And how about Nova? What a stunning win against Pitt in the Elite Eight game  Saturday. Here is a team that many picked to struggle in the league this year. But even though they may have been in a struggle, they never gave up. Not once! We have been accused of ‘hating’ Villanova by a commenter on this site. I will say that I don’t think a hated of the Cats has ever been shown here. Not by this writer for sure. Just to let    know….. my daughter is a grad student at Villanova right now, and her fiance is graduating from Villanova Law School in May. I will say emphatically that I am not a Nova hater, but I am pleasantly surprised with their progression. As I’ve said before, no coach has the success of getting his troops to play their best ball every year in the NCAA’s like Jay Wright. I will say that as much as I’d like to see the Wildcats in the final game next Monday night, I do feel they won’t get past UNC on Saturday.

UConn has weathered all sorts of problems this year to get to the Final Four. Major injuries, coaching tirades at press conferences, recruiting violation questions all led to victories. The Huskies deserve all the credit for their great play in the NCAA’s this year. A.J. Price has turned into a major player in the Huskies run. Kemba Walker almost singlehandedly willed UConn over Mizzou. And on and on…… So they now play a road game at Michigan State on Saturday and I feel they can handle that. UConn’s road performance this year has only one blemish on it. They should have enough left to whip MSU in a tight game and then will have to play their best game by far this year to beat UNC in the final. UNC looks a little too strong for the Huskies but, lets see…….

How about a Nova-UConn championship game???????? That would be the best….!!!!!!

Luke Harangody scored 26 and Ryan Ayers added 23 to lead the Irish to a 97-65 win over Rutgers. Kyle McAlarney added 18 in the win. Greg Echenique led the Scarlet Knights with15, followed by Anthony farmer with 13 and Mike Rosario with 11. The Irish led at the half 52-40. Harangody had 18, Ayers 14 and McAlarney 10. Rosario and Farmer had 9 each for the Scarlet Knights.

USF 66  SETON HALL  65

South Florida rushed out to a 37-29 halftime lead and held off a furious Seton Hall rally to win 66-65. Dominic Jones led the Bulls with 16. Jesus Verdejo added 12 and Gilchrist and Howard had 10 apiece to lead USF to a victory in its 1st tourney game ever. Jeremy Hazell was 4-19 from the field (1-14 from three) and had only 9 points for the Hall. Mitchell led Seton Hall with 22 points and 11 rebounds. He was joined by Eugene Harvey in double figures with 11.

Game 1 : CINCINNATI  63  DePAUL 68

The Bearcats got off to a quick lead and took a 42-24 halftime lead. Cincinnati was led by Deontea Vaughn with 8 pts, had 37 reb and shot 37%.Depaul shot 31% and had 18 rebounds, led by Walker and Currie with 5 pts each.  DePaul made a furious comeback in the 2nd half and got their 1st Big East win of the season. Dar Tucker led the Demons with 18 and Wil Walker chipped in with 13. For the Bearcats Davis was the only one in double figures with 10. Vaughn finished with 8 after fouling out.

GEORGETOWN   94  ST. JOHN’S  66

Georgetown rushed out to an early lead and never looked back as they ruined St. John’s return to Big East tourney play. The Hoyas rushed out to a 53-27 halftime lead, led by Freeman and Wright with 12 each. The Red Storm was led by Kennedy with 14 at the half. Gtown shot 60% (18-30) in the half. Austin Freeman led the Hoyas with 20, as three others hit double figures (Monroe 19, Wright 16, Summers 15). D.J. Kennedy led the Storm with 34 points.

1) Pitt is the better team. Hands down. Pitt beat UConn in every aspect of the game each time. Pitt is more athletic (Sam Young), more talented (Young and Blair), and much much tougher than the Huskies. In each of their meetings this year the final score was much closer than the game itself.

2) Pitt has two POY candidates, UConn none. Young and Blair are bona fide candidates for the best player honor. Calhoun has to stop making excuses for why Thabeet didn’t dominate a game. He’s just not as good as those Pitt players.

3) Dixon has outcoached Calhoun both games. C’mon…. Jim really doesn’t think that Jeff Adrien can cover Sam Young, does he? The matchups here favor Pitt at almost every position, but the only Husky with enough athletic ability to guard Young is Robinson.

4) If Levance Fields was really hurt, he has to be related to Superman. A player who supposedly was on crutches the day before the game is not physically able to play 37 minutes as he did yesterday. Pitt doesn’t need  this type of trickery to beat UConn. This is the only negative I saw in yesterday’s game.

Now…. about UConn….. Please bring back the hard nosed Husky player that Calhoun developed during his early stay in Storrs. Teams, and players tend to mirror their coach. As Calhoun has become a celebrity he has gone soft. Players are now recruited with the promise of an NBA career. And as Calhoun has grown too important to watch over his players academic progress and behavior during free time, his players have shown the lack of desire to get their uniform messed by hard work.

We watched Rudy Gay choose to protect his draft status rather than carry his team to success in the NCAA tourney. Now we have the coach spending more time promoting his center for post-UConn accolades than demanding hard work out of team. Oh, yeah, they have some awesome talent. But Pitt showed yesterday that hard work and team concept will beat a group of all-stars intent on getting a big contract.

Rewatch yesterday’s game. Watch each team in half court offense. Watch each team in half court defense. I rest my case.

Notre Dame is the biggest failure this season. They may struggle to make the NIT. Georgetown will go NIT too.

The biggest surprise thus far has got to be the Friars. At 6-3 they sit right behind Pitt in the standings.