It wasn't exactly a true Big Monday - Bilas and Raftery weren't on the call together - but it was still pretty sick to get the Big East season officially underway. There was only one game on opening night - Connecticut at Pittsburgh.
Conn v Pitt: I know it's wrong to take too much from any one game, especially the first one, but Connecticut was who I thought they were. They are a middle of the pack team in the Big East yet they find themselves ranked 4th in the Polls.
The Huskies took 60 shots and Kemba Walker had 27 of them. He only made 10. Pittsburgh assisted on 19 of 25 made field goals. Connecticut had just 6 on 19 made buckets. Pitt really beat them up with experience and team basketball.
The Petersen Events Center has been open since 2002. Pitt has a record of 142-11 in that building including 47 of their last 48. Here's a fun fact: JT3 has a record of 2-2. Oh and his Hoyas gave them their only loss in the last 48 at home. Oakland Zoo my ass.
Tuesday's games:
Providence v Syracuse: I can't believe the Big East league office gave Syracuse their first two conference games at home. Syracuse has only left the state of NY one time this season - and that one time was a trip to Atlantic City. Simply put: their schedule is embarrassing.
Ok now that we got that out of the way I can get to the game. Providence gave the Orange a decent game tonight but just couldn't quite connect all of the dots. The Friars don't exactly play great team basketball. Marshon Brooks takes a lion's share of the shots but doesn't get any of his teammates easy looks. Somebody should tell Keno Davis that taking 30 three pointers against that Syracuse zone is a recipe for disaster.
DePaul v Cincinnati: It's hard to judge the Bearcats against DePaul because the Blue Demons are bad. Like real bad. I think they would really struggle to win any conference in the country. Maybe the SWAC. Cincinnati stayed undefeated wthout really breaking a sweat tonight. I didn't watch that much because the result was never in doubt.
South Florida v Seton Hall: The good news for the Bull is that Gus Gilchrist showed up. The bad news is that it still wasn't enough for the win. Gilchrist left the team a week or so ago but I guess he's back. I'm sure it was nice for the Pirates to get a win after their best player was shot on Christmas. Hazell is apparently "fine" after being shot. Seriously who shoots somebody on Dec 25th? I flipped to this game only during TV timeouts in Syracuse but the one thing I took away from it was that South Florida loves to turn the ball over. I mean they really love it.
It's not a conference game but Rutgers - UNC is on and I have just one question. Why are they playing? I think this might be at least the 3rd time they have played recently. All of the games have been uncompetitive. It's awful to watch. Ok here's another question: Who made that phone call? The only thing I can think of is that Roy Williams wants a game in the NY/NJ area for recruiting purposes.
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