Game of the Night: Bearcats upset Louisville by cleaning glass

March 11, 2010 by Brendon

NEW YORK — There are many ways to skin a cat, an unnecessarily gory person once noted. Similarly, there’s more than one way to score points in a basketball game. The Bearcats showed that an offense can be effective without making many shots, because they utterly destroyed Louisville on the glass, re-gaining more than half of their misses to stun the Cardinals, 69-66, on Wednesday night.

 

“So the last two nights, we have had 69 shot attempts and 72 tonight,” said Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin, whose team attempted 17 more field goals and eight more free throws than Louisville. “We can rebound the ball when we get shots off.”

 

In the first half alone, UC had 18 offensive rebounds. Shot after shot deflected off the hands of Louisville players and either out of bounds or into the waiting arms of Bearcats. In the first 20 minutes, though, it didn’t appear that Cincy’s backboard dominance would matter a bit, since it shot an abysmal 31.3 eFG and committed seven turnovers. Meanwhile, Louisville hit 6-of-9 3-pointers to take a 41-32 lead into intermission.

 

In the second half, though, Louisville went cold, and the Cards eventually succumbed to Cincinnati’s irrepressible offensive rebounding.

 

Team Poss PPP eFG Turn Reb FTR
Cincinnati 66 1.05 0.375 0.183 0.538 0.208
Louisville 66 1.01 0.527 0.183 0.257 0.145

 

After taking a 46-34 lead on a long jumper from Edgar Sosa with 18:38 left in the second half, UofL scored just seven points in the next 12 game minutes, a total of 19 possessions. Read More »

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New-look Irish have use for ‘Gody after all

March 11, 2010 by Brendon

Four weeks ago, Notre Dame senior forward injured his right knee in the closing minutes of a loss to Seton Hall. Harangody would miss the remainder of that game and all of the next five. Notre Dame lost the first two without Harangody by a combined three points, and realistic thoughts of an NCAA Tournament berth seemed to vanish.

 

Notre Dame, however, went on a four-game winning streak, including wins over NCAA-bound Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Marquette. On Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden, Notre Dame’s NCAA hopes completed the full 180 from vanished to realized in a 68-54 win over Seton Hall.

 

There’s been ample discussion in the last week about how the Irish have changed in Harangody’s absence. Many have concluded that the Irish are better without the three-time first-team All-Big East player in the lineup. Read More »

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Cincy tops Rutgers to keep hope of salvaging season alive

March 10, 2010 by Brendon

NEW YORK — The Cincinnati Bearcats spent most of the Big East season forfeiting the benefits they should have reaped from playing so well during their non-conference schedule, and they nearly gave away their first-ever Big East Tournament win on Tuesday.

 

Mick Cronin’s team fought back from an early deficit to race out to an eight-point margin with three minutes to play on 14th-seeded Rutgers, but turnovers and missed free-throws led to the lead drying up in the final minutes. Mike Rosario’s difficult 3-pointer with 15 seconds left tied the score at 68, but Lance Stephenson was fouled on a powerful drive with 1.8 second left, and he knocked down a free-throw to give Cincinnati a 69-68 win and a date with Louisville on Wednesday night.

 

“That’s why I came to Cincinnati — to change the program around, play hard and just win games,” said Stephenson, who — along with nailing the clinching free throw — scored 13 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists in a terrific all-around floor game. Read More »

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Game of the Night: From blowout to heart-pounder in the Garden

March 10, 2010 by Brendon

NEW YORK — Some teams turn over a new leaf in the postseason. Take St. John’s, for instance. The Red Storm finished 15th in the Big East with a 46.1 percent eFG in conference games. On Tuesday, despite playing the conference’s best field-goal defense, St. John’s shot 58.8 percent eFG in a 73-51 win over Connecticut.

 

Other teams are the same in the postseason as in the regular season. That was the case with Providence on Tuesday night. The Friars were the worst defensive team in the Big East this season, and against Seton Hall, they allowed an unconscionable 55 points on 35 first-half defensive possessions to trail by 16 at the break.

 

The Friars, however, were also one of the highest scoring teams in the nation, which is how the Pirates ended the game with 109 points on 84 possessions but with a lump in their collective throat as well.

 

Somewhere between not being able to defend a cone and the final buzzer, the Friars had gotten to within a Duke Mondy 3-pointer of tying the game. The freshman’s shot was long, and, with that miss, Seton Hall escaped from an improbable classic, 109-106, in the highest-scoring 40-minute game in Big East Tournament history. Read More »

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Big East goliath casts a large shadow on Championship Week

March 8, 2010 by Brendon

If the Big East Tournament were a United States metropolis, it would be Atlanta. The five-day, 16-team, 15-game goliath sprawls across Championship Week from noon on Tuesday until almost midnight on Saturday, giving nary a breath to the other conferences tournaments trying to grab a bit of air in the league’s stifling wake.

 

It’s really the perfect setup for ultimate exposure. When the Big East Tournament starts on Tuesday, the only real competition for media attention is the Horizon, Sun Belt and Summit finals (unless you fancy some Atlantic 10 pre-quarters). By Friday and Saturday, when the other big leagues are giving fans their first tastes of quality games, the Big East trumps them with matchups of top teams in its semis and final. The Big East finally relents on Sunday for a few hours, but then comes the selection show, in which Big East teams are likely to make up at least an eighth of the field. The conference may not end up owning the NCAA Tournament, but it has property rights to most of this seven-day period of college hoops gluttony.

 

With an unrivaled media footprint — especially now that either ESPN2 or ESPNU is carrying the games on Second Division Day (Tuesday) — what can college hoops fans expect from the Garden this week? Read More »

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Bracket Junkie: Welcoming four new teams to the field

March 8, 2010 by Brendon

Printable Version of Bracket »

 

Note: Teams deemed at least 98-percent likely to make the NCAA Tournament are in bold. Three new at-large teams earned their bold tags over the weekend — Louisville, Oklahoma State and Wake Forest. Notre Dame and Virginia Tech just missed.

 

Moving In as At-large: Arizona State, Mississippi, San Diego State, Washington

 

Moving Out as At-large: Georgia Tech, Illinois, Rhode Island, UAB

 

Moving In as Automatic: Vermont (America East), East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), Winthrop (Big South)

 

Moving Out as Automatic: Stony Brook (America East), Jacksonville (Atlantic Sun), Coastal Carolina (Big South)

 

On the Bubble: There was a lot of shuffling around the bubble this weekend with several teams suffering near-devastating losses. Georgia Tech and Illinois both had blowout losses at home. The loss for the Yellow Jackets is their third in five and fifth in seven, and more importantly, it puts them at 7-9 in conference. To me, Illinois only looked like an NCAA Tournament team for about a week all season — when it beat Wisconsin and Michigan State. We’ll see if that 10-8 conference record is enough to override losing five of six and dropping games to Georgia, Bradley and Utah out of conference. Rhode Island lost its fifth of seven against 18-loss UMass in Amherst on Saturday. That will be hard to overcome. Finally, UAB needed to win one of its two tough games this week, but the Blazers lost both by a total of seven points, including a 52-50 win at C-USA champ UTEP on Saturday. Read More »

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Bracket Junkie: Bubble squalor nine days out

March 5, 2010 by Brendon

Printable Version of Bracket »

 

Notes: Ohio State was moved from Milwaukee to Providence, and Pittsburgh was moved from Providence to Milwaukee so that Brigham Young could be placed in a pod where the Cougars would be able to avoid a Sunday game. This is the first time I’ve had to move pod assignments because of Brigham Young, and I hope it’s the last. Also, in the conference bid breakdowns, I am going to put teams I consider locks for the NCAA Tournament in bold. My definition of a lock is a team that could lose out and would still be at least 98-percent likely to get in. Right now, I have 31 teams as locks plus 22 other bids accounted for by conference champions. That leaves 12 spots still up for grabs, though Oklahoma State and Louisville are just about locked in.

 

Bracketing Challenges: Kansas slips just past Syracuse and into the top overall seed position after defeating Kansas State on Wednesday. This is very close, however, and the top overall seed will likely come down to who goes further in their conference tournaments. Kentucky could also be in the mix if it wins the SEC Tournament and neither Kansas nor Syracuse wins its conference tournament.

 

I don’t see how Duke is not still a No. 1 seed. The Blue Devils have three top-25 wins, same as Kentucky; and nine top-50 wins, four more than Kentucky. Of course, Duke has three more losses than the Wildcats, but is it possible that the difference in losses can be found in the difference between Kentucky’s 41st-ranked strength of schedule and Duke’s seventh-ranked one? Yet, Duke is on the No. 2 seed line for some people, and Kentucky is firmly ensconced as a No. 1. Interesting. The Blue Devils’ grip on a top seed is not firm, and a slip-up in the conference tournament could combine with a conference tournament championship for any of a half-dozen teams to knock Duke off the line, but right now, I don’t find a compelling argument against Duke.

 

As a whole, I really feel comfortable with the way I’ve seeded these teams. There are some tricky seedings on lines four through seven, but — with the exception of the teams I moved up or down for conference balancing, most of the seeds “feel” right. Many of you may disagree with that assessment, and feel free to voice your differences in the comments section or via e-mail. Nine days to go until Selection Sunday!

 

Moving In as At-large: Memphis, Rhode Island

 

Moving Out as At-large: Connecticut, Dayton

 

Moving In as Automatic: Jacksonville (Atlantic Sun)

 

Moving Out as Automatic: Belmont (Atlantic Sun)

 

On the Bubble: Though I like the seeding for this projection, the bubble is an absolute mess. Any of the last five in could reasonably be left out. The problem is finding the teams to replace them. Illinois has lost four of five and still can’t manage to find its way out of the field. Rhode Island dropped four of five before it vaulted back in with a comfortable home win over Charlotte. Memphis enters the field for the first time after a road win over UAB, but the Blazers maintain their spot thanks to a strong non-conference performance and an 11-4 record in the Conference USA. Saint Mary’s hasn’t played since Saturday, and that was more than good enough to stay in the field. Read More »

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Three of top five Big East teams are true surprises

March 4, 2010 by Brendon

If you can remember back to the middle of October, you probably recall that the Big East preseason projections, courtesy of the coaches’ expectations, show only a faint resemblance to the standings on this day. Most notably, three teams — Syracuse, Marquette and Pittsburgh — have far outperformed their respective sixth-, ninth- and 12th-place projections.

 

It’s hard to blame the coaches for placing each team where they did. In fact, I even thought Syracuse was picked too high (not a shining moment for me). All three teams lost at least four key pieces from top-20 teams. The Orange lost its top three players in terms of minutes and usage — Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris — plus rotation big Kris Ongenaet. Pittsburgh lost its top three players in terms of minutes and usage — Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields — plus another starting forward, Tyrell Biggs. Marquette lost three of its top four players in terms of minutes and usage — Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Dominic James — plus its tallest player and sixth-highest minutes man, Dwight Burke.

 

There are several ways a team can rebuild from that, but these three went beyond rebuilding. Despite the personnel losses, Syracuse is the best team in the conference a year after slotting in somewhere in the fifth to seventh range. Pittsburgh has merely slipped from the league’s best team — according to efficiency margin in conference last season — to its fourth or fifth. Marquette has gone from the same fifth-to-seventh mire that the Orange found itself in last year to fourth or fifth with the Panthers. And this is in a league that is probably better top to bottom than it was last season. Read More »

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