1. The Big East named Otto Porter and John Thompson III Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively, on Tuesday. Porter was the unanimous choice for POY among coaches, and had been the only unanimous selection on the All-Big East First Team roster that was released Sunday. Barry Svrluga at the Washington Post recounts how unlikely that feat would have seemed in early January, when Porter shot 7-of-19 and had nine total rebounds in consecutive losses to open Big East play. After turning the ball over seven times against Louisville, Porter notched 34 assists to just nine turnovers in the Hoyas’ final 11 games –– a staggering 3.8 A/TO ratio. The 6’8″ sophomore is the eighth Big East POY winner from Georgetown, making the it the most successful program in that category.
2. Prized recruit Aquille Carr announced yesterday that he would forgo a college career at Seton Hall to play professionally abroad next year, prompting the Star-Ledger’ Steve Politi to question whether Kevin Willard is repeating the mistakes of his predecessors. While recruiting success offered some hopeful silver lining during Seton Hall’s miserable 3-15 Big East regular season, that optimism evaporated in the span of less than a week. Willard’s only other commitment, Illinois shooting guard Jerron Wilbut, was arrested last Thursday for robbery and will likely never step foot on campus. Now with no recruits in the fold for 2013, Politi says Willard “can’t afford an entire goose egg for a recruiting class” if he wants to avoid the fates of former Pirates coaches Bobby Gonzalez and Louis Orr.
3. CBS New York’s Jon Rothstein maintains that Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti made the right choice in retaining coach Mike Rice, and believes the Scarlet Knights are poised to turn the corner. It takes time to try to build a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991, and Rothstein cites Jay Wright-era Villanova and Mick Cronin’s Cincinnati as examples of programs that needed four or five years to do so. Moreover, “There is a distinct jump in production when a group of sophomores become juniors,” he says, and Rutgers’ roster boasts seven rising seniors, including leading scorers Eli Carter and Myles Mack.
4. Cincinnati’s staff hopes to have Justin Jackson back in the fold against Providence tonight, after the 6’8″ junior missed the past three games with an ankle injury. Jackson has averaged 3.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, but Mick Cronin insists, “We need him. He’s an energy guy.  This time of year is when you rely on your veteran players.” On the topic of Cashmere Wright, Cronin admitted that his mercurial point guard is still hobbled by a tricky knee, which is preventing him from exploiting defenders off the dribble. “He’s giving us everything he can give us,” Cronin reiterated.
5. UConn blog A Dime Back has been conducting a tournament-style bracket of the most historic Huskies in a feature dubbed “The Ultimate UConn Challenge.” The survey’s architects have given it a thoughtful treatment, having “researched, compiled, ranked and seeded 64 of the greatest players in Husky history” over the course of this season. Descriptions of each player display a level of research uncommon to the format, and contain some history that will appeal to inquisitive college basketball fans regardless of team allegiance. Ray Allen, Kemba Walker, Donyell Marshall and Emeka Okafor are the top seeds, while Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright are the only current players to make the field.

1. Criticizing Marquette for its inconsistent play — especially as they sit just a game out of the top spot in the conference following last night’s big comeback win over Syracuse in Milwaukee — seems like nitpicking but that doesn’t mean the team’s schizophrenic play shouldn’t be a concern for Golden Eagles’ fans either. Buzz Williams’ team was supposed to take a step back this season after losing players like Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder, but Williams has once again proven he is one of the best coaches in the country as his team has easily exceeded expectations and is competing for a league title without a true star. For all of the success that Marquette has had, including its impressive bounceback win over the Orange last night, they still seem to have the occasional lapse and have been shaky on the road. Williams and his club don’t have the luxury of winning games when they don’t play well because a lot of their success this season has been a result of hard work and grit. I don’t think anyone wants to play them in the NCAA Tournament, but if they can’t find better consistency and play with continued effort, I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see Marquette bounced early from the Dance either.
2. On one hand, it doesn’t seem fair to go after Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard for his team’s abysmal performance this season considering he lost two of his best forwards to injury, but at the same time, there is definitely something to be said for the fact that the Pirates’ roster is nearly devoid of true Big East-caliber players. Convincing the best players in the greater NYC area to eschew national powerhouses for a chance to return the Pirates to glory is hardly easy, but the Hall hasn’t even had a four-star player commit to Willard until Aquille Carr did this year and almost no one expects Carr to qualify. Also, where are all the kids from New Jersey? Three of the five New Jersey natives on the roster are transfers, and one other, Fuquan Edwin, wasn’t even Willard’s recruit. Maybe the best talent in the Garden State won’t want to play in South Orange, but certainly there are more gettable players from New Jersey who could make a greater impact than the four graduates of the Canarias Basketball Academy are making for the team currently.
3. Of course that whole paragraph was written before Villanova made me look stupid by basically standing around while Seton Hall jacked up and made a bunch of three-pointers on their way to pulling off the upset last night at home. It doesn’t change the fact that the Pirates are terrible, but I don’t know what it means that VU head coach Jay Wright basically acknowledged he expects his team to struggle defending the three-ball followed by his team proving him prophetic. Seton Hall made 13 triples, including the game-winner from Edwin after Wildcats’ forward James Bell foolishly tried to split a double-team, and the Wildcats handed back all of the good will they earned by beating Marquette over the weekend. It’s hard to know what to make of the Wildcats’ resume at that — they have a trio of excellent conference wins, but they also have a number of truly terrible losses. If they can win one of their two remaining games against Pittsburgh and Georgetown and then perform admirably in the Big East Tournament, they can probably sneak in, but games like Monday night certainly don’t help.
4. Speaking of teams who are making it difficult for themselves, the Cincinnati Bearcats have been turning in a series of stinkers that culminated in whatever that was called Sunday against Notre Dame. As The Dagger astutely points out, plenty of UC’s struggles can be blamed on the injury to point guard Cashmere Wright, who was basically acting as half of their offense while they were winning and has been far less explosive and dangerous since coming back. Now they are in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament despite a resume full of solid wins both within and outside of the conference. They have just three conference games left, and considering winning in Louisville next Monday seems nearly impossible at this point, they need to beat Connecticut and South Florida to feel truly comfortable. But frankly, the team isn’t going to win if they can’t find some offense, and that firepower isn’t coming if Wright doesn’t magically get healthy soon.
5. After its big Saturday road win over Syracuse, there are some willing to argue that Georgetown is good enough to be a No.1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and that the Hoyas have the resume to back it up. But if I am John Thompson III, I am doing everything in my power to make sure my team comes to play Wednesday against UConn. The Huskies have nothing to lose in this game and they will be in front of a raucous Gampel Pavilion crowd ready to greet Georgetown for maybe the last time. The Hoyas should feel really good about where they sit, though. No one thought they were going to be this good this season, especially after they lost Greg Whittington, but now they are clearly one of the best eight teams in the country.  Still, if they start feeling too good about themselves, the Huskies are going to punch them in the mouth on Wednesday night.

Joe Dzuback is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Louisville’s convincing win over Seton Hall tonight in Newark.

Louisville paid Seton Hall a visit and the Pirates hung with the top five team for the first 28 minutes of action, but depth, experience (and yes) talent prevailed as the Cardinals used a 12-2 run, fueled by Luke Hancock’s two three-pointers, to establish a lead and go on to beat the Pirates, 73-58.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. All you need is two really quick guards and a really, really big guy under your basket. And Rick Pitino. The Cardinal guards applied a press on virtually every Seton Hall possession that so harassed point guards Aaron Cosby (a sophomore) and freshman Tom Maayan that the two had to dribble the ball over midcourt on over half of the Pirates’ possessions. Passes to the center or sidelines that broke the press left the ball-handler (often Brandon Mobley or Edwin Fuquan) with the task of trying to get by 6’ 11” Cardinal center Gorgui Dieng. The Hall managed only six points off fast breaks tonight, whereas the Cardinals scored 21 points off 16 Seton Hall turnovers.
2. Kevin Willard learned defense at the knee of the master… Rick Pitino. Through the first five possessions of the second half Louisville led 36-34. Having had 41 possessions apiece, Louisville’s defense had allowed Seton Hall 0.84 points per possession, while the Hall had yielded 0.88 points per possession. The Cardinals had forced 10 turnovers while the Pirates had forced six Louisville turnovers of their own. Willard was a member of Rick Pitino’s Louisville staff for six years before taking his first head coaching job at Iona. Willard compiled a 45-49 record with the Gaels before moving over to Seton Hall.
3. Brandon Mobley is a year away. Although the Pirates’ sophomore forward scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, he faded during crucial stretches of the second half. “He’s a sophomore. I expected to use him for 20-24 good minutes this season, not 33-36 minutes,” explained Kevin Willard who went on to describe the sophomore forward as “the most talented player on the squad” but prone to losing focus after playing too many minutes.

Louisville’s Pressure Defense is Always a Star of the Game

Stars of the Game.  Gorgui Dieng and the Louisville defense. The junior all-conference candidate logged a double-double, scoring 16 points while he gathered 14 boards. Playing in only his third game back from a broken wrist, Dieng logged 33 minutes as he blocked three shots, dished two assists and intercepted a post pass to trigger one of Louisville’s fast breaks. The Cardinal defense forced 16 turnovers, credited to 12 steals and a pressure defense that forces numerous bad passes.

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Joe Dzuback is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report after Saturday’s games at the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational featuring Seton Hall, LIU, Manhattan, and South Carolina.

Down by eight to Long Island University just over seven minutes into the game, coach Kevin Willard, hanging a threat of two-a-days over Christmas if the Hall’s backcourt did not start to look to the frontcourt before launching shots, brought sophomore Brandon Mobley back into the game to team with sophomore Eugene Teague. Mobley, who seemed more focused in Saturday’s game, combined with Teague to shut down the lane and sweep the Blackbirds off the boards. Less than two minutes later, LIU freshman forward Khalil Murphy picked up his second foul, and with the score tied 19-all and Murphy grabbing the pine, the Pirates worked the ball inside to Mobley who dunked and started a 10-2 run. Five minutes later LIU senior forward Jamal Olasewere picked up his second foul and joined Murphy on the sideline, while Seton Hall, faced with little opposition inside, extended its lead even more with a 19-8 run that virtually closed out the game even before the intermission. A composed and confident Pirates squad duplicated their first half effort, posting a 12-point second half advantage to close out the Invitational with an 89-59 victory.

Kevin Willard’s crew is off to an outstanding start (US Presswire)

Jamal Olasewere, forced to shoulder an even larger share of the Blackbirds’ offense with the injury to senior forward Julian Boyd, led all scorers with 27, nine points better than his season average. Freshman forward E. J. Reed, who will, “have to grow up fast” according to first year coach Fred Perri, chipped in with eight points. Meanwhile, Mobley, whose mid-week slumps according to Willard are attributed to his concern for academics, paced the Pirates with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Five other Pirates posted double figure points totals in a well-distributed scoring blitz.

The Pirates raise their record to 10-2 with this victory. With one more non-conference game to play before they open conference play at DePaul, Seton Hall is poised to begin conference play with a record that nearly matches last season’s promising 11-1 start. Whether the Pirates are poised to become one of this season’s surprise teams in the Big East remains to be seen, but the early returns are promising.

The season is only a month and some change old but it is never too early to check in on the progress of some of the conference’s most heralded and surprising freshmen. While young bloods like Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State and Nik Stauskas of Michigan have made an instant splash on the college scene, the Big East’s crop of rookies have made a more muted impact.  There was no methodology when it came to selecting which freshmen to analyze, so we just chose 10 of the most interesting freshmen to follow. Of course, conference play hasn’t even begun yet, so evaluating their body of work is somewhat of a trivial venture. But don’t you worry, we will be back later in the year to check in on some of these players again.

DaJuan Coleman (Syracuse)

The Learning Curve For Prized Freshman DaJuan Coleman Has Been Steeper Than Some Expected

It is still far too early to make a judgment call on what type of player DaJuan Coleman can become this season. But those who expected the highly touted forward to come in and immediately start anchoring the paint for the Orange probably need to adjust their expectations. To his credit, he seems to be getting better each game. But in six games against subpar competition, Coleman hasn’t seen much playing time and has shown only promise and inconsistency when he does play.

Anyone with eyes can see the wide-bodied forward is going to be an excellent rebounder and considering he is averaging 5.3 rebounds per game in just 16.3 minutes of playing time, he is already on his way to validating that obvious observation. But he isn’t a shot-blocker which is fine so long as he is an efficient scorer in the post and an elite rebounder. He has an impressive skill set and nimble feet for a man his size, but the ball rarely makes it back out to the perimeter if it goes to Coleman in the post, and he will need to take better care of it and make smarter decisions if he wants to continue to receive looks in the paint. His downfall offensively may be his sketchy free-throw shooting (55 FT%) as he is the type of strong interior player destined to draw a lot of fouls, and if he can even make his free throws at a 66 percent clip, he will be a much more productive scorer.

Jakarr Sampson (St. John’s)

It should come as no surprise that Sampson has adjusted to college basketball quickly because the Akron native was supposed to be suiting up for the Red Storm last season before lackluster academics forced him to return to prep school. But now that he is on the roster, he has wasted little time making his mark on both ends of the floor and is the clear front-runner for conference rookie of the year honors. The lanky 6’8″ forward already had a well-deserved reputation as a sensational dunker, but his game is more nuanced than that. Sampson has thus far started all nine of the team’s games, averaging 30.8 minutes per game, and he ranks second on the team in scoring (13.8 PPG), first in rebounding (6.6 RPG), and second in blocks (1.6 BPG).

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1. After a surprising run to the NCAA Tournament last season, South Florida and coach Stan Heath earned some respect from the league this season when the Big East coaches ranked the Bulls eighth in their annual preseason poll. But if they want to continue to earn that respect, they will need to play a lot better this season then they did Monday against Division II Eckerd College. The Bulls won, 74-65, but that is far too close for comfort for an exhibition game and they were outrebounded by their opponent, 42-34. Raw rebounding statistics aren’t always the most telling statistic, but the Bulls are far too athletic and strong up front to be losing that battle to an inferior opponent anyway. It is worth noting that sophomore guard Anthony Collins was limited in the scrimmage because of a tendon issue. If I was Heath, I’d hope that Collins is going to stay healthy all season, because if he can’t, last season might prove to be a fluke after all.
2. Lost amidst all the destruction and tragedy that was caused by Hurricane Sandy last week is the fact that the storm affected Big East college basketball programs and players as well. And while the minor issues basketball teams deal with should be secondary to the real victims of this tragedy, it is worth pointing out that Sandy didn’t exactly make things easy on the college basketball coaches operating in the Tri-State area. Two of those coaches, Kevin Willard of Seton Hall and Mike Rice of Rutgers, coach and live in New Jersey, where the storm hit very hard. Rice, who lives in Monmouth County, got the worst of it, and after initially taunting the storm on Twitter, he and his family quickly evacuated before his house flooded. Willard only lost power (and apparently water for a little while) for multiple days, which isn’t exactly fun either, but now both coaches are back at work. We are as amazed and astonished that these two men barely missed a beat after a historic storm as we are glad that both coaches and their families are now safe and sound. Our best wishes go out to everyone affected by this terrible natural disaster.
3. The weather forecast for San Diego on Friday afternoon predicts a high probability of wind and rain, spoiling plans for Syracuse and San Diego State to play on board the USS Midway. But rather than move the game indoors as initially rumored, the schools and event organizers just moved the game back to Sunday afternoon so that the “Battle of the Midway” is still scheduled to take place. This wins the award for most banal news of the day, but players still get a fun experience, military members on the aircraft carrier get to enjoy themselves, and fans at home get a good match-up between ranked teams — so let’s just all be glad the game will still be played.
4. We’ve got plenty of love for the good work of Mike Waters at the Syracuse Post-Standard. We also have plenty of love for Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. These guys are two of the best Big East beat writers on the job and so since we gave Fittipaldo some love on Monday by recommending his favorite Pitt basketball memories as the team prepares to leave the conference, it is only right that we show Waters the same love by recommending his read on the five top moments in Big East conference history as his team prepares to leave the conference. From the six-overtime thriller in the Big East Tournament to the 1985 NCAA Final Four, Waters gives some excellent moments all their due respect in a fun read. You will hear a lot more from these two guys all season long.
5. I have been waiting all preseason for the inevitable “Jack Cooley ready to emerge as a leader for Notre Dame” story and it finally came, like an early Christmas gift, on Monday. First of all, great lede from reporter Mark Lazerus, as you gotta love a well-executed pun. Second, Cooley made this story inevitable by being so easy to root for. He emerged as a true interior stud in conference play last season and is a preseason first team all-conference selection this year. He also became a more vocal leader, improved his work ethic, and is now poised to lead the Fighting Irish to another excellent season. He still doesn’t look like a tremendous athlete, and he probably isn’t going to throw down any thunderous dunks anytime soon, but he is going to be a very effective player for Mike Brey’s team this season.

While most relish the onset of Summer, college basketball junkies do not. Most of the news surrounding the sport is recruiting rumors and commitments or injuries and transfer news. In order to help keep folks up-to-date on what their teams are doing during the summer, we put together these summer capsules for each team in the conference. Next up is Seton Hall.

1. Is it possible that assistant Shaheen Holloway hasn’t used up all of his eligibility yet?

Jordan Theodore Is Gone And He Left Behind A Gaping Hole At Point Guard (US Presswire)

We are joking, although I wouldn’t put it past an ambitious Pirates’ fan to at least do a little digging into the matter given the looming issue at point guard for the program. Say what you want about the importance of Herb Pope, but there should be no argument that senior point guard Jordan Theodore was the team’s most important player last season. He was one of the best point guards in the conference and now he is gone, leaving behind lots and lots of questions for Holloway and coach Kevin Willard to find the answers for. Texas-transfer Sterling Gibbs would have helped answer some of those questions, but his appeal to play right away was denied. Sean Grennan also might have helped with depth, but he transferred to Fairfield to find easier playing time, and now the program will have to rely on the duo of Freddie Wilson and incoming freshman Tom Maayan to run the offense. Wilson is the most experienced, if you count averaging eight minutes per game last season as a freshman as experience. Maayan is a good pass-first guard, but he is coming off ACL surgery and may need time to get acclimated. The Pirates’ coaching staff has been staying upbeat and saying all the right things about the position this summer, but it’s hardly a secret that that is an area of concern for the team that needs to be fixed right away, otherwise this young Pirates team is going to stop before they get started.

2. Transfers are going to be the key to the Pirates’ success

When you lose your team’s top two players to graduation you need to do something to plug that gaping hole, and luckily for Willard and his staff, they didn’t have to look too far considering that two candidates were already on the roster and another wasn’t far away. Transfers Brian Oliver and Gene Teague  sat out last season due to NCAA rules and Kyle Smyth earned the graduate exemption to play right away, so all three are ready to go this season and you better believe Willard will deploy them immediately. Oliver is a New Jersey native who came to the Pirates by way of Georgia Tech and he is quite the chucker (attempting at least 4.5 three-pointers per game in both seasons for the Yellow Jackets), but if he can shoot consistently he should be a dangerous offensive weapon for the Pirates. Another New Jersey native, Teague is a wide-bodied Southern Illinois transfer who should slide right into the spot left vacant by Pope. He is a decent offensive post threat and is a capable rebounder. If he can be more careful with the basketball he should prove to be a reliable big man in the conference. Smyth left Iona as the school’s most lethal shooter and despite the logjam at shooting guard, the senior should find playing time because of his long-range prowess. All three of these players will play meaningful minutes because Willard doesn’t really have a choice, and if they can contribute during those minutes, the Pirates will at least be a pesky opponent.

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1. With three weeks having passed since Kentucky snipped the nets in victory we here at RTC Big East are officially in withdrawal and already cannot wait until the 2012-13 season tips off.  However, we understand that things tend to slow down a bit over the summer months and will just have to cope. That said there will continue to be plenty to discuss from week-to-week so we are happy to introduce the Big East Weekly Five.  Think of it as the Morning Five’s lazy cousin. You know, that cousin who doesn’t show up as much as some of the other relatives, but always seems to grace you with his presence if there is free beer?  The Weekly Five will continue throughout the summer and its goal is to provide similar content as the Big East Morning Fives that you have come know and cherish. In keeping with the desire of many to slim down for summer, there will just be less of us to love.  Still, just because we are getting lean and mean does not mean cutting back on the Fresca!
2. Recruiting is the name of the game in the spring and summer, especially if you are St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin who coming into the weekend had five open scholarships for next year burning a hole in his pocket. What a difference a few days makes as Lavin and St. John’s scored three solid commitments when Harvard transfer Max Hooper joined Monroe (junior) College teammates Marco Bourgault and Orlando Sanchez in pledging for the Red Storm. All three players were on the Queens campus over the weekend — Lavin just needed to seal the deal. Bourgault and Hooper are shooters who will be tasked to help St. John’s stretch the floor with their ability to hit it from deep. The 6’6” Bourgault averaged 10.9 points per game for Monroe and made 42% of his three-point attempts. Hooper, also 6’6”, appeared in just two games while at Harvard and did not make the only shot he attempted. Fittingly both shooters will have three years of eligibility, although Hooper will have to first sit out a season under NCAA transfer rules. The 6’9″ Sanchez may represent Lavin’s biggest coup of the week as he fought off Big East rival Providence and the always persistent Ed Cooley in a battle for the big man. Sanchez will have two years of eligibility remaining.
3. Seton Hall appears to have filled the significant void vacated by graduating star point guard Jordan Theodore as Texas transfer and Seton Hall Prep alum Sterling Gibbs will be coming home to suit up for the Pirates. The addition of Gibbs solidifies Seton Hall’s lead guard position, but the real kicker for head coachKevin Willard is that he may have Gibbs at the controls this coming season. Gibbs has applied for a hardship waiver that, if granted, would allow him to avoid sitting out next season per normal NCAA transfer rules.  The basis for the hardship waiver request is reported to be a family member’s illness. In Gibbs’ freshman season in Austin, he played in 30 games averaging 2.6 points and 0.7 assists in 7.5 minutes per game for the Longhorns.
4. While players appear to be headed to St. John’s in droves, the exit door at Connecticut is getting an intense workout. Faced with the reality of not being allowed to play in next season’s Big East and NCAA Tournaments due to his program’s failure to meet NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) standards, sophomore forward Roscoe Smith became the latest to leave the program when he indicated he will transfer over the weekend. Smith, who averaged 4.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per game this past season, joins fellow transfers Alex Oriakhi, who has since committed to Missouri, and Michael Bradley, along with Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb who declared for the NBA Draft.  Bradley, however, may ultimately opt to remain in Storrs as his primary reason for requesting a release from his scholarship is to explore options around moving closer to his ill grandmother.  The 6’10″ forward was scheduled to meet head coachJim Calhoun yesterday to discuss his future.
5. The NCAA defended its position on Academic Progress Rate (APR) guidelines when it responded to a letter written by six members of Connecticut’s legislature that said banning the Huskies from NCAA Tournament play next year represented too harsh a penalty. The crux of the letter echoed the university’s appeal-losing position, stating that the APR calculations are not fair because they incorporate performance dating back four years when no one on the current roster was on the team. NCAA spokesman Bob Williams countered that the standards have been in place since 2006 and Connecticut knew the standard by which they and all other schools and teams were being measured.

You May Not Have College Hoops For Awhile, But You Can Always Have Fresca

Game recaps are boring. If you want to read them, search your local newspaper or the Associated Press. With the Big East Tournament upon us, we figured we would try to offer four thoughts about several of the key games throughout the week.

South Florida took care of business against Villanova tonight and I am only one man with a partner on a family vacation, so I have to pick and choose which game to analyze. I chose the game with juicer storylines. Louisville held off a late rally from Seton Hall that left the Pirates with a lot to worry about on Sunday, so let’s dive right in.

1. When everyone is playing hard, the Cardinals are a really tough team to score against.

This isn’t exactly news to anyone who has watched the team play even once, but Rick Pitino‘s club is full of long, athletic defenders who love to wreak havoc in the passing lanes and contest every shot. And that doesn’t even include the rim-protecting ability that center Gorgui Dieng brings to the defense. According to Pitino, the team had 39 deflections and Dieng had six blocks and 10 rebounds as they harassed the Pirates into 17 turnovers and a 3-19 night from behind the three-point line. The win sets up an exciting matchup with ninth-ranked Marquette in the quarterfinals. The two teams met only once this season, a January tilt in Milwaukee when the Golden Eagles erased a big early lead and won semi-handily. I am going to go out on a limb and say tomorrow’s game will have a little more drama.

Where Does Tonight's Loss Leave Seton Hall on the NCAA Board?

2. If West Virginia’s Kevin Jones went out with a bang, Jordan Theodore and Herb Pope did the opposite.

Theodore admitted as much after the game, saying the duo “came up short tonight,” and that may be an understatement. If you also include the third Musketeer, Fuquan Edwin, the team’s three best players combined to go just 12-33 from the field and nobody got comfortable against the Cardinals’ stifling defense. Pope grabbed 15 rebounds, but the fact that he is undersized if magnified when he plays against Dieng, although it is tough for anybody to get a shot off against the conference’s best shot-alterer. Meanwhile, led by Peyton Siva‘s six steals, Louisville’s guard rotation was active and opportunistic on defense and neither Edwin nor Theodore got off many uncontested jumpers. Edwin will be back next year, but this may have been the last hurrah for seniors Pope and Theodore, and it would be a disappointing end to two great careers.

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Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s games.

The NCAA Tournament ‘bubble’ is in perpetual motion during this time of year, as it expands or shrinks based on small conference qualifiers and new teams move in and out seemingly every day. Tuesday night was no different, as 10 different teams on the Bubble Watch tracker were in action against quality opponents. Of those, a total of five teams had home games against Top 20 opponents — the kind of must-win games that can add a great victory to a resume and build confidence down the stretch. Seton Hall and Colorado State were the only two teams to come out victorious at home against their talented foes, and the circumstances surrounding the Pirates’ win against No. 9 Georgetown should seal the deal for the Hall as an NCAA Tournament team.

Jordan Theodore was Locked In for Seton Hall on Tuesday (Seton Hall Athletics)

The Pirates did on Tuesday what Northwestern, Mississippi State, and NC State couldn’t — beat a great team at home. Seton Hall dominated the Hoyas en route to a 73-55 win highlighted by senior Jordan Theodore’s massive night. The point guard had a career-high 29 points and five assists, including a perfect 5-5 night from behind the arc and 8-8 performance at the free-throw line. The Pirates have been up and down during Big East play, at one point losing six straight games and looking nothing like a postseason-worthy squad. But they’ve recovered to win four of their last five contests to improve to 19-9 overall and 8-8 in the Big East. Knocking off Georgetown was the team’s fourth top 50 win and propels them onto solid ground at the moment. With remaining games versus only Rutgers and at DePaul, the Hall is in great shape to simply take care of business against inferior opponents and lock up a bid.

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