A few items from around the Big East via the league’s weekly conference call with its coaches:
– UConn coach Jim Calhoun remains on medical leave. He’s missed five games so far.
Acting head coach/associate head coach George Blaney said Thursday he still doesn’t know when Calhoun will return.
“It’s day-to-day. We’re wating for he and the doctors to decide what is the right time for him to come back,” Blaney said.
“I do talk to him,” Blaney added. “He seems good, he feels good, he’s feeling better. But we don’t have a timetable yet for when he’s coming back.”
It’s not likely to be Saturday against DePaul.
“I’m assuming I’m coaching Saturday,” Blaney said.
The Huskies have lost three in a row and six of their last eight (they’re 2-3 in Calhoun’s absence).
“It’s not that we’re doing a whole lot of different things than we had been doing,” Blaney said. “I do think we miss coach Calhoun greatly. I think the players miss him greatly. They’re used to playing for him.”
– Interim DePaul head coach Tracy Webster, whose team visits Storrs Saturday, on UConn:
“A very big basketball team with two really good guards that create problems for us and for a lot of teams,” Webster said. “We have to do a really good job of trying to control the tempo. They’re really good at running the basketball.”
DePaul, which recently fired head coach Jerry Wainwright and only recently snapped a Big East-record losing streak, is by no means a pushover Blaney says.
“DePaul is playing really, really good basketball lately,” Blaney said. “They’re very athletic, very strong _ physically strong. I’m looking for a very hard game on Saturday. It certainly is a game that both teams need to win.”
– A 96-team NCAA Tournament? At least one league coach thinks it’s a good idea.
“I love it. I just think it’s time as come,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said, pointing out that more and more teams have joined Division I (347 total now) while the tournament has stayed the same size since 1985.
The NCAA is reportedly considering opting out of its television contract with CBS and shopping it around, presumably to the ESPN family of networks.
“What’s best for TV is probably going to happen, and we have to understand that,” Wright said.
Another Big East coach says he’s in favor of expansion, though he’s not sure on the number 96.
“I have not given enough thought to that to answer that question,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “I would like to see the tournament expanded.”
– Before this season South Florida had never won back-to-back Big East games. Now the Bulls have suddenly won four straight.
A 72-64 win over seventh-ranked Georgetown Wednesday night in D.C. has put an exclamation point on the streak.
“Our team is really just starting to believe,” USF coach Stan Heath said Thursday morning, “believe that we can win games.”
Guard Dominique Jones is averaging a staggering 35 points during win streak.
“Dominque Jones just continues to play at such a high, high level,” Heath said. “He’s the straw that stirs the drink for our basketball team.”
South Florida (15-7, 5-5) is even starting to talk about the NCAA Tournament a little bit.
“I believe the kids have to have a carrot in front of them,” Heath said. “It’s something we subtly talk about.”
- Neill
