Big East Tourney Sked Out

The schedule for the upcoming Big East men's basketball championship at Madison Square Garden is out and it looks like this:

Wednesday

Noon - No. 8 Villanova vs. No. 9 Syracuse

PICK: Syracuse 65, Villanova 61

2 p.m. - No. 5 West Virginia vs. No. 12 Providence

PICK: West Virginia 68, Providence 59

7 p.m. - No. 7 Pittsburgh vs. No. 10 Cincinnati

PICK: Pitt 76, Cincinnati 69

9 p.m. - No. 6 Marquette vs. No. 11 Seton Hall

PICK: Marquette 74, Seton Hall 66

ANALYSIS: Seton Hall lost twice this season to Marquette by a combined 30 points. The first game at Marquette was a winnable game, but the Pirates fell, 61-56. The second game at Prudential was a rout, 89-64, in which the Pirates trailed by 18 at the half and the Golden Eagles put four players in double-figures, led by Lazar Haywood's 23 points. SHU closed the regular season by dropping three straight and 8 of 10, including Sunday's 64-61 home loss to Rutgers. They'll come out fighting, but it's hard to imagine a dramatic turnaround in which they would beat Marquette. Then again, a spot in the NIT may depend on the upset.

Comments

[TulsaWarrior]

For Marquette fans the main hope is a clean game from Seton Hall. There have been incidents in both previous games that have not presented SH in a positive light. Nutter has been a thug. Two flagrant fouls. I respect Seton Hall but that stuff hurts your program. You have lots of talent and a coach who has a good track record at his last stop.

[RUrising]

Nutter has been getting away with holding, elbows and pushing in every SHU game I've watched. He had RU's Farmer in a half-Nelson headlock on that last play of Sun. game (but Farmer broke away somehow and got the assist to Inman for the winning 3-pointer). TV replays also showed Nutter blatantly elbowed and pushed RU's Coburn out-of-bounds on a play about 1 minute earlier. Nutter plays it rough, but if the refs aren't going to call it, you can see how easy it is for him to get carried away with the flagrant unsportsmanlike cheap shots like in the earlier Marquette games.

As an aside Brian Laing at SHU regularly rams his body and elbows into defenders when backing down low post, but very, very rarely gets called for it for some reason.

But Nutter's unsportsmanlike play is a true reflection of his boorish coach. When was the last time a head coach in such a high-level college conference like the Big East would cry, whine and complain on EVERY play? SHU should be ashamed of him. And Gonzo hit a new low in classlessness with his whining tirade about the "miracle, lucky shot by Inman..."

Adam, shouldn't Gonzo try to salvage some shred of decency (at least for his school) and publicly apologize for his juvenile and unsportsmanlike ranting over the Inman shot?

Thanks Adam.

[phishingpirate]

Someone has to speak. If in fact Laing does get calls its because hes 6'5 playing amongst the trees all the time, that counts for something. Also, Jim Boeheim, along with Calhoun whine as much as any coach in America, its what coaches do so just calm down, the hating you do on Seton Hall is crazy, cheer for Rutgers and get a life please

[RUrising]

Phishy-

You are right, I should keep quiet about Gonzo, he's another great recruiting weapon RU has against Seton Hall. As far as Laing getting away with all his uncalled offensive charging fouls, that's a pretty pathetic argument you make that he's too small to post-up and therefore deserves the extra protection from the refs-boo hoo.

But hey, keep drinking up your Gonzo kool-aid and wearing your flashy baby blue blazer.

[ShuPid]

Come'on Phishing, you dished it out on RU when we beat them and when they lost to SoFla on their home court. You also started a big beef with RU fan when you joked about and piled on Calhoun’s comments after his RU game.

We at SHU have to be able to man up and take it back. Unfortunately, we SHU fans probably will have to get used to jokes at our expense because next season looks very, very dicey without All-Big East Laing and the tough veteran play of Nutter. Coach Gonzo's recruiting remains a big question mark. And from the way Harvey tanked the last month of the season, I don't know where any team leadership will come from either.