Official BIG EAST basketball ONLY thread for 2011

Well...thankfully, the college basketball season is underway.  We've already seen some great games...and some early season upsets.



The Big East has 6 schools in the Top 25 as of today.  Let's take a look at some of the good match ups (OOC) we can watch in the next month or so.

UConn - Arkansas and @ Tennessee
Syracuse - Florida and @ NC State
Louisville - @ Butler and Memphis
Pitt - @ Tennessee and Oklahoma State
Cincinnati - @ Georgia, @ Xavier and Oklahoma
Marquette - @ Wisconsin, @ LSU and Vanderbilt

Others include:

N D  - Missouri, @ Gonzaga, Maryland and Indiana
Georgetown - Kansas, @ Alabama and Memphis
St. John's - Arizona and @ Kentucky
Villanova - Missouri and @ Temple
WVU - @ Mississippi St., Kansas State and Miami


HOOPS IS HERE...Gotta love Big East Basketball!



I invite all to participate...

2011-12 BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh  

2011-12 BIG EAST Preseason Rookie of the Year Andre Drummond, Connecticut  

2011-12 Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh (Player of the Year), G, Sr., 6-2, 190, Scotch Plains, N.J. Jeremy Lamb, Connecticut, G/F, So., 6-5, 185, Norcross, Ga. Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette, G, Sr., 6-2, 215, Raleigh, N.C. Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame, F, Gr., 6-8, 235, Unionville, Conn. Kris Joseph, Syracuse, F, Sr., 6-7, 210, Montreal, Quebec Kevin Jones, West Virginia, F, Sr., 6-8, 260, Mount Vernon, N.Y.  

2011-12 Preseason All-BIG EAST Second Team Yancy Gates, Cincinnati, F, Sr., 6-9, 260, Cincinnati, Ohio Alex Oriakhi Connecticut, F/C, Jr., 6-9, 240, Lowell, Mass. Peyton Siva, Louisville, G, Jr., 5-11, 180, Seattle, Wash. Scoop Jardine, Syracuse, G, Sr., 6-2 190, Philadelphia, Pa. Maalik Wayns, Villanova, G, Jr., 6-2, 200, Philadelphia, Pa.  

2011-12 Preseason All-BIG EAST Honorable Mention Andre Drummond, Connecticut, C, Fr., 6-11, 275, Middletown, Conn.  Shabazz Napier, Connecticut, G, So. 6-0, 170, Roxbury, Mass.  Cleveland Melvin, DePaul, F, So., 6-8, 208, Baltimore, Md. Jae Crowder, Marquette, F, Sr., 6-6, 235, Villa Rica, Ga. Augustus Gilchrist, USF, F/C, Sr., 6-10, 245, Clinton, Md.

<dl><dt>
IS IT TOO EARLY TO PLAN THAT SPRING VACATION?

Just in case you were wondering, here are a few ideas...




First Four (March 13 and 14)</dt></dl>

• University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

NOTE: Between one and three other sites will be selected.

<dl><dt>Second and third rounds (March 15/17)</dt></dl>

• Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon (Host: University of Oregon)
• The Pit, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Host: University of New Mexico)
• Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Host: Duquesne University)
• KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky (Host: University of Louisville)

<dl><dt>Second and third rounds (March 16/18)</dt></dl>

• Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (Host: Ohio State University)
• CenturyLink Center Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska (Host: Creighton University)
• Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee (Host: Ohio Valley Conference)
• Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina (Host: Atlantic Coast Conference)

<dl><dt>Regional sites (March 22/24)</dt></dl>

• East Regional, TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts (Host: Boston College)
• West Regional, US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

<dl><dt>Regional sites (March 23/25)</dt></dl>

• Midwest Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Saint Louis University)
• South Regional, Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia (Host: Georgia Tech)

Each regional winner will advance to the Final Four, held March 31 and April 2 in New Orleans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, hosted by Tulane University.

GASMAN, jonvi has already ressurected the BIG EAST TALK thread!!!!    I posted the link to this thread over there so I guess let's wait and see if that thread continues to survive or if this one takes off. Some great stuff in your posts although I think you are underating LOUISVILLE and a couple of their freshmen on your Preseason Teams. CHANE BEHANNAN is a Charles Barkley clone and the real deal having posted double-doubles already in both of LOUISVILLE's official games. I think he may give DRUMMOND a real run for ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.

It's still early to make any real definitive statements, but at this point I think UCONN, SYR, LOU, & PITT are the most likely title contenders and CINCY & MARQ have a chance to break into that group as well. Everybody else looks like they have some fatal flaws but the quality of coaching at GTOWN, VILL & WVU make them impossible to overlook. It's gonna be brutal once again for everybody in the BE even if the other schools are down a litttle.

You left out a Marquette/Washington matchup at Madison Square Garden on December 6th among your key OOC match ups.

I apparently left off Pitt vs Long Beach State as well Mr. Hockey.

Wow, that team impressed me tonight.  22 wins last season...Big West Champions...4 returning starters...Pitt was on the ropes ALL NIGHT!!!
Great win by the 49ers.  They should be interesting to watch this season.  You rarely see Pitt being forced into playing zone...LBS did.  They were the quicker team and beat Pitt on the boards as well.  That will crawl right up Jamie Dixon's arse.  I don't want to say Pitt took this team lightly either.  No way - no excuses.  Good solid win for Long Beach.  They kept the lead between 6 and 12 the majority of the night.

10 point win at The Pete...58 straight non conference winning streak over...86-2 vs non conference opponents there.  A little about Long Beach to follow:  (Take note Fans...Louisville is on the schedule too).  CHECK THIS NON CONFERENCE SCHEDULE OUT!!!

Nov. 16, 9 p.m. vs. Long Beach State (22-11, 14-2 Big West)

The 49ers have one of the most challenging out-of-conference schedules in the nation. They will play at Pitt, at San Diego State, at No. 8 Louisville, at No. 13 Kansas and at No. 1 North Carolina before 2012. They also host No. 15 Xavier on Dec. 22.

With a starting lineup of five seniors, the 49ers are the favorite to win their conference. Last year, guard Casper Ware became the first player to win both Big West Player of the Year and Big West Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, but his 49ers were upset by UC Santa Barbara in the final of the conference tournament.

“[Ware] has grown into such a young man, from the shy freshman who painfully couldn’t call a play out to start,” coach Dan Monson said on Oct. 20 in a news release on the Long Beach State athletics site. “Now he’s a captain and a leader and one of the premiere point guards in America.”


Ware killed Pitt tonight BTW...

Here's mine Gasman

2011-2012 Preseason All-BigEast Team  Peyton Siva, Louisville, Ashton Gibbs, Pitt, Jeremy Lamb, UConn, Kris Joseph, Syracuse, Yancy Gates, Cincy

2nd Team  Shabazz Napier, UConn, Darius Johnson Odom, Marquette, Scoop Jardine, Syracuse, Jae Crowder, Marquette, Alex Oriakhi, UConn

3rd Team  Malik Wayans, Villanova, Brandon Triche, Syracuse, Tim Abromaitis, Notre Dame, Kevin Jones West Va., Andre Drummond, UConn

Player of the Year:  Jeremy Lamb UConn

Freshman of the Year:  Andre Drummond UConn

Team Rankings
1 Syracuse
2 UConn
3 Louisville
4 Marquette
5 Pitt
6 Cincinatti
7 Notre Dame
8 St.John's
9 Villanova
10 West Va.
12 Georgetown
13 South Florida
14 Rutgers
15 DePaul
16 Providence

Nice Marinoisgod...I only see ONE thing that makes me go hmmmm....

You picked DePaul ahead of Providence!!!   

Getting sleepy I guess.  Can't believe that Pitt game.  Nice work on Long Beach St.  that OOC is pretty impressive.  Maybe they're this years SDSU?  There is no substitute for having seniors in college basketball.  It's always the great equalizer when comparing Power Conference schools and mid majors.

People keep asking, what East Coast bias,when referring to press clippings.   Well, the write upon Pittsburgh's loss to Long Beach State is a perfect example of that.  Just read the title, "Long Beach State stuns No. 9 Pittsburgh 86-76".  I would imagine that if Pittsburgh won, the title would have been, "Pittsburgh schools Long Beach State" or "Pittsburgh to much for Long Beach State in the Petersen Civic Center!"  But no, the article sugar coats theloss of a Big East Team, not to a Pac Twelve team, not to a Mountain West team, not to a Western Athletic Conference team, not to a West Coast Conference team, but to a Big West team.   The article goes on to making an alibi for Pittsburgh and calls the loss, "growing pains."  Long Beach State did not win the game with superior play, they lucked out because Pittsburgh was suffering from growing pains!  How insulting to the better team!

And fans on the East Coast always ask, what news bias, the Big East is the Beast!  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 49ers of Long Beach State, ... three time zones earlier than they are used to playing, .... didn't just win on the road with a last minute scoring flurry, but took a nine point lead to the locker room at the break and never trailed in the second half, out shot, out rebounded, more assists, more steals, less turn overs, but they merely stunned a better team.

PD....that is some of the lamest S*** I have heard this year.  It's early though.  Get yourself a crying towel or something....clean up the snot running down your face.  You got this happy crying thing going on.  Happy because your boys won and Pissed because you were denied more attention.  

This thread is all about given LBS and any of the little guys attention....today.  

You won't find us carring about Big East Bias or hate.  Just wins and losses.  You don't find Gasman....a die hard Pitt fan calling anything but an AZZ WHOOPIN.  One thing that will get this groups attention is a good azz whoopin.  We'ze get respect real fast and look forward to continued competetive ball.  It ain't about the flash though.

We listened and put up with the SDSU homers all last year and watched how they disappeared.  It is what you deal with when you are Big East Basketball.  So Welcome.  It will be fun for us all. 

BIG EAST fans....Reference the pitt game.  The Pitt Bench had nothing happening.  49 minutes of play and only 2 points to show.  Wow.


Go Cuse!

And to reiterate the "no respect" clause.  Pitino stated in an October tip off luncheon that he felt Long Beach St. would be their toughest OOC opponent.  So, it wasn't any surprise to us Louisville fans that LBSU got that win last night.  It also would be no surprise to us Louisville fans if LBSU kicks the Cards tails a week from Monday.  

Injury update for the Cards as it's becoming quite a concern.  Peyton Siva will likely be out 10 days with a severly sprained ankle.  So, there are now missing Siva (ankle), Blackshear (shoulder), Marra (ACL tear), Buckles (ACL tear), Ware (academics), Van Treese (knee injury).  That's six quality D-1 players in street clothes.  So, while I'm not making excuses, don't be shocked if Louisville gets beat this weekend @ Butler.  

 

Nice Marinoisgod...I only see ONE thing that makes me go hmmmm....

You picked DePaul ahead of Providence!!!

GASMAN, DePAUL is my pick as most improved team in the BEAST this year so I have no problem with MARINo"s ranking them over PROV.  I think they may climb up to about #12 with their new players and Melvin returning.

Tough loss GASMAN!!!   Part of PD's problem with the LBS STUNS PITT headline is he's not taking into account that they are the first team besides LOU to win at PITT in about 5-6 years I think. I know the OOC home winning streak was 58 so anybody outside the BEAST winning at PITT  is going to get that headline and it's not a slap at LONG BEACH STATE's team. ftballfan is right, Pitino did mention them as one of the teams he was most worried about playing, even with VANDY, KY, @BUTLER on the OOC schedule. I think LOU will be all right SAT at BUTLER, who lost their first game I believe and have to learn to play without HOWARD and the guard from KY whose name I forgot this year. I bet that SIVA will play as PITINO has a habit of making injuries sound worse than they are and VAN TREESE started practice Monday and is expected to play. The others he listed will miss some more games although Kevin Ware has been declared eligible to play after DEC. 14. Swopshire's improvement and addition of weight to his skinny frame has been an unexpected surprise this early in the season and he provides experience and frontcourt size and depth that LOU was sorely lacking last year.

jonvi, preach brother!!!!   It is very early and teams that return a lot of experience have a definite edge on teams like PITT that got GIBBS back but lost several starters, including THE PREDATOR from last year. They are undoubtably overated by being in the top ten this early in any poll, but with GIBBS return and Jamie Dixon coaching I expect them to climb back up the rankings as the year progresses. Looks like they had defensive and rebounding issues, something that I never thought I'd say about a Jamie Dixon team and two things that I think will be corrected in short order. Returning experience is the main reason I have SYR, UCONN and particularly LOU rated so high. 

Hey fans....My thoughts exactly on Pitt.  They will get better.  They were overrated right now.  They will fall hard in next weeks poll.

How about #15 AZ coming into the Garden....I assume this one is at the Garden.  Glavin is special and has seen AZ a bunch back in the day.  It will be fun and I'm pulling for the Red Storm.  They get fired up when the big boys come in. 

WVU goes and gets beat by Kent State, and you start feeling bad. But then Pitt goes and gets beat by Long Beach and you start thinking all is right in the world once again.

How about #15 AZ coming into the Garden....I assume this one is at the Garden.  Glavin is special and has seen AZ a bunch back in the day.  It will be fun and I'm pulling for the Red Storm.  They get fired up when the big boys come in.

jonvi, why don'y you invite SJU85 over here so we can get an unbiased opinion on this game???  Actually, I think the JOHNNIES wll be pretty good this year even with the academic casualties in the recruiting class, but pretty good is not good enough to get into the top half of the BEAST. If Lavin can get a couple of them eligible, they will be a real force to deal with next season but relying totally on freshmen in this league is not the recipe for sustained success. Melo is looking much better this year in the half of basketball I watched him play. He was just LOSTTTTTTT last year but seems to be better involved in both the defense and offfense now. Also looks like he trimmed up or toned up a little bit as well.

HOOPS IS HERE...Gotta love Big East Basketball!

So this is the thread this year? I have friends that need to know, lol.

The Cuse looks strong, loads of kids. I always look at the line up in terms of the zone but I think this year Jim Boeheim could play some different styles of defense it he wants or needs to, he has the horses.

I see SU like this.......          

                                                         Triche/Waiters      Scoop/Carter-Williams <------Interchangable depending on situation at guard.


                        KJ/Southerland                                                                                  Christmas/Fair


                                                                      Melo/Keita


I still think Baye Moussa Keita is a little better than Fab Melo and Fair is a little better than Rakeem Christmas. I am digging Dion Waiters and believe he will see lots of floor time. James Southerland kind of looks like the odd man out but I think he is more of a weapon than Rakeem Christmas. Michael Carter-Williams is a wild card and needs a little development, he is skinny but long, perfect for the zone. I can't wait for the real games to start. Looks like FL will be a nice test. 10 guys, how will JB use them?

Hey fans....My thoughts exactly on Pitt.

jonvi, are you trying to scare me??!!!!!   Or just being polite??   Either way that statement has me a litlle concerned that your thoughts are in my head.  BTW, I hate COACH P!!!!

Greetings, all. I've been an avid reader of the Big East threads, and have enjoyed reading the various points of view posted within. I'm looking forward to another great season of Big East basketball. (better enjoy it now, it may not be around in 1-2 years) I'm an admitted Villanova homer, and a Rutgers fan to boot. I'm not much for predictions. I see that both Nova and RU are expected to be middle-of-the-pack teams. Hopefully, RU can wind up at least in the upper tier of the mid-section. (if that makes any sense) I like Coach Rice and the buzz he's creating. As for Nova, I'm crossing my fingers and toes, hoping their experienced players mesh with the promising freshmen, and maybe surprise people with a top four finish in conference. Either way, it should be a blast! Go Nova! Go Knights!