Bennet Hayes is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @HoopsTraveler on Twitter. Night Line runs on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s games.

The Big East is larger than two programs, but for the better part of the last three decades, it’s been next to impossible to think of Big East basketball without Syracuse or UConn coming to mind. They have proven worthy flag-bearers for one of the best and proudest basketball conferences in America, but with Syracuse flying the coop after this season and UConn ineligible for Big East tournament play, Wednesday night would be the final time the two programs would meet as league rivals. A nostalgic night indeed, but brace yourself — as the Big East (at least as we have known it) splinters apart over the next 13 months, there will be many more nights of sifting through the memories. But on this first night of bracing for life after the (old) Big East, it was a young team, led by a rookie coach who stole the show.

Jim Boeheim And Syracuse’s Final Big East Trip To UConn May Have Stirred Memories, But Did Not Net the Orange a Win

A failing APR score will cost UConn a berth in the NCAA Tournament this season, but give the Huskies credit: Once the talent exodus from Storrs was complete, few thought the ban would actually cost UConn anything. The Huskies have instead proved themselves Tournament-worthy over and over again in this resilient campaign, and the once-doubted Kevin Ollie has secured a long-term future in the Nutmeg State.

The two biggest reasons for UConn’s success were as important as ever on Wednesday night. Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright combined to efficiently pick apart the Syracuse zone, totaling 27 points (on 16 shots) and 11 assists between them. The two lead guards have flourished under the 40-year old Ollie, who has entrusted his pair of play-makers with a freedom and confidence that Jim Calhoun (bless his heart, and his three National Championships) never did. No longer must Boatright and Napier fear a quick pull, or a (screaming, maniacal) voice in their ear after a bad shot or turnover. The result has been the formation of a backcourt that is as cocksure as it gets. UConn may be a team with nothing else to play for, but Kevin Ollie has twisted that fact into a different reality – the Huskies are simply playing with house money, and the riches are growing every week.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Syracuse and UConn seem to be moving in very different directions as basketball programs on a number of levels. Syracuse is looking for another top-10 finish to the season and a high seed in the Big Dance. UConn, on the other hand, is ineligible for all postseason play. Syracuse is moving on to the ACC, leaving behind the shell of the once-great Big East. UConn was left at the altar, wondering what its next move will be. And this week, like ships passing in the night, Syracuse gained back dynamic sixth-man James Southerland, while UConn will likely be without big man Enosch Wolf after an arrest this week. Wolf was charged with third-degree burglary, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct after refusing to leave a campus apartment and getting in a physical altercation with a female resident at 6:00 AM. According to Kevin Ollie, Wolf has been suspended indefinitely.
2. When he suffered a sprained ankle in the first half of what would become an epic five-overtime game against Louisville, Pat Connaughton probably didn’t realize how crucial his presence would be. The sophomore returned to the game later and ended up playing 56 minutes and contributing 16 points and 14 rebounds in the hard-fought Irish win. Connaughton probably didn’t feel great about it on Sunday, but luckily for him Notre Dame is off until Wednesday night when the Irish will take on DePaul. Ice up, Pat.
3. Jim Boeheim is old, you guys, and I guess it works for him. The Hall of Famer has noted on many occasions that he doesn’t own a computer, and apparently he just recently got into this whole “cell phone” business, mostly because of his young kids. However, in a shocking revelation brought on by the constant Syracuse rumor-mongering surrounding the James Southerland situation, we have now learned that Boeheim knows what a blog is! And surprise, surprise — he resents them as much as we all imagined he would!
4. Pittsburgh had a slow start to the Big East slate this year, and a lot of that derived from a lack of production from vaunted freshman center Steven Adams.  However, in recent weeks Adams has really come along with his offensive production, allowing Pitt to go back to a more traditional inside-out Panthers attack. The post presence of Adams and power forward Talib Zanna allows Jamie Dixon’s offense to harken back to the days where Levance Fields was able to feed DeJuan Blair under the hoop. The recent emergence of Adams and Zanna’s solid production opens things up for guards like Tray Woodall, who had to shoulder much of the scoring load earlier in the year.
5. Rutgers has probably played better than many expected this season, but its 3-8 conference record doesn’t really reflect it. The Scarlet Knights have been in many close games but have so far failed to contain the opposition’s best player down the stretch. This problem came to pass once again in Saturday’s 69-63 loss to Georgetown. Scoring has been an adventure for the Hoyas all season, but they have been able to get by on the shoulders of star forward Otto Porter, who led the way by scoring 19 points (including 10 of Georgetown’s final 12) and grabbing 14 boards. Good defensive teams can remove a singular threat like Porter, or at least slow him down in crunch time, but Rutgers isn’t quite there yet.

1.  The Hartford Courant‘s Paul Doyle came to a similar conclusion that I did after watching Providence’s grind out win against Cincinnati on Wednesday night –  the Friars may be in the early stages of becoming a good basketball team.  However, the premise of his story veered into interesting territory considering how the game played out.  Friar star Bryce Cotton was well-neutralized against Cincinnati, and it was really the play of Kadeem Batts and others that led to the win.  Cotton, however, is the model player for the program building that Ed Cooley is currently doing at Providence.  Cooley seems to agree with this notion: “As Cooley builds his program, he’s stressing hard work and telling incoming players they can improve if they’re committed. And he’ll be pointing to his shooting guard as Exhibit A. ‘He’s definitely a poster child for that,’ Cooley said.”
2. Despite popular misconceptions, there will be a Big East basketball conference, and as of late last week Notre Dame will be a part of it, if only for one more season.  The Notre Dame-Big East discussions about shortening their 27-month waiting period did not progress quickly enough, and fall sports have schedules to prepare, so at the end of the day there just wasn’t enough time to figure things out for 2013-14.  If I were handicapping the situation, I would expect next year to definitely be Notre Dame’s last in the newest version of the conference, so if you’re a big Irish fan in Orlando, I would be sure to get tickets.
3. Things didn’t look good for Georgetown after losses to Pittsburgh and Marquette and the loss of Greg Whittington, but the Hoyas have done well to bounce back, and have now won six of their last seven games, with the lone loss being the perplexing game against a floundering South Florida squad.  The Georgetown Voice‘s Chris Almeida notes that while this is usually a period of the season where the team slumps, this year’s outfit has done well to regain momentum, and look strong entering the end of the season.  Unsurprisingly, the key player has been Otto Porter, who is averaging 18.1 points per game over the last seven, and should probably be getting some long conference player of the year looks, but the strong backcourt play from Markel Starks and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera have also been key for the Hoyas.
4. I wouldn’t put St. John’s into the NCAA Tournament just yet, but the New York Post‘s Mike Vaccaro believes that if the Johnnies are selected to dance, they have already exhibited the grittiness to succeed in the one-and-done setting.  The Red Storm isn’t exactly dominating teams, but they continue to survive and advance through the conference, and as Steve Lavin states in the article, they don’t give extra wins for style points: “At this point of the year you don’t grade victories in the Big East. You’re grateful, you chalk it up as a W, you move on.”  Few would’ve thought that St. John’s would be battling for the top tier of the conference, definitely not a tournament bid, especially with such an inexperienced team that seemed to have major issues earlier in the year.
5. Few things are as Upstate New York as Jim Boeheim and Hofmann Hot Dogs, so when Boeheim became an investor in the company as it looked to expand nationally, Syracuse ex-pats were very excited at the possibility of getting their favorite dogs across the nation.  However, not all is going swimmingly within the Hofmann empire.  Boeheim and his partners are accusing Hoffman CEO and Dallas Mavericks president Frank Zaccanelli of misusing company funds.  The lawsuit that has been filed includes a number of damning details, including Zaccanelli’s use of company money as a “slush fund” and promoting an apparent girlfriend to an executive salary and backdating her employment records to allow her extra benefits.

We won’t know for sure whether James Southerland‘s season is done or not until Friday but there are some who feel that allegations that Southerland had a tutor write his term papers will be too much for the university to overlook and Southerland’s Syracuse career will come to an ignominious end. At first the Orange didn’t seem to be affected by Southerland’s absence, continuing their winning streak and rising to the top of the conference standings. But in the last two weeks Syracuse has looked vulnerable and back-to-back losses to Villanova and Pittsburgh have left the Orange just a half-game ahead of Marquette, causing some fans to wonder whether the lack of Southerland’s scoring punch and defense are finally catching up to Jim Boeheim‘s club.

Jim Boeheim Knows The Importance Of James Southerland On His Team’s NCAA Tournament Chances

The team got back to its winning ways with an easy home rout of Notre Dame on Monday but in the long-term the question remains — can Syracuse win what is sure to be a hotly contested Big East title race without the services of their senior sixth-man? The team obviously remains in excellent position as the schedule heads into the home stretch but the team also has four games against ranked opponents left on the schedule and can ill-afford a regression to mediocrity at this point. But is Southerland’s absence really the difference-maker for the Orange, or are the team’s struggles rooted in something else?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Providence hasn’t been relevant in basketball in a long time and this season has been no exception. The popular argument seems to be that in order for Ed Cooley to turn the program around, he needs the entire team to buy in to his plan. The point is a good one as the Friars have arguably as much pure talent on their roster as any other team in the conference yet still can’t put anything together. The evidence of such issues is pretty damning actually. Transfer Sidiki Johnson took a voluntary leave of absence from the team recently and two of the program’s best players, LaDontae Henton and Vincent Council, both sat to start the Connecticut game because of issues with Cooley — and you know Ricardo Ledo doesn’t care about the long-term success of the program given his recent comments about considering the NBA. Ledo is the only one with a decent excuse since it isn’t his fault he has to sit out this season, but Johnson has set new records for using up good will wherever he goes and this is hardly the first issue Council has created because of his cavalier attitude. The article is right. Cooley can stockpile the most impressive collection of basketball talent on the Eastern Seaboard and it won’t matter unless he can get the whole team to buy in to what he is selling. Until then, Providence is going to be a program that produces a few NBA players without ever winning many college games.
2. Yes, it is just the ranting of an angry fan, but there was already plenty of buzz around the topic of whether DePaul should fire head coach Oliver Purnell and that buzz has only grown louder after the Blue Demons were embarrassed on their home court last night by a mediocre Villanova team. The loss came on the heels of two hard-fought overtime losses last week but it was also the seventh-straight defeat for Purnell’s club, which really hasn’t shown much improvement now in his third year at the helm. The school paid Purnell handsomely to spurn Clemson in the hopes that he would come in and rebuild a once proud program. Instead, his lack of ties to Chicago have hurt him in recruiting and, never one to be mistaken for a strategy whiz, Purnell’s team consistently blows winnable games and is often obviously outplayed. No matter how the team finishes this season, Purnell probably deserves to watch his first recruiting class graduate and if the team’s best players, Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young, don’t do something silly like enter the NBA Draft, it could be the best and deepest club Purnell has coached in Chicago. But if he can’t make it work next season with a solid recruiting class and a host of returning talent, I wouldn’t bet on him making it through another full season unscathed.
3. With questions swirling about whether super-sub James Southerland‘s season is done, the good folks at Troy Nunes Is A Magician took a quick look at why the program’s fans hate freshman guard Trevor Cooney so much. The article does a fine job of examining the issue on its own so there is no need to rehash everything, but we will say that if Southerland is deemed ineligible for the rest of the season, ‘Cuse fans better get used to seeing Cooney because head coach Jim Boeheim doesn’t have a whole lot else to work with. Would it be nice if Cooney shot better than 29 percent from behind the three-point arc and played better perimeter defense? Of course it would. But we are talking about a redshirt freshman who is receiving inconsistent minutes and still hasn’t found his range yet. Don’t get us wrong, heading into the NCAA Tournament with Cooney as our sixth man would make us nervous too, but let’s cut him some slack and give him another year or two before ‘Cuse fans angrily try to run him out of town.
4. We have confirmation of some “needed wake-up call” talk down in Louisville where Cardinals players speaking to the media stopped just short of calling their three-game losing streak a good thing because it let the team know that letdowns wouldn’t cut it. While there is still no supporting evidence to convince me that losing three important conference games in a row is a good thing, the argument works well with a team like Louisville. Advanced metrics and eyeballs tell you that Louisville is as complete a team as there is in the country and certainly a viable national championship contender. Seeding is important and a three-game losing streak obviously has an effect on that, but if the Cardinals actually learn from their struggles and are able to maintain intensity and focus for the rest of the season, then maybe I will start buying more of the talk  about these “moral victories” and “wake-up calls.”
5. File this under someone should probably tell Larry Brown there is no Santa Claus either, as the famous first-year coach at SMU is still holding out hope that the Big East as it currently stands will stick together for another year or two, long enough for the Mustangs to get a taste of the conference. It is possible that the Catholic 7 will be forced to play out their contracts with the Big East, but it is more likely that after some legal wrangling, the Big East gets paid and the Catholic 7 jumps ship sooner and starts collecting checks from their supposedly impending television deal. The 72-year-old Brown seems to just now be coming to grips with all of the conference realignment and you can assume by his assertion that it is “ruining every other sport” other than football that he is not at all a fan. We don’t disagree with Brown, we just think it might be time to get with the picture and realize that the Big East that SMU enters will not look the same as the Big East that SMU thought it had signed up for.

1. The recognitions continue to roll in for Villanova sophomore Darrun Hilliard, who was named Player of the Week by the US Basketball Writers Association a day after the folks in Providence pegged him as its Big East Player of the Week. It’s a significant national distinction: Hilliard joins Victor Rudd (December 23) as the only Big East players to earn the honor this season.
2. After watching the Villanova loss in which Louisville’s Chane Behanan struggled to handle a couple of passes down the stretch, his brother made an unconventional suggestion to improve his coordination: juggling lessons. Behanan gave Chip Cosby of Louisville’s cn|2 Sports a glimpse of his juggling baseline. Maybe he’s being tongue-in-cheek, but Cardinals fans should feel encouraged that Behanan plainly acknowledges his recent problem clutching the ball and is striving to improve.
3. At 1-7 in the Big East, South Florida is squarely in last place in the league standings heading into February. Moreover, they’re averaging fewer points per game than all but 44 teams in Division I, and they haven’t eclipsed 70 points since before Christmas. Collin Sherwin at Voodoo Five tries to diagnose what’s right and wrong with Stan Heath’s offense right now. His conclusions are, in a word, bleak: “You can’t run a pick-and-roll if you don’t have anyone that can roll to the rim effectively. You can pick-and-pop, but our perimeter shooters aren’t exactly known for their quick triggers… And we really don’t have anyone (besides Collins) that can put the ball on the deck and get into the teeth of the defense.”
4. Substantial Syracuse freshman Dajuan Coleman underwent knee surgery yesterday that will keep him off the court for four weeks. With Coleman rehabbing and James Southerland benched for a while, Jim Boeheim is left with only seven scholarship players. Syracuse’s enviable depth is suddenly a thing of the past, and Brent Axe at the (Syracuse) Post-Standard points out Coleman’s injury is just one of a series of mid- and late-season big man casualties for the program. Nonetheless, Axe questions how much of a substantive impact the loss of Coleman will have on Syracuse: “Coleman may start every game, but has barely been used by Jim Boeheim in game situations that matter.” It will be interesting to see whether the coaching staff elects to slide Rakeem Christmas to center or start backup five-man Baye Keita. The Orange have several days to deliberate this issue as they look to rebound from the Villanova loss against Pitt on Saturday.
5. It’s not all doom and gloom in upstate New York, as CJ Fair was entrusted with the official Syracuse Athletics Twitter account yesterday, to the great benefit of humanity. CJ apparently liked Django and believes he’s the ‘Cuse player most likely to win the Hunger Games. No profound insights, but his blunt economy of language is what really made the cameo entertaining:

vanilla

— Syracuse Athletics (@Cuse) January 29, 2013

I want a baby tiger for 2 weeks and then I would get a dog.

— Syracuse Athletics (@Cuse) January 29, 2013

I’m plain when it comes to pizza I just like cheese.

— Syracuse Athletics (@Cuse) January 29, 2013

Joe Dzuback is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after this afternoon’s Villanova-Syracuse game in Philadelphia.

Five Key Takeaways.

1. Jim Boeheim can be very gracious…or not. In the postgame press conference a Syracuse TV reporter asked the venerable coach if a game interference foul should have been called when the Villanova student body rushed the court with 0.5 seconds left. Villanova was set to inbound with Syracuse down four and the coach shot him a look: “That’s nothing,” Boeheim said. “Forget it, c’mon.” Later when the same reporter asked him if free throws would be a point of emphasis going forward the coach asked him if “you can’t cook and you emphasize it, will you be a good cook tomorrow?” He went on to tell the reporter that the Orange have historically been a top three free throw shooting team in the conference, and that he was more worried about three-point shots regardless.
2. Consistency counts for something in the Big East. Efficiently converting shots and possessions no matter who the opponent was the difference for Villanova today. Syracuse was 24-of-35 from the free throw line (68%), missing a number of attempts early in the game. Critical turnovers at the end of regulation fueled a 6-0 Villanova run to tie the game and force overtime. Villanova played with confidence in the last 3:30 of regulation and in overtime, outscoring Syracuse 20-10 during that stretch.
3. Brandon Triche is a beast. The senior guard carried the Orange offensively through much of the game, scoring 23 points while playing 41 minutes. He dished out four assists and managed a steal.
4. Keep shooting. Though he was 2-of-9 from the field through regulation and 1-of-7 from beyond the arc, junior guard James Bell canned three consecutive shots in overtime (two three-pointers) to post eight points in the five-minute period. The first three put the home team up by one, and the layup at the 0:27 mark pushed Villanova’s lead back out to three.
5. The Orange need James Southerland in the worst way. The senior forward, sidelined with an eligibility issue, averages 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game . The Orange were outrebounded 50-40 by Villanova  today.

Two RTCs in a Single Week at Villanova

Stars of the Game. Darrun Hilliard and Mouphtaou Yarou. Villnaova’s sophomore off guard matched his career-high of 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting (3-of-6 on three-point attempts). Hilliard dished six assists against no turnovers. Villanova’s senior forward/center posted a double-double, scoring 14 points to go with his 16 rebounds.

Quotable.

• “What a week for us” – coach Jay Wright commenting on Villanova’s second win of the week over a top five team. The last time Villanova posted consecutive wins over top five teams was 1985. In the Final Four.
• “The greatest things about these 11:00/12:00 games… Saturday games is that you have the afternoon, you get a great Italian dinner, it’s the greatest. But when you lose those 11/12 o’clock games, the day goes on forever.” – Wright’s reply to a question about whether he stop and reflect on the week’s wins.
• “I didn’t want to foul at 0:13 because they make one and miss one and get the rebound…” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim on why the Orange did not foul when Villanova had the ball on the last possession and Syracuse was up by three, 61-58.

Sights and Sounds. The Wells Fargo Center is home court for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. It seats 20,000 fans, and Villanova announced paid attendance today was 18,273. When freshman point guard Ryan Arcidiancono hit his three-point attempt to tie the game with three seconds left in regulation a wall of sound descended on the floor. Courtside observers were literally moved by the force. The court rush at the end was amazing.

1. In the words of the immortal Roseanne Roseannadanna, “it’s always something” with Syracuse basketball. This year’s something — or second something on the heels of Michael Carter-Williams Lord & Taylor mishap — is the current academic ineligibility of James Southerland. Details and rumors have been leaking out around the Internet, as they are wont to do in circumstances like this, and new information from Jim Boeheim seems to give credence to one of them: “He’s a senior, he has worked hard to be in school, to stay in school – he has worked hard on and off the court. He had a great semester last fall academically. I am hoping that through the process you have to go through that he will be able to come back.” There has been speculation that Southerland’s issues may stem from a fraudulent term paper which is being investigated by the NCAA. While there is always the chance that the NCAA discovers that the NCAA wrote Southerland’s paper and that the NCAA will now impose sanctions on the NCAA, most Syracuse fans aren’t too optimistic about the situation.
2. Louisville‘s been in this spot before. After running through a huge chunk of its schedule with one blemish against their record, the Cardinals have dropped two straight, the latter being a heart-breaker at the hands of Villanova in Philadelphia. The 2010-11 Cardinals lost to a much stronger Villanova team at the time, but the feelings are the same as they were a few seasons ago – something must change. That team found its leadership in Preston Knowles, who rallied the team following the loss to ‘Nova and led them to the NCAA Tournament. This squad does not have a Knowles to lean on, but it does have a number of experienced veterans who have plenty of wins under their belt. If any team is equipped to handle a down spell, it is probably Louisville. I don’t think this year’s squad will be falling to any #13 seeds in March either.
3. Many have complained about the Big East scheduling this season and it is justified criticism, but UConn and Shabazz Napier are currently the benefactor of some serious time off. Napier had been playing with an injured shoulder and was not able to provide what UConn needs from its star, and as a result the Huskies dropped two games. After a week of rest, UConn takes on Rutgers at the XL Center Sunday, and Napier should be in much better shape than he has been over the last few weeks.
4. Speaking of Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights are in a bit of a quandary when it comes to Eli Carter. He is one of the team’s only reliable scorers and the offense suffers without him on the floor, but Carter has gone absolutely ice cold and shot the Knights out of the game on multiple occasions this season. Scorers will go through droughts, and staying aggressive is one way to get through them, but having multiple one-field goal games is unacceptable. The Star-Ledger‘s Brendon Prunty believes that Carter should come off the bench as a spark plug for Rutgers if he cannot be the consistent scorer in the starting lineup that he was expected to be.
5. Despite recent success, Cincinnati is a long way from selling out Fifth Third Arena on a regular basis, but an increase in student turnout has helped create a spike in attendance from last season. Cincy moved from an assigned seat to a general admission student model that many schools use, set up a loyalty rewards program, and has implemented some creative marketing to help drive student turnout. However, the biggest factor is the team’s success, according to athletic director Whit Babcock: “We’re not satisfied until every game is sold out, but I like the steps that we’ve taken. Mick and the team should get the bulk of the credit.”

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Brendon Mulvihill is an RTC contributor. You can find him @TheMulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

The top teams in several conferences go head-to-head and a non-conference mid-major battle in the midwest should provide a spectacular weekend of college hoops. Let’s get to the breakdowns.

#6 Syracuse at #1 Louisville – 4:00 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN (*****)

Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino Meet on Saturday Again…

• The cream of the Big East crop lock up in what should be an epic defensive battle. This may be the best defensive match-up we will see all season. Jim Boeheim’s match-up zone versus Rick Pitino’s press will be fun to watch. Louisville is known for its ability to create lots of turnovers, but Syracuse is almost just as good at causing teams to make mistakes. Additionally, Syracuse blocks a bunch of shots and locks down the perimeter. Louisville counters with its own shot-blocker deluxe in Gorgui Dieng. The question for Syracuse is how they will break the Louisville press — look to see if they use their length to make passes over the top of the Cardinals’ defense to get down the court.  Also, watch the guard match-up between Brandon Triche and Michael Carter-Williams of Syracuse and Peyton Siva and Russ Smith of Louisville. Triche and Carter-Williams have a significant size advantage that could make scoring from the Louisville backcourt limited, although Smith just seems to find ways to score anyway. Ultimately, this game will come down to whose defense plays better, but this game is shaping up to be a classic.

#17 Missouri at #8 Florida – 2:00 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN (****)

• Florida is coming off a dominant win against Texas A&M and is beginning to separate itself from the rest of the SEC. A win by Missouri on the road would be huge for the Tigers as they head into a stretch of games against the bottom tier of the league. Missouri needs to find a way to control the offensive boards without Laurence Bowers available if they are going to have a shot at winning this game. The Gators have been one of the toughest teams to shoot against this season, so don’t expect the Tigers to get a lot of great looks. However, as one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country, the Tigers have a chance if they can get put-backs and tip-ins. The key will be the battle down low between Alex Oriakhi and Patric Young so pay close attention to those two big men battling inside. Also, keep an eye on Missouri’s perimeter defense. Florida is taking 40% of its total shots from three — if the Gators’ shooters  are hitting from the outside, it’s going to be tough sledding for Missouri in its first SEC trip to Gainesville.

Oregon at #21 UCLA – 4:00 PM EST, Saturday on CBS (****)

• The Pac-12 is looking like a three team battle between Arizona, UCLA, and Oregon. With the Ducks already knocking off the Wildcats, they can make a huge statement early in the conference season with a road win against the Bruins. It won’t be easy, however, as UCLA has quietly put together a 10-game winning streak including back-to-back road wins against Utah and Colorado. Keep a close eye on turnovers in this game. Oregon is turning the ball over frequently at a rate of over 21% of its possessions. We have seen road teams get down early recently because of multiple mistakes in a hostile environment. If the Bruins can create turnovers early with some tough defense, it will make things very difficult for the Ducks in Pauley Pavilion. Also, watch the rebounding numbers. The Ducks are a far superior team on the glass at both ends. UCLA’s Kyle Anderson and the Wear brothers need to box out. Rebounding will keep Oregon in the game and could prove to be the difference if they are able to avoid turnovers.

Read the rest of this entry »