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Big East / SEC Invitational
Villanova by the Numbers just posted the news that the Big East and SEC are likely to let the Big East/SEC Invitational expire after the initial four-year contract ends this season. As greyCat wrote:
The most memorable game in the Invitational series is probably the LSU-Villanova game from the Invitational’s first season (December 2007). Played in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Villanova, down through most of the game, and trailing by 15 with 3:30 left in the second half, put on a closing blitz which stunned the Tigers and allowed the Wildcats to win it at the buzzer, 68-67.
VBTN also notes that the Invitational was flawed from the beginning, playing only four games, rather than a true top-to-bottom challenge format like the ACC/Big Ten and without the possibility of the Battle for the Bluegrass match-up between Louisville and Kentucky ever being a part of it. Read more
Big East Roundtable
The East Coast Bias, a blog that specializes in St. Johns basketball and eastern sports has been running a series of Big East blogger Roundtable posts. The first installment is a discussion of departures from various Big East teams as well as the blogger’s anticipation for how those holes will be filled in the coming season.
Big East Roundtable July: Pt 1
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Big East Announces Match-Ups for ‘10-11
The dates and times remain to be announced, but the Big East conference announced the match-ups that will comprise the 18-game men’s basketball schedule. NBE Basketball picked up the story this morning.
As usual, the Wildcats will face all 15 other Big East teams at least once. The three teams that the ‘Cats will home and away are: Rutgers, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh. Villanova will host the Georgetown game this year and will travel to Connecticut to play the Huskies. Read more
Expansion Apocalypse Part III
The wheels keep churning on the expansion-slash-realignment newswire, even ESPN seems to be struggling to stay up-to-speed on all of the rumors and developments. For the moment things are in a (potentially brief) lull, with the Big Ten adding Nebraska as a 12th member and the Pac-10 having added Colorado as an 11th team. The Big XII has 10 members currently, and at the moment it appears it will stay that way.
The news this morning, however, was that Texas had a sudden change of heart. After pondering commissioner Beebe’s suggested plan to save the conference, the Longhorns administration began discussions toward that purpose today. The announcement that they would stay in the Big XII was made this evening. Read more
Expansion Apocalypse: Rumors
(Updated 6/11) Since I started working on Friday’s post, “Expansion Apocalypse?” in earnest, a lot of rumors have been flying through the intertubes like Scud missles over Baghdad, circa 1990. This week, Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com/Rivals has been leading the charge in a series of rumors about the interaction between the Big Ten, Pac-10 and everyone else.
At the end of last week, there were rumblings that the Pac-10 was planning to throw the first stone at the Big XII’s glass house by inviting six schools to join up. This would include the three public schools from Texas, the Oklahoma schools and Colorado. This rumor was flatly rejected prior to the conference’s meetings.
What do we actually know? The Associated Press reported that Larry Scott, the Pac-10 commissioner, was given permission to “explore expansion options,” during the meetings.
Since then, more and more rumors have been tossed around. Almost all of them have been confirmed by some anonymous sources, and denied in less-than-believeable fashion by anyone commenting on-the-record.
If we are to believe the rumors, and it’s all rumors at this point, then the following is the current state of conference expansion: Read more
Expansion Apocalypse?
We have discussed this topic endlessly in this and other forums. Conference expansion was years away, then it was imminent, and now it is a while off again. In any case, most people still believe that the Big Ten will eventually expand by somewhere between one and five schools.
The intent here is to provide a primer on expansion for VUhoops readers. So you know what is going on and how it might effect Villanova. Read more
Marquette Downs ‘Nova in BIG EAST Tourny
Marquette used hot shooting from Darius Johnson-Odom who went 5-7 from 3 to defeat Villanova 80-76 in the Quarterfinals of the BIG EAST Tournament.
Corey Stokes had a hot hand for Villanova (24-7, 13-5) going 6-7 from 3 to lead the Wildcats with 22, but that was not enough.
‘Nova will now sit back until Sunday as they wait to see where they will be place in the NCAA Bracket.
More to come…
Big East Tournament: Day 3
The day has arrived: At 2pm, Nova Nation will cease to be productive as our attention will drift to the Wildcat’s rematch with the Marquette Golden Eagles. The Winner of that match-up will take on either Georgetown or Syracuse at 7pm on Friday.
Yesterday, Marquette had another nail-biter victory over a hard-fighting St. Johns team. Georgetown crushed South Florida to move ahead to a third-round meeting with Syracuse. Notre Dame will match up with Pittsburgh at 7pm after a late surge to beat Seton Hall by 12. The final game of Day 3 will see West Virginia take on Cincinnati, who knocked off Louisville in a tight contest last night. Read more
Meeting Marquette
#5 seed Marquette defeated St. John’s today to create a matchup with Villanova (24-6, 13-5).
Last year the two same schools met on the Thursday of the Conference’s Tournament (as #4 & #5 seeds)- a game that Villanova won on a last second Dwayne Anderson bucket.
‘Nova has won this year’s two previous matchups, and is led by Scottie Reynolds who is averaging 21.5 points against the Warriors Golden Eagles in his last 4 games.
Lazar Hayward is leading Marquette in points 18ppg and rebounds, 7.8 per game.
After starting 2-5 in the conference, Marquette went 10-12 to end the Big East schedule. Read more
Big East Tournament: Day 2
We are only one day away from Villanova’s Big East Tournament opener. Today’s 2pm game will determine the Wildcats’ opponent tomorrow afternoon. The other match-ups may affect the later tournament match-ups as well.
Yesterday, St. Johns blew out an extremely unmotivated UConn team. Today the “Team Formerly Known As the Redmen” will play Marquette at 2:00 pm. The Golden Eagles won the only matchup between those teams this season in a 63-61 squeaker at Madison Square Garden. Read more
