Leave a Comment by RAY FLORIANI and MATT WHITFIELDNEW YORK CITY – Day two at the 2010 Big East Tournament is complete and one thing is definitely certain, we will have a new champion. The scores: Georgetown 69, South Florida 49Marquette 57, St. John’s 55Notre Dame 68, Seton Hall 56Cincinnati 69, Louisville 66 Ray’s ten points of emphasis from Wednesday… 1. Georgetown did it the old fashioned way. They defended the heck out of South Florida. Dominique Jones of USF had 21 points to lead all scorers but the Bulls outstanding junior talent had no one to lend a helping hand. Credit the Hoya defense that forced South Florida into a 29% afternoon from the field. 2. Stan Heath said after the DePaul game where USF missed all 8 three point attempts, his club can hit the outside shot and would have to against the Hoyas. For the record USF’s first and only trey was buried with 20 seconds to play and the outcome well in hand. The Bulls were 1 of 10 beyond the arc. One of 18 for two days or 6% for those scoring at home. 3. Heartbreaker for St. John’s. On the other hand Marquette, under the tutelage of Buzz Williams, seems to thrive on these ‘white knucklers’ as the late Al McGuire called them. That experience and the performances of Lazar Hayward, 20 points and 4 of 4 beyond the arc, came in handy. 4. A year ago St. John’s won a first round game then was wiped out in round two by Marquette. The Red Storm managed only 17 first half points and trailed by 10 at the break. Norm Roberts’ club got right back in it and gave Marquette a run to the wire. Ray Floriani meets with some NBE Basketball Report fans during Wednesday night's Big East Tournament action at Madison Square Garden.5. Seton Hall led 11-2 early. Their pressure was causing Notre Dame problems and the Pirates were dictating a fast tempo. Gradually the Irish settled down and with the entrance of Luke Harangody, the game changed in ND’s favor. Harangody was a force scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards in 24 minutes. The Pirates did not have an answer in the paint for the Irish senior center. 6. No excuse but Seton Halll coach Bobby Gonzalez felt fatigue was a factor. The 109-106 game the night before took a toll as did playing four games in six days with the two Big East Tournament games included. 7. Key to the Hall-ND game was tempo. Notre Dame has played very well of late since slowing the pace and eating clock each possession. That slower tempo kept the Hall out of rhythm especially when they got back on offense. The change to the slower pace was necessitated by Harangody’s injury in February. With him back ND coach Mike Brey has no designs to go back and push the pace again. 8. Louisville, the defending Big East champs, is one and done. Cincinnati for the second consecutive night sealed the game on the line. Deonta Vaughn hit two free throws then stripped Edgar Sosa while attempting a potential game tying three on the other end. Bearcats have a tough order in West Virginia in the quarterfinals. Still, Mick Cronin’s club rebounds well and two straight nights found a way to win. 9. Ground Hog Day, Big East style. Georgetown will meet Syracuse in the quarterfinals for the 13th time in big East Tournament history. Hoyas were swept by the Orange this year but John Thompson III feels his club is at its best right now from a physical and emotional standpoint. 10. Tom Herrion, assocoate head coach of Pittsburgh, was behind yours truly scouting the ND-Seton Hall game. Discussing Notre Dame I noted they will be a tough out. “Everyone in this conference is when you get to this tournament,” Herrion noted. Well put. 10 A. Had to inquire. Asked a Cincinnati cheerleader what a Bearcat is. She explained it was in the possum family and “kind of an ugly animal.” The things you learn at the Big East.————————————-Matt Whitfield’s Quotebook from Wednesday Night at the Big East Tournament:“Well I couldn’t agree with him more. I know that for some reason, there’s all these gurus and experts that listen to what everybody says. And they say well, ‘if Notre Dame wins they’re in. If Seton Hall wins, they’re in. But if Notre Dame doesn’t win, they’re still in anyway’. – Bobby Gonzalez on Mike Brey’s statement following the game that the Irish/Pirate game was not a ‘play-in’ game and SHU should remain on the NCAA Tournament board.———–“Coming into this game tonight our RPI was higher than Notre Dame. Our strength of schedule was higher than Notre Dame. We both have three wins against the top 50. And we beat them head-to-head. So I’m not quite sure where they got that from on their resume and who they thought had a better profile. We had no bad losses and people thought we had three bad losses. Now they had 21 wins; we had 19 wins. But we played a tougher schedule.” – Bobby Gonzalez comparing his team’s resume to that of ND.———-**For the record, while both have three top 50 wins, the Irish own 11 against the RPI top 100 while SHU has 6. Not enough good wins by the Pirates…)———–“Well, Cincinnati deserves a lot of credit because we got them to take a lot of difficult shots, but they kept getting put-backs and they won the game on offensive rebounding and they just really took us to the woodshed on the backboard. It’s been a little bit of a weakness for us all year and it showed against that basketball team. That was our number one focus to get on the backboard. Give them credit. We didn’t get the job done.” – Rick Pitino on UC’s domination on the boards.———-“We know we’re in the tournament. We won 11 Big East games and we beat the No. 1 ranked team in the country. That has nothing to do with rebounding the basketball.We were playing for a good seed. Now were not going to get one. So you can’t expect to win giving up 28 offensive rebounds.” – Rick Pitino———–“If you can believe it we called a timeout to foul him at halfcourt. Deonta claims he was fouling him the whole time. I was scared he was going to finally foul him when the shot attempt went up. I was going to be the laughing stock nationally. So we were all kidding about it in the lockeroom. We were all wondering what he was doing.” – Mick Cronin on the final defensive possession strategy.———-“The only other good thing is one of us gets to move on. If it wasn’t for those guys I wouldn’t be here today. I have a great deal of love and affection for both of them. I need to win more. I’m younger. Hopefully they take that into account. They are both in the NCAA Tournament. We need to keep winning. Hopefully Coach Huggins will feel my pain and help me out.” – Cronin on facing former mentors Rick Pitino and Bob Huggins in the Big East Tournament.————“I’m sure that the bubble talk will begin again. We’ve been through all of that. Our guys really, it’s funny, they’ll tell you, they’re not even interested in that. They want to win the Big East Tournament, the Big East Championship. That’s what they’re here for.” – Mick Cronindocument.write(');Share and Enjoy: