Big East Con Call Notes

Here are some notes and quotes from today's Big East Conference Call, featuring comments from South Florida coach Stan Heath and Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez.

Seton Hall (10-5, 0-2 Big East) plays at Pitt (13-2, 1-1) on Saturday. Here's what Heath had to say about Pitt guard Sam Young, who scored 16 of his 22 in the second half when No. 20 Pitt beat USF, 79-66, Wednesday night on ESPN2.

"He's really improved," Heath said. "He playing like an All-Big East caliber player. He really stepped up his game and he's been really impressive."

Gonzalez ON HIS TEAM'S OVERALL PLAY:

"We're playing pretty good basketball. Unfortunately, we would be 2-0 instead of 0-2 if games were decided in the first half. We played a very good first half against Connecticut at home and we were up one at halftime. Unfortunately, in the second half we got worn down a little bit by their inside game. (Hasheem) Thabeet and Jeff Adrien were a little too tough for us down the stretch.

"Same thing at Marquette. We were up 7 at halftime, playing very well and then in the second half we hung in there and went right to the wire and lost in a tough game.

"And now Paul Gause is out for us and hopefully coming back soon with a broken bone in his non-shooting hand. It hurts us right now because he's one of our best defenders. I think we're making progress. I think we're getting better and I think we're going to play better basketball later in the year.

ON PLAYING PITT

"We've had trouble winning on the road. And I think that has to do with maturity and experience and toughness. We don't have a lot of it right now. With Brian Laing and Jamar Nutter really our only two experienced players that have played in a Big East road win.

"It'll be a tough game. I know PIttsburgh's got their own injury problems. They're still obviously a very good team, especially at home. They're big, they're physical and it's going to be a very hard game.

ON PLAYING WITHOUT GAUSE

"If you caught the Marquette game, we certainly had to play a lot more zone than we'd like. We're not aggressive, of course. We're not pressing as much because Paul's our top steals guy. Those 20-35 minutes, it affects our rotation with our perimeter and defensively. It's a big loss for us right now. We're trying to change defenses and adjust and learn on the fly. We need Jamar Nutter and Larry Davis and those guys to step up and do more. Jamar's doing that. He had that career-high 29 against Morgan STate. And he had a pretty good game against Marquette, but then he fouled out.

"Larry Davis has had his moments. We're trying get Eugene (Harvey) to mature and grow up and play a little better defense. In the long run, it could be a blessing for us. IT's going to put more pressure on the other guys. In the short term, it's going to be difficult because we're going against the iron with the teams we're playing."