Pitt's Big Men Dominate

Pitt finally used LeVon Kendall and Aaron Gray the way they should be used, in the paint. Pitt dominated in its second half victory over West Virgina, 80-66. The Panthers went on two separate 9-0 runs during the second half that were the keys to victory. Kendall and Gray did not allow a Mountaineer near the hoop, and they combined for 22 rebounds. Mike Cook and Ronald Ramon each hit key threes to give the Panthers the lead at the opportune times. Levance Fields added 14 points as the Panthers improved to 25-5 and 12-3 in the Big East. Despite the loss to Georgetown over the weekend Pitt put themselves into great position with just one game left in the season. If they beat Marquette in Milwaukee on Saturday and Georgetown loses to UCONN, the Cats are one and the Dogs are two. Unfortunately for the Panthers UCONN is struggling this year and except for Monday's loss Georgetown is considered one of the best teams in the nation. A win over Marquette guarantees the Panthers at least the second seed in the tournament when it begins next week. Seeds 1-4 get a first round bye, a good time to rest before March Madness. On a final note, hats off to Bruce Pearl and Pat Summitt for supporting one another's teams at Tennessee. Pearl painted his chest orange and was the "V" in a spelling of Lady Vols and Summitt donned a cheerleading uniform and sang "Rocky Top" the Tennessee fight song.

Orange Jumping from the 3 Letter to the Four

The Syracuse Orange pulled the upset of the #10 and Big East leaders the Georgetown Hoyas, 72-58 on Monday night. Cuse got off to a 12-0 run to start the second half. Demetris Nichols and Andy Rautins each hit from behind the arc that put Cuse ahead for good just three minutes and forty two seconds into the second half. This is the key win that Cuse needed to propel themselves into the four letter tourney instead of the three. The selection committee looks at two very important things when choosing bubble teams, 1. Wins at home and Cuse has 10 and 2. Victories over ranked opponents they have 2, over Marquette and now Georgetown. With the Hoyas being ranked 10 and they are first in the Big East, both those factors will bode well with the committee. Cuse has now won five in a row and they close the season at Villanova. With this loss Georgetown can almost be assured they will miss out on being a two and be ranked a three. They however will be the most dangerous three with Nevada, Pitt and most likely Washington State getting the others. If Georgetown can get to a solid nine ranking in all polls they will most likely get into the Wisconsin bracket or the struggling Florida Gators. Either way this loss may end up helping the Hoyas because ones and twos have too big of targets on their heads, and threes are able to sneak by, just watch out for George Mason. HAHAHA.

Old Times in D.C.

There is a coach named John Thompson. There is a player named Patrick Ewing. The Georgetown Hoyas are ranked in the top 15 and they have a chance to win the two biggest tournaments in all of college basketball. Is this 1985 or is it 2007? Georgetown is returning to its roots by playing tough physical basketball and allowing their defense to dominate and their offense to shine. they have a big man in Roy Hibbert that can run with the best, and if there wasn't so much talk about The Ohio State University's Greg Oden or a Texas Longhorn named Kevin Durant, Hibbert could have won player of the year. The Hoyas will need to be firing on all cylinders now because March starts on Thursday and all college basketball fans know what that means: the real season is just beginning. With a Big East title, the Hoyas could easily solidify themselves as a number 2 seed in the big dance. A falter will leave them as a solid three and possibly ending up in a bracket with the Buckeyes or Florida. A Sweet-16 team one year ago this team has the potential to be at least an Elite 8 and possibly a Final Four contender. Unfortunately I think their are two teams in the Big-10, a returning national champion and a team on Tobacco Road that will end their title hopes, but it's always fun to speculate.

The Irish upset the Golden Eagles

The Navy and Gold Irish and their 23 ranking pulled the rug out from under the 16th ranked Marquette Golden Eagles 85-73 on Saturday. Luke Harangardy scored a career high 22 including eight in a three minute span in the second half that helped the Irish pull away with the victory. Notre Dame had to fight from 13 points down to beat the Golden Eagles and remain perfect at home for this season. The student section at Notre Dame chanted this is our house throughout the contest. Wesley Matthews scored 17, a career high, for Marquette with Jerel McNeal adding 16 and Dominic James scoring 14. The Irish got 14 points from Colin Falls and Russell Carter had 13. The Irish can clinch a first round bye in the Big East Tournament with a win over Rutgers on March 3rd.

Louisville Beats UCONN

The Louisville Cardinals beat the UCONN Huskies 76-69 on Sunday. The number 20 Cardinals were led by Terrence Williams with 17 and Derrick Caracter, yes Derrick Caracter had 16 off the bench. Louisville was 5-20 from behind the arc but hit three consecutive bombs late in the game to allow the Cardinals to pull away with the win. Louisville also hit their final six free throws to ice this game and possibly align themselves for the number three seed in the Big East Tournament, teams 1-4 get a first round bye. Jerome Dyson was the lone highlight for the Huskies as he scored 23 including 6 from downtown. The Cardinals close the regular season out with Seton Hall next Saturday. UCONN has Villanova and the number 12 Georgetown Hoyas this week.

GTOWN Beats PITT

The number 12 Georgetown Hoyas beat number 8 Pittsburgh 63-51 on Saturday to move into first place in the Big East with two games left to play. The Hoyas stopped the Panthers with great defense and they pulled away with an 8-2 run at the closing minutes. The Hoyas were led by Jonathan Wallace who scored 17, while Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert had 14 and 12 points respectively. The Hoyas have not had a number one seed in the Big East Tournament since 1989 and can clinch that spot with wins over Cuse and UConn this week. The Panthers seven foot star Aaron Gray was seen noticeably limping during the game an injury that caused him to miss the Panthers game against Seton Hall earlier in the week. Ronald Ramon and Sam Young had eleven points each for the Panthers and Gray got 10. The Panthers had been 6-0 this year on the road in Big East play before falling to the Hoyas Saturday. The Panthers play West Virgina and Marquette this week.

Cuse beats arch rival UCONN

Syracuse beat UCONN 73-63 at the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon for the Orange's third straight win. Demetrius Nichols helped his team by netting 20 points including five in the final minutes to ice the game for Cuse. The Orange had three others in double figures including Paul Harris with 16, Eric Devendorf with 15 and Andy Routins had 13 off the bench. Cuse also had a big advantage in rebounds getting 13 from Darryl Watkins, 10 from Harris and 9 from Nichols. UCONN's loss kept them in twelfth place in the Big East which is the last spot in the tournament. Both Cuse and UCONN need to finish their season out strong if they want to have any chance to play at the Garden. UCONN visits Rutgers then plays two at home against Louisville and VillanovaCapital to take on the red hot Georgetown Hoyas. Syracuse finishes up with Providence on the road, Georgetown at home and Villanova in Philly. Predictions UCONN will miss the tourney because the strech of Louisville, VNOVA and GTOWN will just be too hard to win outright. Cuse will be done in the first round and will make the NIT.

Louisville upsets Marquette

Jerry Smith hit a three pointer at the buzzer to send Louisville to a 61-59 victory over Marquette on Saturday. This is the Cardinals second straight upset victory over a ranked opponent this week, as the beat Pitt a few days earlier. Louisville is picking up wins at this point of the season that will help them become less of a bubble team and more of a guaranteed team for the tournament. They still have the Big East Tourney at the Garden to prove that these wins aren't flukes before the selection committee makes up their minds about this young Cardinal team. With injuries plaguing this team left and right the Cardinals need to be ecstatic about where they are at this point of the season. The Cardinals have St. John's and Seton Hall at home and UCONN on the road to close out the season and these are all winnable games. If they can pull at least two victories here and of course beat UCONN on the road the selection committee will have no choice but to give the birds a chance in the four letter tournament.

Viva Las Vegas

The Big East is well represented at this years All-Star game in Vegas. The Big East is sending six players to Sin City more than any other conference. (ACC has 5, the SEC and the Pac-10 each have 2).Caron Butler and Rip Hamilton will represent UCONN on the East while Ray Allen is the only Husky on the West. Dwyane Wade is the only Big Eat starter hailing from Marquette and handling the shooting guard duties for the East. Carmelo Anthony is another West big man, out of Syracuse and his team Allen Iverson from Georgetown will also be their but won't play because of injury. The game in Las Vegas should be a fun one as defense steps aside to let a high flying offensive battle take place. Hopefully at one time all the Big East players will be on the court at the same time doing battle against one another like they did just a few years ago. My prediction East 135 West 130.

Pitt Bounces Back...Barely

Pitt defeated Washington 65-61 on Saturday at Pittsburgh. The Panthers were out rebounded, one of their strong points, and struggled from behind the arc, arguably their best point. Aaron Gray was kept to a minimum with 5 points and 10 rebounds. The Panthers were helped out by Mike Cook who scored 15, as both Gray and Levon Kendall were kept quiet for most of the game. Gray tallied his 1,000 point as a Panther just before colliding with a Washington player and injuring his ankle. The Panthers said Gray should be good to go against Big East opponent Seton Hall on Monday. Pittsburgh's problem is simple. They need to have Gray and Kendall be at their best or they struggle to win. A loss to both Louisville and Marquette hurts them going into the tournament because both those teams will have confidence against the Panthers when they play them next. If Pitt wants a number two seed in the tournament they have to win outright. But with games at Georgetown and Marquette and Dub V at home that could be hard.

Pitt hangs on to beat Providence

Pitt escaped with a 74-68 win over Providence in the Keystone state Saturday. Providence hang around with the Panthers and really got under the skin of Aaron Gray who was in foul trouble early and had to sit a big chunk of the first half on the bench. Despite a lack of minutes Gray tallied 22 points in 25 minutes. The Panthers are the best three point shooting team in the Big East at 43 percent but were held to a minimum only making 5 of 13 behind the arc, as Providence stuck with man to man defense a first against Pitt this season. Pitt won its fifth in a row and 12 out of the last 13 games and took a one and a half game lead over Georgetown and distanced themselves from Marquette who they now lead by two in the Big East. A key 11-1 run during the first five minutes of the second half was key for the Panthers as they took the lead with just under 10 to play and never gave it back. The Friars shot well and led several times by as many as six as they got 22 points from Herbert Hill. The Panthers will not gain much in the standings from this win although they should bump up one as UCLA was upset by West Virgina. The Friars must win down the stretch to get them into the four letter tourney and not the three letter one.

The Hoyas Romp Marquette

The number 23 Georgetown Hoyas upset the number 12 Marquette Golden Eagles 76-58 in our nations capitol Saturday afternoon. The Hoyas were led by Roy Hibbert who scored 23 points and 11 rebounds. Jeff Green scored a career high 24 points in the Hoyas seventh straight win. Georgetown a sweet-16 team one year ago took great strides towards March with this win. It is an upset victory and it is at home which are two very good things in the selection committees eyes. To them you must be able to win at home which Georgetown is very good at and you must upset at least three or four teams. Since this is also a conference opponent who is more than ten seeds ahead of them and it was a blowout the Hoyas are in the best possible spot for themselves. The Hoyas recognized one of its former stars on Saturday afternoon which was an event all on its own. They named Patrick Ewing to their all century team since this is their 100th year of playing college basketball. Georgetown is one of the only teams in the country who does not retire numbers because they believe that no one individual is bigger than the team. Patrick Ewing Jr. wears his dad's number right now and he had no points with three rebounds in ten minutes.

Dub V Upsets Number 2 UCLA

A young Mountaineer squad pulled through and upset second ranked UCLA in Morgantown Saturday. The Mountaineers got up early and held on to win 70-65. The Mountaineers got a lot of support from a massive student section which was loud and crazy all game long. Dub V got 18 points from Alex Ruoff and UCLA was led by Arron Affalo who had 27 points and nine boards. This win was a revenge win for the Mountaineers who lost to the Bruins in last years tournament. This was the Bruins third loss on the road and their first to a non-divisional opponent. This win is huge for the Mountaineers because it will boost their strength of schedule, RPI and will look very good in the eyes of the tournament selection committee who decide on all bubble teams which West Virgina will most likely be. Darren Collison of UCLA was hurt and didn't see action and this clearly hurt the Bruins as they went on a stretch of 9:16 spanning both halves without a bucket. West Virgina has always believed they were a good team and if they don't get national recognition for this one, there isn't much more that they can do.

Rivalry Week

UConn and Syracuse. Calhoun and Boheim. Two of the Big East's most historic programs faced each other on Monday night. Calhoun and the Huskies won for his 500th victory at the school. The game was an extremely historic one. Besides Calhoun's 500th win, UConn added thirteen names including their beloved coach's, to the wall at Gampel Pavilion. The score was 67-60 with UConn having 5 players in double figures. Craig Austrie had 14, while Jeff Adrien and A.J. Price each had a dozen. Jerome Dyson and Marcus Johnson each had ten as UConn won its second game in a row after losing five straight. Demitrus Nichols had 20 for the Orange who committed 25 team fouls. Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf each had 13, who fell to 5-5 in the Big East. With the Orange having several key players in foul trouble early, UConn was able to take advantage and propel themselves to a 4-6 mark in the Big East. Although this has been a less than stellar season for the two traditional powerhouses, they are starting to show some promise. With still a long way to go both teams can pick it up and make the tournament.

Dwayne Wade

DWades number three jersey will be hoisted to the rafters of Marquette's Al Maguire Center on Saturday afternoon. Wade is in town because the Heat play the Bucks that night. Wade had an extraordinary career for the Golden Eagles. He lead them to the 2003 Final Four and had an unbelievable senior year where he scored a school record 710 points. There are only a few players who can impact a game more than DWade can. He can shoot from the outside, he can take it to the house. He can rebound in the key or he can keep pressure on the perimeter. Marquette has retired Dean Meminger, Butch Lee, Maurice Lucas, George Thompson, Bo Ellis, Doc Rivers, Earl Tatum and Don Kojis. Wade is one of those truly unbelievable athletes that will go down in history. This is the perfect way to honor him.

Anthony Mason Jr. vs. Patrick Ewing Jr.

Mason Jr and Ewing Jr did battle for the first time in their fathers old place of business on Thursday night. Ewing Jr. helped his Hoyas cruise past St. John's 72-48. Ewing had 5 points in 16 minutes as his father watched from courtside. Mason Jr. scored 8 and his father just like when he played for the Knicks was terribly late. The game was actually very close and the Red Storm had a lead going into the half. But Georgetown fresh out of the locker room got hot quickly, hitting shots from everywhere and burying the Red Storm before they had a chance. Georgetown picked up its 16th win of the season and will probably get into the top-25. Preseason they were in the top 10 in every poll but fell short with some early losses. If the season were to end today they would both be in the Big East Tournament with Georgetown at 3 and St. John's at 12. This once historic rivalry has been struggling as of late with St. John's not being able to recruit the big names like GTown can. Pitt is still off till next Wednesday something that could hurt them in the coaches vote tomorrow.