Gearing up for the Big East Tourney: News and NotesWritten by: noreply@blogger.com (Tim Blair)With the BIG EAST Tournament kicking off this afternoon at The World's Most Famous Arena here are few media updates of note:
- First, congratulations to Jerel McNeal for being named a First Team All-American by FoxSports (http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9313326/Time-for-awards,-All-American-teams?MSNHPHMA).
- Congratulations are also in order for McNeal and teammate Wesley Matthews for earning All-BIG EAST Honors (http://www.bigeast.org/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=92555&SPID=11228&DB_OEM_ID=19400&ATCLID=3687582). McNeal was named to the first team, Matthews to the second team.
- Sadly, Wesley Matthews was aced out of the league's Most Improved Player award by Villanova's Dante Cunningham despite eclipsing the Wildcat's year-to-year improvements in points, rebounds, assists, steals, FG%, FT% and 3-point FG% (http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=13427.msg120291#msg120291). Other than those categories Cunningham certainly showed more improvement than Matthews.
- The team over at The East Coast Bias completed a Blogger's Roundtable to recap the regular season and look ahead to the tournaments. I represented Cracked Sidewalks in the discussion which you can find here (http://theeastcoastbias.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/big-east-bloggers-roundtable-pre-conference-q-and-a/).
BIG EAST TOURNAMENT DETAILS
For Marquette alums in town for the BIG EAST Tournament, the Local Café West across from MSG is the Marquette bar for the week. MU will have dedicated space for pre/post-game gatherings. Additional details will be added to this URL throughout the week (http://www.marquette.edu/alumni/events/basketball.shtml).
Later today Georgetown plays St. John's at MSG (http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/ny-spbeast096063106mar09,0,5283249.story) for the right to play Marquette tomorrow at 1pm CT. The Red Storm (15-16) play on their home court as the tournament's 13th seed while the Hoyas hit MSG ast the 12 seed.
Despite the four-game losing streak heading into post-season play, MU remains upbeat about the road ahead -- check out this AP feature on the team (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/09/sports/BKC-T25-Marquettes-Mess.php).
http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2009/03/gearing-up-for-big-east-tourney-news.html