Big East Notebook
January 15, 2003 11:53 AM | General
January 15, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Whether you like it or not, Tuesday night’s performance by No. 3-ranked Pitt ranks among the best ever produced by an opposing team in the WVU Coliseum.
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| Pitt guard Brandin Knight battles West Virginia's Joe Herber for the basketball during Tuesday night's game. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The efficient Panthers showed West Virginia fans why they are the nation’s third-ranked team by shooting an eye opening 63.3 percent from the field, including 55.6 percent from three-point distance. Pitt’s overall shooting percentage barely missed the WVU Coliseum opponent record of 67.3 percent done by Massachusetts in 1991.
Pitt’s efficient performance was comparable to No. 1-ranked Connecticut’s 80-45 rout of West Virginia back on Jan. 9, 1999.
Panther starters Donatas Zavackas (6-7), Ontario Lett (4-4), Julius Page (6-9) and Jaron Brown (6-9) combined to make 22-of-29 field goal attempts. Although Pitt’s top player Brandin Knight made just two-of-eight shots, he handed out a game-high eight assists and grabbed five rebounds.
West Virginia coach John Beilein thinks Pitt has all the ingredients needed to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, “In my coaching tenure I’ve coached against Kentucky when they won the national championship, Duke when they were the defending national champion, Connecticut when they won it that year and this team is as efficient as any of those teams.”
Pitt coach Ben Howland also had plenty of complimentary things to say about the rebuilding job John Beilein is doing at West Virginia, “They are so much further along than we were in year one,’’ said Howland. “They’re going to beat people in our conference, I know they will.”
The Panthers are sitting on top the Big East West division with a 3-0 league mark. Pitt, 13-1 overall, has key divisional games coming up at home this weekend against Syracuse and then a date with Georgetown on Jan. 25.
Speaking of Georgetown, it appears after Tuesday’s loss at Seton Hall that Hoya coach Craig Esherick has more to be concerned about than just poor officiating. After Sunday’s narrow, 84-82 overtime victory over West Virginia Esherick spent five minutes bashing league officials for letting teams beat up on his star player Mike Sweetney -- this despite the fact that the 6-foot-8, 260-pound forward matched his career high with 35 points, pulled down 19 rebounds and went to the foul line 13 times against a much smaller Mountaineer team.
Sweetney was once again Georgetown’s top scorer with 22 points against Seton Hall, but the Hoyas got a combined five points from starting guards Tony Bethel and Gerald Riley.
Esherick didn’t have any complaints about officiating Tuesday night.
"I thought the officials were very good today," Esherick said. "Believe me, they did not cause us to shoot two for 20 from the three-point line, did not cause us to travel every other time down the floor in the first half, didn't cause (John) Allen to get all those rebounds, didn't cause us not to play defense on Allen."
Allen scored 27 points to help Seton Hall capture its first win of the season and improve its overall record to 6-7. The Pirates, which could be battling West Virginia and Rutgers for the final Big East tournament spot from the West division, plays host to Miami this weekend.
Seton Hall coach Louis Orr also had some choice words for officiating after last Sunday’s loss at Notre Dame. He, too, didn’t have anything derogatory to say about officiating after his team’s victory, "We told our players to make the officials have to make calls," he said.
Syracuse made a statement Monday night with a 76-69 victory over No. 11-ranked Missouri. The Orangemen have now won 11 straight games after opening the season with a loss to Memphis and are 10-0 at the Carrier Dome.
Against Missouri, forward Hakim Warrick scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and freshman Carmelo Anthony scored 16 and pulled down 11 boards for the No. 25-rated Orangemen.
"We made a big step up in our defense today," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "Our defense inside was the key to the game. This was a good win. Missouri's a good basketball team. We did what we had to do tonight."
A Big East showdown at Pitt on Saturday at noon awaits Syracuse.
Notre Dame lifted its overall record to 14-2 with a 68-57 victory over Rutgers Tuesday night. The Knights actually led the game 47-45 before Irish guard Matt Carroll took over the game. He finished with 25 points and sophomore Chris Thomas added 19 and seven assists for the Golden Domers.
Notre Dame interrupts conference play with a trip to Kentucky on Saturday.
Rutgers lost its third straight game and is now 0-2 in league play. The Knights play host to Villanova on Sunday.
In the East division, Connecticut rebounded from its first loss of the season at Oklahoma and a concerning overtime win against Miami last Saturday to defeat Virginia Tech 83-65 Tuesday night. However, the score wasn’t indicative of the trouble UConn had with the hapless Hokies. Tech led at halftime 43-39 before Connecticut finally got things going.
Ben Gordon scored 24 points and Emeka Okafor added 19 points and 12 rebounds to help the Huskies improve to 2-0 in league play. Like Notre Dame, UConn steps outside of the Big East this Saturday to take on North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Virginia Tech lost its third straight game and is 0-2 in conference play. The Hokies play host to Providence Saturday night.
There are just two games involving Big East teams schedule for Wednesday night. St. John’s plays host to Villanova in a battle of East divisional teams while Providence takes on Louisiana Lafayette in a non-conference game.
St. John’s is coming off a win at UCLA last Saturday to improve its overall record to 8-4. The Red Storm is 1-1 in conference action, having defeated Seton Hall and losing to Providence.
Villanova has played one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the Big East and has managed a 9-5 overall record, including a 2-0 mark in conference play.
Miami completes its three-game road swing to open Big East play with a trip to Seton Hall Saturday. The Hurricanes (7-6, 0-2) have dropped both road games at West Virginia and in overtime at Connecticut.
After starting the season 6-2, Boston College has lost four straight games to Kent State, Providence, Northeastern and Syracuse to even its record to 6-6. The Eagles are looking for their first conference victory of the season at home against West Virginia this Sunday, but must first play at N.C. State on Thursday night.
News and Notes
* The top five teams in the Big East in scoring defense are in the West division. Pittsburgh is first, allowing 56.5 points per game. The Panthers are followed by Rutgers (62.4), Georgetown (63.0), Notre Dame (63.2) and West Virginia (65.8)
* Pittsburgh is the only team in the league that is not currently starting a freshman. West Virginia is starting three freshmen and two sophomores.
* Georgetown’s Mike Sweetney and Pitt’s Ontario Lett were named Big East co-players of the week for the week of Jan. 13. Syracuse forward Carmelo Anthony and Villanova guard Randy Foye were named Big East rookies of the week.
* After Syracuse’s 76-69 win over No. 11 Missouri, the Big East is now 6-7 against nationally ranked teams outside of the league this season. Notre Dame has a chance to even the record Saturday at Kentucky.
* Three Big East teams are ranked this week in the latest ESPN/USA Today coaches poll released Monday. Pitt is ranked third, Connecticut is sixth and Notre Dame is ninth. In the AP poll, Pitt is third, Connecticut sixth, Notre Dame 10th and Syracuse is 25th.
* Big East individual leaders as of Wednesday, Jan. 15:
Scoring: Carmelo Anthony (Syracuse) 23.5
Rebounding: Omeka Okafor (Connecticut) 11.8
Field goal percentage: Craig Smith (Boston College) 65.0
Assists: Chris Thomas (Notre Dame) 7.3
Free throw percentage: Gerry McNamara (Syracuse) 89.7
Steals: Troy Bell (Boston College) 3.0
Three-point field goal percentage: James Jones (Miami) 49.1
Blocked shots: Omeka Okafor (Connecticut) 4.9
* Remaining games this week:
Wednesday
Villanova at St. John’s
Louisiana Lafayette at Providence
Thursday
Boston College at North Carolina State
Saturday
St. John’s at Georgetown
Syracuse at Pitt
Notre Dame at Kentucky
Miami at Seton Hall
Providence at Virginia Tech
Connecticut at North Carolina
Sunday
Villanova at Rutgers
West Virginia at Boston College
