This year's "powerhouse" conference in NCAA basketball has performed rather poorly in the "big dance." Minus the teams that have had to play each other, for the inevitable elimination, Big East play has been nothing short of horrendous. Everything that the public has thought about Big East Basketball has been proven null and void from the performances and lack thereof during tournament play. Eight of the 11 qualifying teams in the Big East (those not-so fortunate: Louisville, Georgetown and Villanova) made it out of the 64 team round, but the play of teams in that round and in the round since has been all but pathetic. Both Georgetown and Villanova appeared not to have even showed up to play basketball, and Louisville lost a heart breaker in the final seconds against Morehead State... Surprisingly enough, in the ensuing week, coach Rick Pitino (Louisville) is on the March Madness halftime shows analyzing the play of other teams participating in March Madness. Honestly speaking, both Louisville and 'Nova should have won their respective games and advanced to the next round... VCU ran Georgetown out of the gym, just as they did last night against Purdue.
West Virginia played well in their first game of the tournament, subduing a hot-handed Clemson team that many thought had a shot at doing some decent damage in the tournament. Despite playing well against Clemson, in the following game against Kentucky, the Mountaineers just couldn't get it going against the Wildcat defense.
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, O Pittsburgh!!! Congratulations on being the first number one seed to be bounced out of the tournament. Being an alumnus of Pitt, I cant help but laugh at the irony in which "we" lost that game. For those familiar with the situation, I want people to stop blaming the Coach Jamie Dixon for having his players lined up on the free throw line. Maybe he thought it would have been tough on Gil Brown to make the free throw with only opposing players on the line... I don't know, but what I do know is this: Robinson is at Pittsburgh to play basketball, keeping that in mind, he should have been aware of the situation and know that the chance of Butler making that shot from under Pitt's goal with .8 seconds left is 1 in 899 Billion. Don't blame the coach, blame the player that commits what will arguably be the silliest play in this year's March Madness. -----> More on Pittsburgh, they played sloppy in their tournament opener against UNC-Ashville, and the sloppiness continued against Butler; not surprised in the fact that that game ended up going to the wire. It goes to show you that if you let a team hang around long enough, and you increase your opportunity to go home.
Marquette and Syracuse both did well in their round of 64 openers against Xavier and Indiana State, respectively, which resulted in a head-to-head clash against one another in one of the most competitive games that the tournament has seen thus far. Both teams played with heart and desire, but Marquette went for the hat-trick beating Syracuse for a total of three times in as much games this season and as a result, heading to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since Dwayne Wade took them there in 2003.
Another pair of Big East teams dueled for an opportunity to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, the Bearcats of Cincinnati and the UConn Huskies... Cincy showed out with their impressive 15 point victory over Missouri and were heading into the round of the 32 with a head of steam. They then had to compete against Big East Champions, Kemba Walker and the Huskies, after their 29 point rout of Bucknell. Anyone would have been intimidated after watching a team maul their opponent the way UConn picked apart Bucknell, however Cincy did play a respectable game and only ended up losing by eleven.
Number 2 seed Notre Dame played well against Akron in the 64 team round, but it got embarassed against an energetic Florida State Seminole team that seems to be out for blood. The Seminoles started out on top and continued to pound away at "Fighting Irish" team that lost their fight early.
All in all, the Big East has played badly and has failed to live up to its hype as a powerhouse conference in the tournament. Do not be surprised if UConn or Marquette make it to the Final Four, but be very surprised if they both do!!!
Kemba Walker is going to make a serious impact on this tournament. He is playing like a man possessed, and I fear for any team that gets in way!!!
Samson X
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