Leave it up to a UConn fan to worry about something in an otherwise impressive victory — who matches up with Terrence Williams?

I’m not really concerned with the Terrence Williams. I’m more concerned with a hypothetical Terence Williams — a 6’6” shooting guard/forward out of the Jordan/Bryant/Michael Finley mold. Someone who is versatile — can take someone off the dribble, shoot a good face-up jumper, and post-up a smaller player.

If you look at UConn’s roster, they have no player who matches up with Terence Williams. They have in the past — Rashard Anderson, Denham Brown, Ray Allen. But currently, Connecticut only has smalls and bigs.

Tonight’s victory was indeed impressive. But let’s be honest: Terrence Williams made shots he could/should make. That makes me worried.

Categories: Commentary, Connecticut, donald, Louisville
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Even when it’s a great game, it sucks.

The Super Bowl is a social event and has little to do with sports. It’s all about the commercials, or the halftime show, or the party you’re currently at with a bunch of people, a large handful of whom haven’t watched any football game this season. What I love about sports — appreciating the athleticism and creativity of the players, the high-tension situations, the strategies employed by the coaches — suddenly all that goes out the window with the Super Bowl and the discussion is about monkeys in offices, pasties, corporate blowhards attending the game, and sob stories.

Give me the Big East or NCAA tournament any day, where the true fans come out, and the stories aren’t made artificially before the games (aging superstar with his last chance at a ring), but made in real time during the games (Gerry McNamara, Morrison crying at halfcourt, George Mason coming out of nowhere, Lebron James showing up just to watch Stephen Curry).

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• 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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From Connecticut’s victory over Notre Dame earlier tonight, a few questions arise:

1. Was this an impressive UConn victory (its sixth over a ranked opponent — the most in the country), or did they just get lucky because McAlarney couldn’t make anything?
2. Should Gavin Edwards be starting in place of Hasheem Thabeet?
3. What exactly happens when Thabeet goes up for a shot? Why does the ball always inevitably pop out of his hands?
4. Who has the worse looking shot — Luke Harongody or AJ Price?
5. Was College Gameday crazy today at ND because it was a recruiting day for football, or is basketball really that big there?
6. How bitter do the guys over at Black and Green sound?

Answers in sentence form, please. Coach O will do the grading…

Categories: Commentary, Connecticut, donald, Notre Dame
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Georgetown’s next three games:

1. Today (Dec. 29) at Connecticut (#2)
2. 1/3/2009 vs. Pittsburgh (#3)
3. 1/5/2009 at Notre Dame (#8)

That’s as hard a three-game schedule as they get. But this will be commonplace in the Beast this year. Look at how Marquette ends their Big East schedule:

1. 2/21/2009 at Georgetown (#12)
2. 2/25/2009 vs Connecticut (#2)
3. 3/1/2009 at Louisville (#19)
4. 3/4/2009 at Pittsburgh (#3)
5. 3/7/2009 vs Syracuse (#17)

I just hope that Big East teams will have something left for the NCAAs.

Addendum: It looks like I missed Rutgers, who lost against UNC this weekend, and is playing Pittsburgh (#3), and UCONN (#2) this week. Apparently, this is the first time that’s ever happened (three consecutive games against the top three ranked teams). Read more here.

Categories: donald, NewsWatch
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