For what it’s worth…. here are my awards for the season.

Player of the Year - Luke Harangody  No one could have picked this preseason but he is POY hands down. He took the Irish from a 9th place prediction to a tie for 2nd.

Defensive Player of the Year - Hasheem Thabeet  Not so much for what he did on the floor, but for what he made opposing coaches do to their game plan. Blocked shots are great…but only if it causes a change in possession. Not many of Thabeet’s blocks did that. However, teams had to completely change game plans when facing the Huskies.

Rookie of the Year - Donte Green  I can’t believe most newspapers reporters are picking Jonny Flynn. No way! Flynn is good but Green is the one who SU needs to play well to win.

Coach of the Year - Mike Brey Again. Lost his two top scorers, picked 9th, finished tied for 2nd. Enough said.

All Big East - Luke Harangody, David Padgett, Sam Young, A.J. Price, Joe Alexander, Kyle McAlarney

All Rookie - Donte Green, Jonny Flynn, Dominique Jones, DeJuan Blair, Dar Tucker, Jeremy Hazell

Sportsmanship Award - Jim Calhoun  Leading 90-38 with 4 minutes left over a Cincinnati team stranded in a snowstorm for a day, Calhoun had his five starters on the floor. TV commentators continued to remark about reasons for this but couldn’t find a good one. Calhoun finally put his No Names (walk-ons at UConn don’t rate to have their names on jerseys as do scholarship players) into the game with 1 minute left and told them not to shoot. I’m sure Mick Cronin would second my pick here!

Categories: Commentary, Coach O
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Marquette’s victory over Nova last night put pressure on the four teams ahead of them working for a bye in New York in two weeks. The Eagles can now finish 13-5 with wins in their last two games against Georgetown and at Syracuse. With the Hoyas looking more and more vulnerable, this is entirely possible with Marquette on a 5 game roll, winning handily in each. Let’s take a look at the leaders and their prospects for a bye.

Georgetown - The Hoyas are 12-3 and finish with St. John’s, at Marquette and Louisville. If the Hoyas were to lose to Marquette and Louisville they would end up 13-5 and lose a tiebreaker to both teams. Two wins would assure the Hoyas of a bye. Even though GTown is in a good position, they have to be careful of a letdown and must defeat either Marquette or Louisville to enter the BET with some momentum.

Louisville - The Cards are 12-3 and finish with home games against Notre Dame and Villanova along with a final game at Georgetown. Although the Cards should win both home games, ND is capable of an upset. If the Cards lose to ND and GTown they will end up with a record of 13-5 and lose tiebreakers to the Irish and UConn. Louisville has two wins over Marquette and a win over Georgetown. If the Cardinals win two of the last three they will secure a bye.

Notre Dame - The Irish are 11-3 and have three of the final four games on the road. Although they have been unbeatable at home, they have shown some vulnerability away. With splits against UConn and Marquette, the Irish lose tiebreaker vs. Georgetown and still have to travel to Louisville this Thursday. The game at DePaul is not a gimme, seeing that it is a rivalry game. ND should beat St. John’s at home and USF away. If the Irish split their remaining four games they will end up 13-5. A Marquette victory over Georgetown might force the Irish to play a Wednesday game.

UConn - The Huskies are 10-4 and suffered a crucial loss at Nova on Saturday. Remaining games are at Rutgers tonight, West Virginia Saturday and at Providence and home to Cincinnati next week. The Huskies must win 3 of the last 4 to put themselves in a good position at 13-5. UConn has trouble with Providence and West Virginia is still a mystery team. Two losses will probably push UConn to a Wednesday game. The Huskies lose a tiebreaker to Georgetown and win tiebreakers vs. Louisville and Marquette. The UConn-ND tiebreaker will be determined by the Irish game vs. Louisville this Thursday.

****UPDATE***** In checking all possibilities, if Marquette were to lose one of their final two league games, UConn and ND would have to win 2 of their remaining four games to receive a bye.

Complicated???? Not really…… Typical???? You bet….. WELCOME TO THE BIG EAST!

Categories: Commentary, Georgetown, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Marquette, Louisville, Coach O, Postseason
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I was settling in on Saturday afternoon to watch the UConn-Pitt game. And a fine game it was. A real tussle. As physical as a Big East game can get. And although neither team was shooting well in the first half, it was still a battle of two very good teams. Banging, blocking, great screens, hard drives to the hoop. The kind of game one can thoroughly enjoy with a beer on a January Saturday afternoon. Then it happened……… AGAIN!

Billy Packer, self-procliamed know it all on basketball saw Doug Wiggins ready to report into the game. Of course he and Vern Lundquist had to mention the fact of the Wiggins suspension…… that was ok. And the Dyson suspension…… that was ok too. But WHY the Price laptop incident? Let it go!!!!!! How about the McAlarney suspension from Notre Dame? LET IT GO!!!!! All of the idiot tv announcers who MUST mention these incidents that happened a year ago, or two years ago in the case of Price, LET IT GO! Every basketball fan in America (and by now probably in Indonesia too) knows and hears the story in EVERY basketball game that UConn or ND plays. Now I don’t condone players using drugs, or theft, but I do know one thing. I want to hear about how the players are doing in the game I’m watching. Price has paid the penalty for what he did. He lost a year. McAlarney has paid his penalty too. He got kicked out of school, and lost a year. But you know what, Packer & Lundquist? They have done very well thank you since their reinstatements. They have not been in trouble again. They have done their best to be models of what a young man can do to make up for a mistake. I’m sure Mr. Packer, Mr. Lundquist and all the announcers on Big East regional and national games have never done anything wrong. I’m sure they were all model citizens from day one to the present. I’m sure that if they did ever make a mistake they would want it to be mentioned every time someone saw them on screen so that no one would forget just how bad they really were. So to Packer, Lundquist and the others— Just talk about the games when you have the floor. That’s what we want to listen to. Yes, we all know that they are bad boys and should have been punished for their misdeeds. BUT THEY WERE!!!!! And they didn’t quit even though I’m sure they thought that maybe someone would be cruel enough to mention it every chance they got. 

Categories: Commentary, Coach O
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Taking a leaf from Big Willie Style’s post last week….. here goes:

Luke Harangody right now is the Big East Player of the Year. Hands down! Just watched him score 32 on PC and make the 2 free throws that tied the game in regulation and sent it to OT where ND finally got their scoring touch back. PC can shoot the 3’s from halfcourt or maybe farther and started to late in the game but Coach Brey’s boys used dribble penetration and Haragody’s strength to take charge and win the game extending their home win streak to 32.

UConn can win without the Dyson. Both Wiggins and Dyson are tied now with 2 failed drug tests each. They will definitely set a Big East record for failed tests by the time they are seniors if either make it that far. Both being Sophs, it may be best for the Huskies to sit them on the pines and let Stanley Robinson and A.J. Price shine. The team is much better chemistry wise with Dyson in his dorm room.

Georgetown can destroy an opponent. After so many close wins the Hoyas made St. John’s look like a HS JVteam last night.

WVU cannot win when going 1-22 from 3-point land. I was watching the UC-WVU game and couldn’t believe the shooting futility of the ‘Neers. 1-22 from three and not much better from close range. A team can’t shoot 20% in a Big East game and break the 40 point mark.

THIS IS A CRAZY - TYPICAL BIG EAST SEASON. Never seen anything like this. EVER!. Not since last year….. and we won’t see another crazy, topsy-turvy season in the BE for a long time— probably not till next year! What a league!!!! By far, the best, most entertaining and unpredictable league in the USA!

BIG EAST HOOPS ARE THE GREATEST - DUDE!

Categories: Commentary, Coach O
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We all know that the key to success in the BE is to hold home court and steal a few on the road. It is always a large task to win one on the road in conference play. Up until last night that is.

Going into the games last night, the home team had a 36-10 record in conference play. 70% win percentage. Almost a lock. But that was before last night. In four league games last night, only one team, Rutgers (yes, Rutgers) won at home. Pitt went to the Garden and destroyed St. John’s. Louisville bombed USF. And UConn edged Cincinnati. As time goes on, the Georgetowns, Pitts, and Louisvilles will pick off an occasional road victory. And that will separate them from the pack. So UConn had a tremendous win last night. The re-emergence of Jerome Dyson and great play of Hasheem Thabeet brought the Huskies back from a 12 point deficit with 5 minutes left.

Some teams are Jeckyll/Hyde types. ND wins at home easily (3-0) and gets throttled (0-2) away. WVU is 3-0 at home and 1-2 away. SU is 3-1 at home and 0-3 away. Nova is 2-0 home and 1-3 on the road. Pitt is 2-2 on the road and has won both home games. So home losses may doom some teams to the lower reaches of the standings and road wins may elevate teams to byes in March.

Strange, but this is similar to the post “Winning on the Road” i wrote on Jan 22 last year!

Categories: Commentary, Coach O
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