Now that we have been into the new season and gone through Pre-season Tourneys, we can start looking at our teams for 2011-2012. I’ve decided to do this alphabetically and today I will review the first four teams.

Cincinnati – If I had to choose the biggest disappointment thus far it would be the Bearcats. Losses to Presbyterian and Marshall (both at home) have left the Cats 5-2 with an inner-city matchup with Xavier coming up. They should cruise until a late December tilt with Oklahoma and then open the league with a tough assignment at Pitt. Home games with ND and St. John’s should not be a problem and then Cincy travels to surprising Georgetown on January 9th. Sean Kilpatrick, Dion Dixon and Yancy Gates have been strong, all averaging double figures and Cashmere Wright has been solid at the point with 9.3PPG. The Bearcats problem is that they are only scoring 63 points a game and rank 269th in Assists per game. Horrendous free throw shooting has also put the Bearcats into a bind. Even though they are still strong defensively, they must do more on the offensive end to approach their results from last year and hopes for 2012.

UConn – The Huskies have come back strong from the National Championship season of a year ago. Losing Kemba Walker was a blow but the emergence of Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier has allowed UConn to move to an 8-1 start. A tough upset loss to UCF had UConn fans wondering just how good the young team would be. UConn is 2-0 vs. Top 25 teams beating FSU in overtime and Harvard at home. The schedule is very friendly for the Huskies with them facing USF in Tampa, St; John’s and at Seton Hall during Coach Calhoun’s 3 game Big East suspension. He will return for a trip to Rutgers and then they have WVU at home. Uconn could be 14-1 at that point. UConn could really use more production down low and although Alex Oriakhi is struggling, Andre Drummond is starting to show some of the talent that he was advertised with. Tyler Olander has been UConn’s best big and the spark that Ryan Boatright brings is reminicent of Alan Iverson. Look for the Huskies to challenge for the title.

DePaul – The Blue Demons have three losses and unless they begin to hit the boards they will struggle all season. They open the Big East season with Syracuse, Pitt and at Villanova, three games that should leave them 0-3 to start the conference. The Demons rank 243rd in rebounding and the task will be tougher once the league games begin. Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young are the only two in double figures and Jeremiah Kelly is the only other player averaging over 30 minutes per game. The Blue Demons will be in the lower tier of the standings once again this year.

Georgetown – What a start for the Hoyas! They have beaten Memphis and Alabama early on and took Kansas to the limit before losing by 4. Georgetown has some tough games coming up in December including Memphis and at Louisville before meeting undefeated Marquette on Jan. 4th, at WVU on the 7th and home again vs. Cincy on the 9th. By that time we will know how solid this team really is. Jason Clark, Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims have led the Hoyas through a very surprising early stretch and may be able to continue into the Big East games. If the Hoyas continue to pile up the wins with this schedule everyone will have to re-evaluate the middle of the pack predictions and watch the Hoyas challenge the front runners during the season.

Coming up next – Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh

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Coach O will be appearing on Pittsburgh TribLive Sportstalk every Wednesday in December at 3:40PM. Daniel Dudley will be hosting a Big East discussion that can be found on the web at http://sportstalk.triblive.com/ . Once the NFL season is complete we have been informed that Big Willie Style will be on their Monday show as well. Listen to yesterday’s interview at the link below.

Coach O on TribLive Monday December 7

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Coach O will be on TribLive radio today (Wed. Dec. 7) at 3:40 PM talking Big East Hoops with host Daniel Dudley. Sound file from last radio spot is  on the link below.

Pittsburgh Triblive Sportstalk

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This 3-day challenge has me really excited. The Big East should prevail over the SEC over the 12 games, but this challenge gives our conference the chance to get some serious recognition if they can give the SEC a serious whipping. And considering the Big East has been mediocre thus far, this could be a big step forward towards earning double digit NCAA bids again.

As far as tonight goes, Providence is looking solid so far in their game at South Carolina. And although not many are giving St John’s a shot at Kentucky, I think the Wildcats are a bit overrated, and I’m excited to see if the Johnnies can hang with them. Considering UK is going in the first pairing, I think we have to be happy with a split in the early games.

The same may go for the late games. We’ve got DePaul with a home game against Ole Miss and I think the Blue Demons will take this one. The Hoyas then go down to Alabama and this looks like a tough one for them. If Georgetown can pull it out though, this could be a great night for the Big East.

Of the three nights of games, I think this is our toughest draw so I’ll take a split and would be thrilled with 3-1.

Here we go, good luck to the Hoyas, Red Storm, Friars and Demons!

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