marquette — Looked a little shaky against a DePaul team that had Chandler suspended. Still, a quietly solid team that is getting better.
Syracuse — No shame in the losses, but there were still 2 of them.
St. John’s — Big week and the team handled it. Now how do they follow it up?
Cinci — Still finding ways to stay in the middle despite the ever shrinking depth. Someon is going to look real smart for hiring Kennedy after this season.
Louisville — The loss of Dean is really taking a toll.
Rutgers — Just as they start to get close, it seems to slip away.
ND — No more excuses regarding their schedule this year. They just aren’t very good and lack much heart.
Providence — Barely
DePaul — Wainwright and DePaul lost 2 games on principle by suspending Chandler. Admirable.
Seton Hall — Hard to watch.
USF — Haven’t yet.

A couple more stories.

Despite the Pitt loss (or in part helped by), this turned out to be a good weekend for the Big East on a national level. The NY Times said so (hat tip, Steve).

When St. John’s tapped into some of its old glory by handing No. 9 Pittsburgh its first loss of the season Saturday, it was just part of a special day for the Big East.

With No. 12 West Virginia’s victory at No. 18 U.C.L.A. and unranked Georgetown’s upset of top-ranked and previously undefeated Duke, the Big East cemented its status as the top conference in college basketball. Although the league, with its 16 teams, may be twice as large as it was in its halcyon days, the enduring quality is that every game is grueling.

“It’s very obvious,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “There’s nothing I need to say. You can just look around and see what we’re doing.”

In Big Twelve country, there is recognition as to where the best conference is:

This year, however, The Beast is bigger and perhaps better than ever. The Big East is the deepest basketball conference in Division I, and that’s not simply because it has expanded to a sweet 16.

The Big East has eight teams with 13 or more victories (the 12-team ACC has five). With six weeks of regular-season play remaining, all of those teams are in excellent shape to earn an NCAA Tournament spot.

Georgetown is 12-4 following its upset of top-ranked Duke. If the Hoyas are on the NCAA bubble, their defeat of the Blue Devils could be a deal maker.

Sure, it’s an advantage to have a 16-team league if it leads to landing a record number of teams in the field. The Big East figures to best the previous record of seven teams from one conference. But it’s not just a numbers game.

The Big East has legitimate Final Four contenders in West Virginia, Villanova and Pittsburgh. Georgetown will be a dark horse.

St. John’s, picked to finish 10th, defeated Louisville and Pitt last week. The Mountaineers won at UCLA the same day Georgetown ended Duke’s perfect start.

And Connecticut, likely to be the new No. 1, is the national championship favorite. (Sorry, Duke fans, but the Huskies are more talented than the Blue Devils.)

The Georgetown win over Duke will keep them in the NCAA (or at least on the bubble) for the season.

Dick Weiss at the NY Daily News, agrees about the beast and sees the potential for 10 teams.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said late Saturday night that he could make a case for at least 10 teams from the conference making the NCAA Tournament field.

He didn’t get specific, but here’s how it breaks down: There’s a solid case for UConn (16-1), Villanova (13-2), Pitt (15-1), Syracuse (15-4), West Virginia (14-3), Marquette (14-5) and Georgetown (12-4) as teams that should be in the field of 65. Louisville (13-5), Cincinnati (14-5) and maybe even Rutgers (12-6) also could be in the mix come March.

It’s hard to know what the selection committee will think, especially since some of these teams will have losing records in cannibalistic conference play. Right now, for example, Louisville – a Final Four team last year – is 1-4, but the Cardinals’ last two league losses have come without star guard Taquan Dean, who is nursing a high ankle sprain.

There may be backlash from committee members who will rationalize that no league can be that good. But this is the deepest Big East in memory since 1985, when three teams – Georgetown, St. John’s and eventual national champion Villanova – threw their own block party at the Final Four.
…
But no one – not even UConn, which lost by 15 at Marquette – is safe in this league. Underrated, improving teams like Georgetown and St. John’s sprinted out of the shadows with huge wins. The Johnnies silenced previously undefeated Pitt, 55-50, early Saturday afternoon at the Garden. Then, Georgetown made the biggest statement for the Big East, stunning top-ranked Duke, 87-84, at the MCI Center in D.C.

In Weiss’ top-10 at the bottom of the column he has UConn #1, Villanova #5, WVU #7 and Pitt #10. Sure he’s biased to the BE, but that isn’t totally unplausable. Right?

Turning back to tonight’s Syracuse game, the ‘Cuse players are not shying away from its importance for them.

For Syracuse, it is exactly the wrong time to play Pittsburgh, which has turned into quite an Orange nemesis in recent years. The Panthers have bullied SU in winning seven of the last nine meetings.

But the Orange has earned wins in five of its last eight trips to Pittsburgh. And it so desperately needs a victory tonight.

“It definitely is a must-win right now,” said junior Terrence Roberts. “I start to look at the future here as far as the NCAA Tournament goes and I think we need these quality wins against these ranked teams. But I think we need these wins more than anything just for ourselves to show that we can compete with these teams. We’ve got to stop coming out here and getting blown out because this is really not us.”

Both teams need this. Not to get into the NCAA, but to show they are an upper-tier team and they need the big wins if they want the higher seeds. A lot at stake early in the season. That is, however, what happens when a conference is as tough as the BE is. Every game has meaning and deeper significance.

Both Pitt and Syracuse come into the game with losses. Both teams have their coaches saying pretty much the exact same thing as being the problem.

Coach Boeheim:

Presumably, they’ll show up at tonight’s game vs. the Panthers before they fall behind 12-0.

The Orange will try to avoid its first three-game losing streak in four years as it faces Pitt, which is coming off its first Big East setback, 55-50, at St. John’s on Saturday. By tip-off tonight, this most likely won’t be a matchup of two ranked Big East teams.

No. 9 Pitt (4-1 Big East, 15-4 overall) will drop out of the Top 10 in the new poll, which comes out today. After being blown out by No. 3 Connecticut last Monday and by No. 8 Villanova on Saturday, SU (3-2, 15-4) certainly won’t still be the Top 25.

Offensive impatience buried the Orange in 12-0 holes in each loss.

“Our offense is killing us,” coach Jim Boeheim said after ‘Nova forced 10 turnovers in the Orange’s first 12 possessions — a stat that still sounds like it can’t be true. “As much as it has been the other team, it’s been ourselves.”

Now, Coach Dixon.

Pittsburgh fell behind 14-0 in the first six-plus minutes, shot a season-low 35.2 percent from the field and was outrebounded 36-32.

“We were impatient,” Panthers coach Jamie Dixon said. “Rushing things offensively and that hurt our defense. We had some foul problems early and that hurt us. We just didn’t play well. Our offense has a lot to do with our defense. They go hand in hand.”

Both teams shot under 40% in their losses and turned the ball over a ton in the first half of their Saturday losses. Oh, and both teams staged furious comebacks in the second half that didn’t quite make it. And yes, both teams star guards are struggling right now.

Carl Krauser had 10 points but went 5-of-17 from the field and missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the final minute for the Panthers, who are 11-0 this season and 59-5 all-time at the Petersen Events Center.Carl Krauser had 10 points but went 5-of-17 from the field and missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the final minute for the Panthers, who are 11-0 this season and 59-5 all-time at the Petersen Events Center.
…
Syracuse fell behind 20-4 and committed 15 first-half turnovers before rallying in the second half of an 80-65 defeat Saturday to Villanova. Senior guard Gerry McNamara, who averages 16.9 points, was held to four on 1-for-7 shooting while committing six turnovers.

Both teams see this as the end of the end of a rough patch of games in a short span. Pitt of course is playing its 5th game in 12 days — sandwiching home games around 3 on the road.

But the scenario appears much tougher for Syracuse (15-4, 3-2), which faced a challenging five-game stretch that began Jan. 11 with an 88-82 victory at Notre Dame.

Following the Wednesday night game, the Orange stayed in the Midwest for a Jan. 14 contest at then-No. 25 Cincinnati — Syracuse won, 77-58 — before returning home last Monday to entertain No. 3 Connecticut.

The road-weary Orange fell to the Huskies, 88-80, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.

Since then, Syracuse dropped an 80-65 decision at No. 8 Villanova on Saturday and, in Pitt, will face its fourth consecutive nationally ranked team tonight.

While Boeheim has publicly bitched about it and it all being for TV. Coach Dixon has been more tactful, especially because he knows Pitt can use exposure.

Pitt lost for the first time Saturday to St. John’s, 55-50, in the Panthers’ third consecutive road game in a week’s span. The Panthers looked like a tired team. They shot poorly and got outrebounded, a sign that their legs might be weary. But Dixon and his players refused to say playing a third consecutive road game was the reason for the loss.

“That question is going to be asked because of all the road games we’ve played, but I don’t think that’s why we lost,” Dixon said. “We looked stronger in the second half, so that really wasn’t the case. We were just impatient and missed a lot of easy shots. We rushed some things.”

“We’re not going to use that as an excuse,” said Pitt senior Carl Krauser, who was 5 for 17 from the field and scored 10 points against St. John’s. “We just had a bad game. They did what they had to do. And we didn’t do what we had to do.”

The Panthers enter the Syracuse game looking for answers on offense. They have shot 38.1 percent from the field the past three games, including a season-low 35.2 percent against St. John’s. They had shot more than 40 percent in 13 of their first 15 games, only shooting poorly in victories against Maine and South Carolina.

They are averaging 62 points per game the past three games, 13 below their season average.

Um, context helps. Pitt’s last 3 opponents are in the upper-half of the conference in scoring defense. St. John’s is ranked #1 (7th nationally), Rutgers #4 (31st) and Louisville #6 (44th). Against Rutgers it was 39.3% shooting and Louisville was 37.7%. Additionally, all 3 hold opponents to under 40% shooting on average. A high shooting % and scoring a lot should not have been expected.

Now as for complaints about how the Big East does everything for TV on its scheduling: No s**t! The Big East came in to being for TV purposes. It is merely staying true to its roots in basketball by continuing to do things that way.

The game tonight will be the second consecutive game where Aaron Gray will be matched up inside against another big guy. Daryl Watkins, who hasn’t exactly shown much yet. Here’s a comment from Syracuse Post-Standard beat writer Kim Baxter:

But anywho … you get the idea. Gray is a big kid who knows how to throw around his strength. It’ll be interesting to see him go up against SU’s Darryl Watkins (6-11 and 258 pounds). We’ve been hearing all year how Mookie will play better against centers his size. Here’s his chance.

She sounds skeptical.

Matt Glaude and I will try to get some Q&A’s up today ahead of the game.

With possible patches of noticing.

But it won’t start with tonight’s game against Syracuse, despite being on ESPN at 7pm.

Have to figure Pittsburgh will be Steeler-centric for the next 3 weeks. The two week build up to the Super Bowl and then a week of focusing on what happened. So it’s time to peek ahead to see what most of the city will miss.

The Saturday Marquette game at noon might grab a couple people desperate for some sports. Going to UConn on a Thursday night will be a blip. And this is just absurd, but Pitt will be at Georgetown for a nooner on Super Bowl Sunday.

What will likely herald the end of the media blackout would be the Thursday after the Super Bowl tilt with West Virginia. Unfortunately, that game is on at 9pm to temper even that game.

I have to believe full awareness of Pitt won’t be in effect until the desperate Pittsburgh sports fan turns on their TV the following Sunday. At that time, Pitt will be playing Cinci.

Then there will be 5 games left in the regular season. Arguably, Pitt is playing one of the most locally ignored successful seasons, anywhere and ever.