I love this story on the Bulls coming to the Big East with the Mike Cook quotes. Mainly when it goes off-topic to the subject of East Carolina out of C-USA.
Cook was asked to picture his former team making the transition to the Big East.
“Man, that would be real tough,” Cook said. “It would be good for the school because you could get better recruits. But as far as competing in the Big East, I don’t think we would be able to compete.
“South Florida will have a better chance than East Carolina. You have a lot of players in Florida. They’re in a much better situation than if East Carolina would be if they came into the Big East.”
East Carolina’s fanbase is more than a little miffed that it was not one of the teams invited to join the Big East and still dreams of getting into the conference. That loss in the papajohns.com bowl to USF was more than a little painful to them, since the fans were hoping it would turn into some sort of “statement” on things. Personally, other than another team, I don’t see ECU offering the Big East much to make it worth considering them. But that’s a bit of a digression.
The article has a nice discussion on recruiting Florida and how in basketball, it’s as much about TV market penetration to get recruits.
“It’s good,” Dixon said. “It’s not so much that we’ll be traveling down there because this is year two and we haven’t been down there yet. I think it’s the presence. That will happen in the Midwest as well. The games will be carried there. They will be covered more in the papers. Coming here eight years ago I thought going to Ohio would be good for us. You think location-wise it would be a good place, but they don’t affiliate with the Big East like New York does or D.C. or New Jersey, which are farther in distance but worlds apart as far as familiarity in terms of basketball.
“I think it will have an effect. We were down there with Miami, so maybe South Florida takes their place.”
Definitely so, regarding Ohio. Mahoning Valley is about the only exception, but most of Ohio has little awareness of the Big East in the local media. Antonio Graves has been about the only Ohio recruit in I don’t know how long.
As for preparing for the Bulls, well it’s game film and little else.
The matchup will give Dixon and his staff the challenge of scouting a Big East opponent with almost no familiarity or history to draw upon. Dixon started breaking down film after returning from Syracuse on Thursday night.
“We’re going to catch up real quick,” Dixon said. “We’ll have every tape of every game they’ve played. As far as familiarity, it has a nonleague feel to it. But that will change. ”
One Pitt player with at least some knowledge of the Bulls is Mike Cook. The junior forward faced South Florida for two seasons while at Conference USA opponent East Carolina.
“From watching film, they play the same type of game,” Cook said. “They play hard on both ends of the floor and try to get the game up-tempo. It’s not really that much different. They’re strong, physical and athletic.”
The Bulls are undersized as Junior Center Kentrell Gransberry is 6′ 9″. Gransberry, though, averages a double-double (13.5 ppg 10.8 rpg). USF just came from a loss at UConn and expect the same sort of style of play.
“Pittsburgh has a lot of the same qualities as UConn, except you throw in experience,” USF coach Robert McCullum said. “They defend as well as anyone in the league. They’re one of the more physical teams in the league and they don’t give you easy baskets.
“They’re so rock solid tough in man-to-man defense. It will be quite a challenge going in there. A big challenge for all those reasons.”
Pitt needs to take care of the Bulls quickly. The next 4 games are going to be brutal. Starting with a road game at DePaul, where the Blue Demons are unbeaten.
