Predaction: Pitt-UConn, SU-St. John's, and UConn-SU
Let's say an alien scientist came to earth just to check things out. He'd study the earth - biology and geology. He'd study human history, religion, and philosophy. We can assume he's a pretty sharp creature, you know, since he's figured out interstellar travel. So he'd probably blow through those topics pretty quickly. It wouldn't be too long until he turned to popular culture. And not too much longer before he got to sports. And eventually, he'd get to college basketball.
"Who are the best teams in college basketball?" he'd ask.
"Well," I'd say. In this reality, I'm the appointed expert on college basketball for planet earth. Me and Dick Vitale, who become BFFs from the experience.
"That's debatable," I'd say. "But the objective consensus is that the Big East is the best conference in college basketball."
"Show me this, 'Big East!'" he'd say.
That's when I would pull out the Pitt-UConn and SU-St. John's games from yesterday - two great snapshots of what Big East basketball is like in 2011; indeed, two pretty good representations of what Big East basketball has always been.
On Wednesday, Sauna Emeritis Chris twittered, "If I could choose one sporting event to attend every year, I would choose the Big East tourney. NYC, top-flight talent, great rivalries"
Well put. Thursday afternoon, we also had a buzzer-beater, ridiculously physical play (well-officiated, it should be noted), passionate effort, top-notch coaching, excellent defenses, and an awesome crowd.
The UConn-Pitt finish was so good, it 1.) solidified a legendary season for a brilliant player, Kemba Walker; 2.) probably bumped Kemba up a couple spots in the draft, and 3.) revealed a fascinating coach-vs-coach feud boiling under the surface in the conference. The finish was so good, I've just thought of three more points about how good it was. 4.) I hate UConn as much as anyone and more than Georgetown, but I'm going to link to the video of that shot anyway because it was so awesome. 5.) I hate UConn as much as anyone, but Kemba Walker is the best late-game player in the NCAAs.
Finally, 6.) I hate Jim Calhoun as much as anyone and think Jamie Dixon is as good as any man-to-man coach in the nation, but Dixon was spectacularly out-coached on the final play. If you're Calhoun, you run a screen to try to set up a mismatch for Kemba. That's a no-brainer (although it's shocking how many teams don't at least try this when you have 10-15 seconds to run your last play). He did it. If you're Dixon, you want Wannamaker to do his best to stay with Kemba through the screens. You DON'T want Gary McGee on Kemba! Anyone but Big Gary! Yikes! McGee should NOT have switched off the screen. Who cares if some guy named Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is free on the perimeter for a couple seconds?? The only Husky I'm remotely worried about is Jeremy Lamb, and as scary as his talent is, he's still pretty raw. I'm no Jamie Dixon, but if I was, in that final huddle, I tell my guys not to switch on the screen. They switched on the screen, and the step-back was that much easier for Kemba. Long story short, you know a play was great when I'm offering a mild complement to Calhoun, although I think he looked up that final play on a stolen laptop hidden under his chair.
On to St.Johns-SU...
I watched the first half, which was great, and then followed the scoreboard on my laptop during class. (Don't tell Professor Basu!) Even following the score was riveting, and I could just sense it was an amazing game. I went back and watched the second half when I got home. Yup. Classic Big East.
So you know how good Fab is suddenly playing. And Triche, of course, was massive. I think the larger story is that Syracuse is playing really, really good basketball right now. After those annual early and mid-season losses, I don't always buy into the old line, "that loss will be good for us." But in retrospect, the flow of this season really played into our hands. As Villanova's season spirals out of control, it's pretty easy to think, "that could have been us." Nova peaked while the Orange bottomed out. Now Nova bottomed out and has no time to right the ship.
Meawhile SU is better than ever. Let's start with the Freshmen. Speaking of them, Baye Moussa Keita, literally translated, means "remember when I was the best Freshman on the team?" Also, remember when CJ Fair was the best Freshman on the team? As of today, it's 1. Melo, 2. Dion, 3. CJ, and 4. Keita. Would you be surprised if Dion had a big game today? Or CJ? I wouldn't. Dion has been quietly electric off the bench. He can shoot. He can drive. I'm extremely excited about him.
Triche's improvement this season is critical for one important reason. We don't need him to have a great game on offense every night, but when he goes off Scoop doesn't need to. Against the best teams, we need one or the other to be great, but not both.
Triche, along with the rest of the vets - Ricky, Scoop, KJ - look so comfortable in their roles right now, don't they? They've been playing together for 3 years or more at this point, and it shows. That is a huge advantage. Compare them to St. John's; even though they're led by seniors, two of the Red Storm's three best players were JuCo transfers. Plus, their coach is brand new. I would say that SU's experience trumps its poor team free throw shooting in late games. And by the way, Syracuse has its best cooler [Bill Simmons' term for a clutch late game free throw shooter] in Triche since Gerry. Why wasn't the end of the game as close as the rest of the game? SU's experienced talent beat out St. John's guts. I'll say it again - I'm not taking St. John's deep in my bracket.
And now, tonight's game...
If you haven't heard, ESPN U is showing a shortened version of 6OT from 1:00-3:00. Then ESPN Classic is showing the game in its entirety from 3:00-7:00. I've got history reading to do, but you can be sure I'll have the game on in the background all day.
Here are the stakes for tonight's game:
"Who are the best teams in college basketball?" he'd ask.
"Well," I'd say. In this reality, I'm the appointed expert on college basketball for planet earth. Me and Dick Vitale, who become BFFs from the experience.
"That's debatable," I'd say. "But the objective consensus is that the Big East is the best conference in college basketball."
"Show me this, 'Big East!'" he'd say.
That's when I would pull out the Pitt-UConn and SU-St. John's games from yesterday - two great snapshots of what Big East basketball is like in 2011; indeed, two pretty good representations of what Big East basketball has always been.
On Wednesday, Sauna Emeritis Chris twittered, "If I could choose one sporting event to attend every year, I would choose the Big East tourney. NYC, top-flight talent, great rivalries"
Well put. Thursday afternoon, we also had a buzzer-beater, ridiculously physical play (well-officiated, it should be noted), passionate effort, top-notch coaching, excellent defenses, and an awesome crowd.
The UConn-Pitt finish was so good, it 1.) solidified a legendary season for a brilliant player, Kemba Walker; 2.) probably bumped Kemba up a couple spots in the draft, and 3.) revealed a fascinating coach-vs-coach feud boiling under the surface in the conference. The finish was so good, I've just thought of three more points about how good it was. 4.) I hate UConn as much as anyone and more than Georgetown, but I'm going to link to the video of that shot anyway because it was so awesome. 5.) I hate UConn as much as anyone, but Kemba Walker is the best late-game player in the NCAAs.
Finally, 6.) I hate Jim Calhoun as much as anyone and think Jamie Dixon is as good as any man-to-man coach in the nation, but Dixon was spectacularly out-coached on the final play. If you're Calhoun, you run a screen to try to set up a mismatch for Kemba. That's a no-brainer (although it's shocking how many teams don't at least try this when you have 10-15 seconds to run your last play). He did it. If you're Dixon, you want Wannamaker to do his best to stay with Kemba through the screens. You DON'T want Gary McGee on Kemba! Anyone but Big Gary! Yikes! McGee should NOT have switched off the screen. Who cares if some guy named Jamal Coombs-McDaniel is free on the perimeter for a couple seconds?? The only Husky I'm remotely worried about is Jeremy Lamb, and as scary as his talent is, he's still pretty raw. I'm no Jamie Dixon, but if I was, in that final huddle, I tell my guys not to switch on the screen. They switched on the screen, and the step-back was that much easier for Kemba. Long story short, you know a play was great when I'm offering a mild complement to Calhoun, although I think he looked up that final play on a stolen laptop hidden under his chair.
On to St.Johns-SU...
I watched the first half, which was great, and then followed the scoreboard on my laptop during class. (Don't tell Professor Basu!) Even following the score was riveting, and I could just sense it was an amazing game. I went back and watched the second half when I got home. Yup. Classic Big East.
So you know how good Fab is suddenly playing. And Triche, of course, was massive. I think the larger story is that Syracuse is playing really, really good basketball right now. After those annual early and mid-season losses, I don't always buy into the old line, "that loss will be good for us." But in retrospect, the flow of this season really played into our hands. As Villanova's season spirals out of control, it's pretty easy to think, "that could have been us." Nova peaked while the Orange bottomed out. Now Nova bottomed out and has no time to right the ship.
Meawhile SU is better than ever. Let's start with the Freshmen. Speaking of them, Baye Moussa Keita, literally translated, means "remember when I was the best Freshman on the team?" Also, remember when CJ Fair was the best Freshman on the team? As of today, it's 1. Melo, 2. Dion, 3. CJ, and 4. Keita. Would you be surprised if Dion had a big game today? Or CJ? I wouldn't. Dion has been quietly electric off the bench. He can shoot. He can drive. I'm extremely excited about him.
Triche's improvement this season is critical for one important reason. We don't need him to have a great game on offense every night, but when he goes off Scoop doesn't need to. Against the best teams, we need one or the other to be great, but not both.
Triche, along with the rest of the vets - Ricky, Scoop, KJ - look so comfortable in their roles right now, don't they? They've been playing together for 3 years or more at this point, and it shows. That is a huge advantage. Compare them to St. John's; even though they're led by seniors, two of the Red Storm's three best players were JuCo transfers. Plus, their coach is brand new. I would say that SU's experience trumps its poor team free throw shooting in late games. And by the way, Syracuse has its best cooler [Bill Simmons' term for a clutch late game free throw shooter] in Triche since Gerry. Why wasn't the end of the game as close as the rest of the game? SU's experienced talent beat out St. John's guts. I'll say it again - I'm not taking St. John's deep in my bracket.
And now, tonight's game...
If you haven't heard, ESPN U is showing a shortened version of 6OT from 1:00-3:00. Then ESPN Classic is showing the game in its entirety from 3:00-7:00. I've got history reading to do, but you can be sure I'll have the game on in the background all day.
Here are the stakes for tonight's game:
- Building the Big East Tournament's Mystique: Casual college basketball fans will be following this game tonight. If it is as solid as the games were yesterday, it will continue to shape the legend of this tournament. If it is classic, it will take the tournament's status to another level.
- Building the UConn-SU rivalry's status: This rivalry is a strange one, because everyone knows that for SU, Georgetown is their traditional rival. Yet everyone also knows UConn-SU has been a better rivalry over the last decade. Unless Georgetown hoops falls back into something like the Craig Esherick Era doldrums, they will remain rival #1 to the Orange. UConn will be #2. But consider this...how awesome is it that Syracuse has had two legitimate super-serious rivals for over 15 years? What other consistently great program can make that claim? Not Duke, since they stopped playing Kentucky, and since Maryland fell off the map. Not UNC. Not Kansas. Not UCLA. Kentucky-Louisville is probably the best non-conference rivalry today, but neither team has a transcendent conference rival, do they?
- UConn's momentum: They'll be tired if they make the finals of the Big East, and they'll probably lose to the Irish, but with a win over the Orange the Huskies will have earned a high seed in the tourney. Plus, they will have set themselves up for comments like "They'll go as far as Kemba can take us" and "Kemba Walker might be the best player in the tournament" leading into the NCAAs.
- SU's momentum: Hang on...we're going to be using block capitals a BUNCH of times in this paragraph. Make no mistake, this is a MUCH better match-up for the Orange than that impossible Pitt defense. Syracuse is the better team; they're taller, more athletic, and more talented. The Orange SHOULD win. Still, excuse me while I gird my loins: the St. John's win probably sealed a 3-seed for the Orange, and if Syracuse plays well and loses, they'll still take a lot of confidence into the tournament. There's not much to lose tonight. Having said that, a Syracuse win DEFINITELY locks up a 3-seed, gets people talking about SU as a dark horse in the tournament, and gives the Orange even MORE confidence. Plus, they'll be the favorites in the finals against whoever emerges. (Trust me, Notre Dame fans. The bookies will pick SU in the Garden against little Hansbrough.) Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Big East titles?
Labels: Big East Tournament, Pittsburgh Panthers, St. John's Red Storm, Syracuse Orange basketball, UConn
posted by Prof. A at 12:22 PM
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