2011 Big East Basketball: Big East Basketball Weekly Recap

Scores

Tuesday, January 3

Seton Hall 75, Connecticut 63

Louisville 73, St. John's 58

Wednesday, January 4

Syracuse 87, Providence 73

West Virginia 85, Rutgers 64

Georgetown 73, Marquette 70

Cincinnati 71, Notre Dame 55

Thursday, January 5

DePaul 84, Pittsburgh 81

South Florida 74, Villanova 57

Saturday, January 7

Syracuse 73, Marquette 66

Seton Hall 66, Providence 57

Rutgers 67, Connecticut 60

West Virginia 74, Georgetown 62

St. John's 57, Cincinnati 55

Notre Dame 67, Louisville 65 (2OT)

Sunday, January 8

Villanova 87, DePaul 71

It’s a great life in the Big East Conference... no, not for every team, but for the people who get to chronicle this league. There's always going to be something of considerable interest emerging from a week of basketball in a conference with 16 teams. This past week was no exception. There is simply no such thing as a "blah" week in a conference this diverse with such a far-flung geographical footprint in the Eastern time zone (and, in the case of DePaul, the Central time zone).

The biggest story in the league is - well - the state of New Jersey. Seton Hall and Rutgers are both making serious and legitimate runs at the NCAA Tournament. Both schools knocked off Connecticut this past week, humbling the defending national champions and bolstering their respective resumes. Seton Hall has been quite consistent in Big East competition to this point in the season. The Pirates have been very strong at home, having knocked off West Virginia by 19 points in late December. Coach Kevin Willard is squeezing everything out of his ballclub so far, making sure that his team doesn't miss resume-boosting opportunities at home. Seton Hall got drilled on the road by Syracuse, but that's going to happen to a lot of teams in this year's Big East. The Pirates won at Providence on Saturday, collecting the kind of expected road win they'll need to gather on a repeated basis this season. Winning big games at home and taking care of inferior foes on the road offers Seton Hall its pathway to Bracketville this season.

For Rutgers, the plan is basically the same. The Scarlet Knights will be tested away from home, but at the "RAC," their intimate little barn in Piscataway, New Jersey, they've become very formidable this season. Rutgers bounced Florida out of New Jersey in late December, and now the Knights can claim UConn as a victim following Saturday's seven-point win. Rutgers is throwing down some big-league defense, proving that coach Mike Rice, now in his second season, is really getting his players to buy into his system. Rutgers was nipped by St. John's in last year's Big East Tournament, with a controversial ending preventing RU from getting a last chance to win the game in the final two seconds. Rutgers used that game as emotional fuel this season, and it's increasingly hard to doubt that that loss in Madison Square Garden has paid big dividends for this program.

Elsewhere in the Big East, Louisville is in trouble. The Cardinals lost at home to Notre Dame in double overtime, revealing a full-fledged crisis at the offensive end of the floor. Louisville just isn't playing smart basketball on offense; the Cardinals throw themselves into the fray on defense and are rarely outworked thanks to the efforts of hard-charging coach Rick Pitino, but they just don't possess the ball movement or patience to break down opponents at the offensive end. Louisville needs to figure out these issues, and on a longer-term basis, the Cardinals need to land the kinds of recruits who can become dynamic scorers for Pitino's operation.

Also, Georgetown was a central story in the league, for better and for worse. The Hoyas erased a 48-35 second-half deficit to top Marquette on Wednesday, but coach John Thompson III's team then fell at West Virginia on Saturday, giving the Mountaineers a boost to what is becoming an improving season for coach Bob Huggins's club in Morgantown.