Big East Fans Better Buckle Up This Season
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The perennial power isn’t close to the no. 1 team it was for much of last season. The team that rode a freshman sensation to a national title four seasons ago is a long shot this year, even with another diaper dandy in tow. The conference’s pre-season favorite is loaded with talent, but has already suffered two tough losses against the only top-25 teams on its schedule to date. Buckle up, Big East fans. This season could be one of the wildest in years for the conference.
With its Big East schedule starting next week at the Carrier Dome, Pittsburgh rates as the class of the conference. No Big East team can claim a group of seven players that matches the Panthers’ Aaron Gray, Mike Cook, Antonio Graves, Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon, Levon Kendall, and Sam Young. At 7 foot, 270 lbs., Gray is a leading All-America candidate, and the focal point of Pitt’s offense.
That’s both a blessing and a curse. In Pitt’s double-overtime loss to Oklahoma State Thursday, the Panthers repeatedly fed Gray in crunch time. The big center delivered an array of clutch shots. But his Achilles heel was also on display, as Gray made just two of seven at the foul line. A team that plays as deliberate a pace as Pitt can’t afford to have its best player be a liability at the charity stripe; in close games, opponents could start deploying the hack-a-Gray strategy. The Panthers also lack frontcourt depth behind the big guy, making foul trouble a nightly concern. Ramon is too good a shooter to be averaging just over eight points a night after 13 games. Better ball rotation in half-court sets and more baskets in transition should get the talented junior more opportunities, and could help Pitt gain offensive diversity, instead of relying too heavily on Gray.
Connecticut is the lone undefeated team in the conference — not bad for a team that’s rebuilding after losing its top six scorers either to graduation or high picks in the NBA Draft. Getting point guard A.J. Price back for his sophomore season after a washout 2005–2006 campaign dramatically changed the complexion of the team. If it seems strange that a sophomore who didn’t play in his freshman year would be anointed the savior of a national power like Connecticut, it shouldn’t: The Huskies’ top 14 scorers are all underclassmen.
Price’s backcourt mate, Jerome Dyson, has been one of the best frosh in the country not mentioned in the same breath as the Odens and Durants. The team’s fortunes could rest with Hasheem Thabeet, a 7-foot-3-inch intimidator who’s both raw and terrifying to any who dare drive down the lane against him. Super-soph Jeff Adrien’s averaging a double-double at just 6 feet 6 inches; if Thabeet can provide more scoring and rebounding help, the Huskies’ stable of jackrabbit guards could make some serious noise in this, the Year of the Freshman.
It’s a shame trades aren’t allowed in college basketball. If they were, Georgetown might be able acquire some badly needed backcourt help to support one of the best frontcourt tandems in America, in Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green. The two juniors share the team lead in both points (11.8) and rebounds (6.6),with Hibbert putting up those numbers despite averaging seven fewer minutes a game at just 24.3.
The Princeton-style offense run by coach John Thompson III helps the Hoyas maintain a top-20 ranking in Ken Pomeroy’s Adjusted Offensive Efficiency stat (four other Big East teams are also in the top 20). Jonathan Wallace, Jessie Sapp, and the other Hoya perimeter players need to do a better job getting Hibbert and Green the ball in situations where they can score. If they succeed, the Georgetown defense (17th among D-I teams in percentage of shots blocked and 25th in lowest twopoint field goal percentage allowed) could make the Hoyas a serious threat in the conference, and well into March.
Villanova looks like the Philly version of the Hoyas — a baffling proposition given the Wildcats’ profile last season. A trio of backcourt lightning bolts — Allan Ray, Randy Foye, and Kyle Lowry — is gone, leaving behind Big East Player of the Year candidate Curtis Sumpter and an army of frontcourt sidekicks to shoulder the load. The heavy emphasis on guard play and the quicker pace adopted by many elite programs will provide an interesting test for Georgetown, Villanova, and other beefy, slower-paced teams that rely on defense and post play to succeed.
It’s unfair to compare point guard Dominic James to Golden Eagles alum Dwyane Wade, just as it’s unfair to expect Marquette to engineer another surprise Final Four run … or is it? James has proven he’s capable of winning games in crunch time, and Marquette has proven it can hang with some elite teams, with a neutral-court win over Duke and a narrow loss to top-5 power Wisconsin on the Eagles’ ledger. Predicting the outcome of, say, Marquette’s February 10 and February 19 games against Georgetown and Villanova, respectively, is next to impossible. If Marquette’s studly backcourt trio of James, Jerel McNeal, and Wesley Matthews controls the tempo, the Eagles will prevail, but if Hibbert, Sumpter and company slow things down, probably not.
Paul Harris is a long-armed, strongwilled freshman who’s a big asset to both Syracuse’s offense and its often impenetrable 2–3 zone defense. Sound familiar? If the Orangemen hope to replicate the 2003 national title they won with Carmelo Anthony at the controls, though, they’ll use a more balanced attack. Harris has played more of a supporting role, with senior Demetris Nichols, Terrence Roberts, and Daryl Watkins among the veterans at the helm. This is one of the most experienced teams in the Big East, and the ‘Cuse is often at its most dangerous when expectations are down.
Quickies: Looking for a sleeper team? Try Notre Dame, which owns the fifthmost efficient offense in the nation, keeps opponents off the offensive boards better than anyone, and sports a balanced offense with four players averaging double figures in scoring. With early wins over highly rated Maryland and Alabama and its lone loss to a fierce Butler squad, the Irish could resemble some of the recent out-of-nowhere teams in Morgantown … Speaking of West Virginia, the team’s 9–1 record has come mostly at the expense of paper tigers. Coach John Beilein is a magician, but he probably needs one more strong recruiting class to get back in the mix … Learn the name Weyinmi Efejuku. He and Sharaud Curry comprise a dangerous guard tandem for Providence, while 6-foot-7-inch soph Geoff McDermott’s 11 rebounds a game rank him among the country’s best vacuum cleaners. Expect at least one top-25 team to lose on a Rhode Island road trip this year — maybe more …Is DePaul the same team that started the season with stinker losses to Bradley and Northwestern (the latter netting only 39 points), or the squad that’s gone 8–3 since then, with big wins over Kansas, Cal. and Wake Forest? January 10 vs. Pitt could be a blowout or a beauty, depending on the answer … Seton Hall may be the most undersized team in the conference. Jamar Nutter, freshman Eugene Harvey, and company will need to beat teams from the outside to compete. That may be tough, given their early ranking of 304th out of 334 D-I teams in 3-point FG%.
Cincinnati is rebuilding under firstyear coach Mick Cronin. Deonta Vaughn is another of the Big East’s great unheralded freshmen, though the Bearcats probably wish they had more recruits who resemble deposed coach Bob Huggins’s prized catch Bill Walker at Kansas State … Rebuilding becomes a must whenever a team loses two players as talented as Francisco Garcia and Taquan Dean, as Louisville has in the past couple years. If David Padgett recovers from early injury woes, the Cardinals suddenly become a lot more balanced, and Rick Pitino’s squad may yet surprise … Wither Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, or even Ron Artest? It’s mindboggling how a New York City-based team in a power conference can be reduced to perennial also-ran status. The jury’s still out on Coach Norm Roberts, but St. John’s will eventually need to wrest back control of the New York recruiting scene to regain relevance in the Big East … South Florida officials won’t be complaining about the added revenue generated from joining the Big East. But the Bulls will need to raise the program’s profile to compete with UConn, Pitt, and Syracuse, especially when they can’t yet handle Texas A&M Corpus Christie … Rutgers fans would love to keep the faith after the departure of prolific scorer Quincy Douby, but even the biggest optimist would have trouble projecting the Scarlet Knights too far above the conference cellar. Oh well, there’s always football.
Mr. Keri is a writer for ESPN.com’s Page 2 and a contributor to YESNetwork.com.