Big East as Strong as Ever
January 07, 2003 03:33 PM | General
January 7, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Some basketball experts believe the Big East is having its finest year since 1995-96, when four teams finished ranked in the Top 25.
The Big East that season featured No. 3-rated Connecticut, No. 4 Georgetown, No. 10 Villanova and No. 15 Syracuse.
This year three teams are ranked in the Top 25 right now, and two more could make their way into the polls before the end of the month.
No. 3-rated Connecticut puts its unbeaten record on the line tonight at No. 9 Oklahoma in a game televised on ESPN2. The Huskies are one of three remaining undefeated teams.
No. 5 Pittsburgh and No. 6 Notre Dame are also firmly entrenched in the polls. The Panthers could move up after beating Notre Dame by 17 points Monday night. Notre Dame, with a 12-2 record, shouldn’t fall too far.
Syracuse is closing in on a position in the Top 25 and could get there by the end of this week with a pair of wins against Seton Hall and Boston College. The Orangemen have an 8-1 record and boast one of the nation’s most exciting players in 6-foot-7 freshman forward Carmelo Anthony.
Georgetown is also receiving Top 25 votes after its 8-1 start and has a key non-conference game at No. 1 Duke Wednesday night. The Hoyas lost their first game of the year at Virginia, 79-75 on Dec. 28.
News and Notes
* The two Big East men’s basketball divisions are somewhat unbalanced. The seven teams in the East division have combined for a 49-27 record as of this morning. The West division has a combined 60-17 record.
Unfortunately, West Virginia is a part of the West division.
* Did you realize that the top individual scoring effort in the Big East so far this year is just 34 points by Rutgers’ Jerome Coleman? He did that against Fordham on Dec. 11, 2002. Ranking second is Drew Schifino’s 33 points scored at Duquesne on Nov. 25, 2002.
* The top scoring performance for Big East women so far is 36 points by Miami’s Tamara James against Quinnipiac on Nov. 29, 2002.
* Here is something else interesting: seven of the Big East’s top 10 men’s scorers are underclassmen. Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony continues to lead the league in scoring with an average of 24.9 points per game. Boston College freshman Craig Smith is fifth with an average of 20.6 points per contest. The only seniors ranked in the top 10 are BC guard Troy Bell, St. John’s guard Marcus Hatten and Miami forward James Jones.
* The final Sagarin college football computer rankings have been released and West Virginia finished No. 23. Besides West Virginia, other Big East teams ranked in the Top 30 were No. 2 Miami, No. 21 Virginia Tech, No. 26 Pitt and No. 27 Boston College. That means 63 percent of the Big East ranked among the Top 30 football teams this year. That folks, is pretty good.
* I think Ohio State outplayed Miami, but it is unfortunate that one man had to decide the national championship. On the other hand, how could Ohio State complete a sideline pass on fourth and 14 in overtime against a very good Hurricane secondary?
* You may be seeing much more of former Mountaineer quarterback Major Harris. According to Yahoo! Shopping, Harris has signed a contract with DealbyAuction to handle all autographed items and public appearances. Harris will be doing autograph sessions, football camps and speaking engagements.
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| Coach Mike Carey is looking for his first break through victory Wednesday against nationally ranked Notre Dame Wednesday night. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
* Not only is the West Virginia women’s basketball team off to an impressive 10-0 start, but the Mountaineers under Mike Carey are beginning to develop a reputation for being unbeatable at the Coliseum. In Carey’s two seasons coaching the women’s team, West Virginia is 14-3 in home games.
* The West Virginia women’s team ranks prominently among NCAA leaders in several categories this week.
They are:
Three-point field goal percentage: 1st, 50.7
Field goal percentage: 3rd, 54.1
Scoring margin: 4th, +33.1
Scoring defense: 5th, 49.1 ppg.
Field goal percentage defense: 5th, 31.2
Scoring offense: 11th, 82.3 ppg.
Rebound margin: 25th, +8.9
Assists: 30th, 18.1 apg.
* On Monday, West Virginia coach John Beilein had the line of the year regarding his team's exceptional 8-3 start despite being out-rebounded in just about every game: "I'm running out of excuses for our wins," he joked.
* I know I’m breaking public relations rule No. 1 when I don’t respond to an email, but when someone sends me a note at halftime of the Continental Tire Bowl asking if the team was out too late the night before the game, don’t expect a reply.
* Here is another email I received after the bowl loss to Virginia:
How can a team that played nose-to-nose with Miami, Va. Tech, and Pitt look so inept against Virginia? It looked like we were outplayed, out-hustled and out-coached by a team of freshmen and sophomores. I thought and hoped that the coming of this year’s program under R. Rod would mark a time when WVU might lose to a team but we would no longer ever be embarrassed by any other football team in our play, intensity, or competitiveness. We were embarrassed! Do you think all of the positive momentum we had going into recruiting season has been harmed? I do. My best to you for the New Year?
Here is my response:
Is it possible that the other team played a better game? Could it be that Virginia was just simply better? Why does there always have to be an explanation for why a team lost?
And one more thing, why is it that people inevitably always get around to the subject of recruiting when they talk about the disappointment of losing a football game?
By the way, I’m assuming the question mark at the end of the last sentence wishing me the best for the New Year means it’s conditional.
* I read in one of the Pittsburgh papers recently that after winning the Insight Bowl and finishing 9-4 the Pitt football program is poised for a return to glory. I think this is the exact same article I read last year ... and the year before that ... and the year before that. One of these years it is probably going to come true.
* After watching a full day of Steelers coverage last Sunday on one of the local Pittsburgh television stations, I have come to these three conclusions about Steel City sports journalism:
1. Those on television aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are
2. There is way too much overlap in mediums (sportswriters on TV, television personalities writing newspaper columns, etc., etc.)
3. It seems like everyone is related
* One last observation about Pittsburgh television: keep the news anchors out of sports broadcasts. I love Ken Rice, he looks good in a suit and he’s great reading the news, but I don’t want to watch him trying to describe the 3-4 defense.
Could you imagine 30 years ago a scowling Paul Long doing the Pittsburgh Steelers pre-game show for WTAE? Now that is a frightening thought!
Speaking of frightening, I might change my mind about news people doing sports if “Chilly” Billy Cardille ever came out of retirement and found his way back to the anchor desk. For those of you not familiar with Cardille, he used to host the famed “Chiller Theater” on channel 11 in Pittsburgh.
* Former West Virginia defensive back Mike Logan’s season is done with a knee injury suffered in the third quarter of Pittsburgh’s come-from-behind win over Cleveland. Logan is Pittsburgh’s top backup at the safety position and is often used in nickel and dime situations.
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| Running back Amos Zereoue is one of seven former Mountaineer players still alive in the playoffs. (AP photo) |
* Ex-West Virginia running back Amos Zereoue made a surprise start against Cleveland in the AFC Wild Card game last Sunday and finished with 73 yards on 13 carries. In three career postseason games, Zereoue has rushed for 147 and scored three touchdowns on 41 carries.
* There are West Virginia University products on all four AFC teams remaining in the playoffs, meaning a Mountaineer will play in the Super Bowl for the second straight year and three out of the last four.
In 2000, John Thornton’s Tennessee Titans lost to the St. Louis Rams and last year, Mike Compton’s New England Patriots outlasted Marc Bulger’s St. Louis Rams, 20-17.
The teams with WVU players still left in the NFL playoffs:
New York Jets – Anthony Becht and Aaron Beasley
Pittsburgh Steelers – Amos Zereoue and Mike Logan
Tennessee Titans – John Thornton
Oakland Raiders – Jerry Porter and James Jett
* To the best of my knowledge, the only former Mountaineer playing in the National Basketball Developmental League is guard Greg Jones.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Washington, D.C., native is playing for the Greenville Groove, where he is averaging 9.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game in 20 games. His single game high is 17 points.
Jones has also played in both the United States Basketball League and the International Basketball League after finishing his career at West Virginia in 1998.
* Former Mountaineer Damian Owens is listed on the injured reserve list for the Gary Steelheads of the Continental Basketball Association.
* Word downstairs in the athletic equipment room has it that former Mountaineer standout forward Chris Moss is playing professionally in Israel.
* The 1950s was truly the Golden Era of West Virginia University basketball. The Mountaineers had the ninth-best winning percentage of any team that decade, the only such decade WVU has ever ranked in the top 10.
The top 10 by winning percentage in the 1950s:
1. Kentucky, .872
2. North Carolina State, .787
3. Seattle, .772
4. LaSalle, .763
4. Dayton, .763
6. Holy Cross, .754
7. Kansas State, .740
8. Connecticut, .736
9. West Virginia, .735
10. Louisville, .724
In subsequent decades, West Virginia has done reasonably well. In the 1960s the Mountaineers posted a 171-89 record for a .658 winning percentage. In the 1980s Gale Catlett led WVU to 217-96 record for a .696 winning percentage. The 1990s were not quite as good as the 1980s but still not too bad. WVU posted a 167-128 record for the decade for a .566 winning percentage.
The only bad period was the 1970s when West Virginia was one game under .500 with a 132-133 record.
For a 50-year span that’s some pretty good basketball.
* And finally, I’m right in the middle of Andy Rooney’s amusing Common Nonsense, a book full of short essays on topics of his choosing. One passage I thought interesting was his assertion that there are more people living today than there are dead in the entire history of the world.
If that is true and only about 20 percent of the people choose to be cremated, at what point will we run out of land for cemeteries?
It is something to think about.
Have a great week!
