• The Quad: This just in, Zach Hillesland of Notre Dame writes for The Quad, New York Times’s blog of all college sports. Zach gives the lowdown on his teammates, including this gem about Luke Zeller:
  

  “Do: engage in a freestyle rap battle. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, Big Smoof is known (at least on our team) as the Matisyahu of the Christian faith. If you really want to do battle, you better bring your Webster’s and a copy of the New Testament.”

• Black and Green: The folks over at Black and Green rank the coaches in the Big East. I actually agree with every single selection, except for ranking Boeheim at two over Pitino at three. Calhoun comes in at one, and his stats are indeed impressive — “Two national titles, six Big East championships, 21 NCAA appearances at two different schools” — especially when you consider that UConn has never had a half-court offense.
• Robert Churchwell’s Revenge: On Wednesday, the newest Big East blogger laments the upsets of Wednesday and the state of affairs:
  

  What a rotten night. You can’t enjoy a Syracuse loss at Providence when it comes 20 minutes before a Hoya loss at Cincinnati.

  Syracuse loses three in a row and four out of five, and you can’t enjoy it because…holy crap, the Hoyas have lost four in a row and six out of eight and are in a stone-cold free-fall with a trip to Marquette coming Saturday.
  …
  We’ve been tracking these so-called “bad losses,” in which teams from the supposed Top Nine lose to teams in the supposed Bottom Seven. For the first four weeks of conference play, there was only one of these — Notre Dame’s loss at St. John’s on Jan. 3. But in the last four days, there have been three more, two by Georgetown (at Seton Hall and Cincinnati) and one by Syracuse (at Providence).

  This could be a symptom of burnout. It could be a sign that the conference isn’t as deep as we thought it was. But it’s definitely a sign that those “Top Nine” and “Bottom Seven” designations aren’t set in stone. Right now, Providence and Pitt are in a tie for fourth place. Cincinnati is alone in ninth. Georgetown and Notre Dame are tied for 10th. Those nine NCAA bids for the Big East look like a pipe dream right now, and even if they got them, they wouldn’t go to the nine teams everybody thought they would.

  I don’t think we should lament those losses. Rather than being a sign that the conference isn’t as deep as we thought it was, it could be a sign that the conference is incredibly deep — that teams like Cincinnati and Providence are really quite good. The losses are inevitable — the real question is whether Syracuse, Georgetown, and ND can finish the season strong.

  In fact, I don’t really think of the league as being “Top Nine” and “Bottom Seven”. Indeed, I think what the season has shown is that there’s a top three/four, a middle seven/eight, and a bottom five. Watching Louisville and Pittsburgh today, it’s evident that UConn, Louisville and Pitt are currently monsters in the league — head and shoulders above the rest (I’m not quite ready to put Marquette there because (a) I haven’t seen them play much, (b) their strength of schedule thus far. PItt just put on the afterburners against ND. I’m impressed — but that’ll be for another post.

• Pitt Blather: This just in, Chas over at Pitt Blather is unable to live-blog the game because his daughter, um, yakked all over his bed. Ahhh…parenthood.

Categories: BlogWatch, Commentary, donald
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