A few words from the Big East’s coaches from the weekly conference call Thursday morning:
– Louisville (18-10, 9-6) finishes the season with games against Georgetown (a loss on Tuesday), at UConn (Sunday), at Marquette (next Tuesday) and home against Syracuse (next Saturday).
“I’ve been coaching 30 some odd years. I don’t remember ever having four more difficult games that we had to play over the final four games of the season with as much at stake,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “That’s the nature of this conference and the nature of our schedule. We look forward to the challenge but it’s going to be a heck of a challenge.”
– Notre Dame star Luke Harangody missed his third straight game Wednesday night with a knee injury (though the Irish upset Pitt anyway) and it doesn’t look like he’ll play Saturday against Georgetown.
“We’re testing a little bit today and tomorrow,” ND coach Mike Brey said. “I’m doubtful that he will play Saturday. Stranger things have happened.”
Harangody, the nation’s third-leading scorer (24.1) this season, was on pace to become the Big East’s all-time leader in scoring during league games. That doesn’t appear likely now, and it’s certainly not the Irish’s primary concern.
We’ll see about Notre Dame’s game next Wednesday against UConn at the Joyce Center.
“We’ll keep taking a look at it, keep evaluating it,” Brey said. “If we can’t get him ready for Saturday, we’ll re-evaluate it again after a couple days.”
– Marquette forward Jimmy Butler has this buzzer-beating thing down, it seems.
Less than a month after he burned UConn with a shot in the final seconds, Butler beat St. John’s at the end of overtime Wednesday night with another fadeaway jumper near the baseline.
Marquette (18-9, 9-6) beat St. John’s 63-61 for its seventh win in the last eight games.
“It was a similar play to what we ran against UConn at the end there,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said.
“We did want Jimmy with the ball in his hands,” Williams continued. “There’s a lot of different things that go into the action of the play, but he has confidence and our team has confidence in him.”
– Almost every coach agrees that many college basketball officials work too many games. But there doesn’t seem to be many good fixes for the problem.
“They’re independent contractors so I don’t know what anybody’s supposed to do,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “Everybody has a right to work.”
Even if a league’s officiating coordinator (like the Big East’s Art Hyland) limits the number of conference games an official can work in a week, those officials can still work games for another league. Nearly all of the top officials work for multiple conferences.
And even if they’re over-worked a bit, some coaches would rather see a familiar, experienced face at their games.
“The truth be known, there are guys you’ve seen 50, 60 times in your career. Do you want a guy you’ve never seen before?” Huggins said.
– Get out your tie-breaking calculators.
There are 11 teams tied for their respective places in the league standings right now. There’s a two-way tie for third, a three-way tie for fifth, a four-way tie for eighth and a two-way tie for 14th.
– Get ready for a zoo.
Some 34,616 tickets have been sold for Syracuse-Villanova at the Dome Saturday night. (The Orange capped the ticket sales at that number. The next ticket sold in the football-style stadium probably would have only been able to see 20 percent of the court.)
It’s an ESPN Gameday event and maybe the Big East game of the year.
“Obviously it’s an exciting game. We’re looking forward to playing it,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said.
Boeheim on the Wildcats’ guards, including Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher: “They have the best backcourt in the country, by far.”
– Can we call it doing it the UConn way?
Cincinnati, in a five-point win over DePaul Wednesday, managed to score 74 points despite missing 18 free throws (14-of-32) and failing to make a single 3-pointer (0-for-9). The Bearcats also turned the ball over 14 times.
- Neill
