The SEC/Big East half-hearted invitational has announced the locations, teams and dates for next December’s games. Pitt doesn’t play in them. USF-Vandy and Marquette-Tennessee in Nashville on December 16. Mississippi St.-Cinci and Ole Miss-Louisville Cinci in Cincinnati on December 18. As usual, the Big East ducks the fun game by not having Ole Miss — who is coached by Andy Kennedy who was interim coach at Cinci after Huggs was fired — play Cinci.
What a joke this thing is. 4 teams per year. Lame.
UConn will be without starting guard Jerome Dyson for the month of February with an automatic 30 day suspension for failing his second drug test. Doug Wiggins, surprisingly, passed his drug test and will probably play against Pitt on Saturday.
Some esoteric stats based only on conference games. Pitt has the 3d slowest tempo in the Big East. Pitt is also tied for most efficient team on offense.
Pat Forde at ESPN.com argues that the Big East in basketball is a lot like the SEC in football. A brutal guantlet without real soft areas.
Even the team that has established itself alone in first place is hardly bulletproof. Georgetown is 6-1 in Big East play, but half of those wins are by a total of six points and required an extraordinary escape. Against Connecticut, the Hoyas needed a 3-pointer by 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert with six seconds left to win by three. Against Syracuse, a Jonny Flynn 3 just lipped out at the buzzer of overtime. And Saturday against West Virginia, the Hoyas needed a Patrick Ewing Jr. shot block at the rim at the buzzer to win by one.
“They’re winning, and that experience of winning close games has got to help them,” Crean said. “But the games have been so close, it’s going to give everyone else confidence they can beat them.”
Between the top and bottom, there are 11 teams with either three or four league losses.
“It’s going to be a jumbled mess at the end in the middle,” Cronin said. “But there are a lot of teams good enough to go in [the NCAA Tournament] — maybe 12. The question is whether we’ll ever get nine or 10 in.”
I hate the conference supremacy arguments. It is silly and only based on fans who want to make themselves feel better about their team or justify something. It does make for fun bar arguments, though, living here in Ohio.
