- Earlier in the season, I thought that Notre Dame had as good a shot as any team in the conference to crash the Louisville-Syracuse party atop the standings. The Irish looked impressive early in the year, but they have really struggled as of late, and some earlier wins like the one against Kentucky are quickly losing their luster. The bottom fell out for Mike Brey’s team in their most recent game against Georgetown, when a usually anemic Hoya offense used an 18-0 run to take out the Irish in South Bend. Notre Dame looks to stop the slide against a gritty USF squad on Saturday, and then takes on a quickly-improving Villanova team on January 30, before a game against DePaul. All three games are winnable, but as we all know, there are no sure things in the Big East.
- In Big East play, road teams are 22-20, and Rick Pitino is just fine with that. Pitino believes that refereeing in the conference has gotten better for a number of reasons, including a resistance to pressure from the home crowd and the fact that refs are under increased scrutiny by the media if they make bad calls. I’m sure there are other, less discussed factors at play here as well. Refs will never be perfect, but I do think they are doing a good job this year, and hope that continues through tournament time.
- Syracuse is coming off of two wins against ranked teams in three days, after dropping then-#1 Louisville at the Yum! Center and Cincinnati and the Carrier Dome, but Jim Boeheim isn’t happy with how his team has played, saying that the Orange should probably have gone 0-2 in those games. In the Louisville game, Syracuse was bailed out by a white-hot Brandon Triche in the first half, who kept the game close, and were able to lock down the Cardinals on the defensive end in the last five minutes. Cincinnati went into a similar offensive funk, and led by Michael Carter-Williams, the Orange were able to pull out another close win. The positive is that Syracuse is learning how to win, even without the ineligible James Southerland whose status is completely up in the air.
- Pittsburgh basketball generally thrives with aggressive, man-to-man defense, strong rebounding, and efficiency. Guess what? According to Jamie Dixon, not much has changed: “We‘re a low-turnover team. If we get more rebounds, we‘ll have far more possessions than our opponents. That, to me, is the key.” After a rough 2011-12 campaign, Pitt looks poised to make a run at the NCAA Tournament once again, led by a conference-best scoring defense, strong turnover margin, and good rebounding. Dixon has changed things up a bit, using some zone this season, as a number of teams have begun to do, but the general axioms of the Pitt program remain the same.
- Anthony Collins is one of the better pure point guards in the conference, but in order for USF to start winning big games, he needs to assert himself more on the offensive end. Collins plays with a pass-first mentality, but the Bulls’ offense has struggled to score, and Stan Heath believes that Collins needs to focus on scoring more when the rest of the team goes cold: “I think Collins has to score the ball for us. I think he’s got a true point guard mentality: Get everybody else involved. But I think he understands if things aren’t working that way, boy, I better step my game up.” Collins doesn’t have a great jump shot, but he is an absolute bull (no pun intended) in the lane, and is great at finishing around the rim. USF has some decent shooters, so if Collins looks to attack more consistently, it can open things up for more kick-outs to open guys around the arc.
Dan Lyons (78 Posts)Writer at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician and Rush the Court's Big East Microsite. Syracuse '12.