MU and Big East Tourney Previews

[SoCalwarrior]

If you find a Big East Tourney or MU preview, please post it within this thread.

[SoCalwarrior]

March 6, 2007
Big East Tournament Preview
Darren Maas (rivals)

The Big East Tournament starts tomorrow, March 7, at noon EST with four games, including Marquette's tournament opener versus St. John's to close the first round at 9:00 EST on ESPN.

Marquette, seeded #6, has not faced the #11-seeded Red Storm this season due to the Big East's unbalanced schedule, but that should not be a problem for the Golden Eagles.

St. John's ended the season 16-14, and 7-9 in the Big East, and they didn't play as hard a schedule as the Golden Eagles. But the Red Storm did beat Providence at home to end the regular season on a high note.

Forward Lamont Hamilton led the team in scoring with 13 points a game and will be the focal point of the Marquette defense. At 6-10, Hamilton can give the Marquette big men some trouble, but he is not athletic enough to really threaten with a huge game. Center Tomas Jasiulionis is 6-11 but needs more experience to really be a factor. He does average 10 points a game, though, and is a shot-blocking presence in the lane. Anthony Mason Jr. and Avery Patterson both average over 10 points per game, but Marquette has too much quickness and athletic ability for them to handle.

On the Marquette side, the two questions are: (1) will Jerel McNeal play, and (2) can Marquette shoot the ball from the outside?

As of the posting of this article, there has been no word on whether McNeal will play in the St. John's game. My guess is that he will try in the pregame and see how he feels, but if he doesn't go, David Cubillan and Dan Fitzgerald will have to step in and pick up the slack. Cubillan was able to do just that in the Pitt game, while Fitzgerald was a non-factor. Expect both to play well Wednesday night with a little more time to prepare for the loss of McNeal.

As most Marquette fans know, the Golden Eagles are as streaky as they come when it relates to outside shooting. And as sure as the sun rises in the morning, they will see a lot of zone defense from St. John's. Dominic James needs to find his stroke, and reliable Wes Matthews Jr. will need to take a few more shots than usual from the perimeter if McNeal does not play. But it comes down to Cubillan (the best outside shooter on the team) and Fitzgerald to make shots and help open up the middle.

Prediction: Marquette 85, St. John's 72.

The rest of the first round:

#8 DePaul vs. #9 Villanova. DePaul is too athletic for Villanova, and they have been playing better basketball late in the season. Pick: DePaul.

#5 Syracuse vs. #12 Connecticut. This is an upset in the works here. Jim Calhoun has had Jim Boeheim's number, and this is the perfect setting for a UConn upset. Pick: UConn.

#7 West Virginia v. #10 Providence. West Virginia has too much for Providence; this one will be easy. Pick: West Virginia.

[SoCalwarrior]

From Rosiak's blog....

The Marquette Golden Eagles have some recent history with the St. John's Red Storm at Madison Square Garden.

The two teams played in a season-opening Coaches vs. Cancer game in 2003-'04, with MU winning, 52-45. It was far from a masterpiece; the Golden Eagles shot just 29.6% from the field (16 for 54) but hit 87.5% of their free throws (14 for 16) and posted a 43-36 rebounding advantage in beating the Red Storm.

Travis Diener led the way with a game-high 18 points.

I asked coach Tom Crean on Monday night if he could draw on that experience in any way in helping prepare his team for its first-round matchup with St. John's in the Big East Tournament on Wednesday.

"Not with these guys, because none of these guys were on that team. So that won't help us at all," he said. "But like I said to them, to play St. John's at The Garden in the last game of the night in the Big East Tournament, you're really going to get a feel for what Big East basketball truly is.

"They've gotten a feel over the last two years and they've done well, judging by the fact that we're one of the three teams in this league over the past two years that have won 10 or more games each year along with Pittsburgh and Georgetown. But it's a whole new night when we line up on Wednesday against those guys."

Breaking the streak: Believe it or not, MU hasn't won a conference tournament game since the 2001-'02.

That year, the Golden Eagles beat Louisville and Houston before falling to fifth-ranked Cincinnati, 77-63, in the Conference USA Tournament in Cincinnati.

The next season they lost to UAB in the quarterfinals after winning the Conference USA regular-season title and earning the top seeding. Of course, they went on to go to the Final Four afterward.

MU then lost to TCU in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament in 2004 and 2005 before losing to Georgetown in the quarterfinals of its first-ever Big East Tournament last season.

"I didn't even think about that until you just brought it up. Thank you for that," Crean said, laughing. "Different players, different teams. I'm sure that every game had its moments and had its things that we could go back to recapture momentum. But until you brought it up I hadn't even thought about it. Now I'll have to think about it all night. But it's a whole new day."

Watch and wait: It'll be interesting to see if there's any remaining ill will from the way MU ended its 81-61 victory over St. John's at the Bradley Center last season.

With the outcome already decided and time winding down, Dominic James threw an alley-oop pass off the backboard to a trailing Jerel McNeal, who dunked it.

It was an exclamation point for MU fans, but expect Red Storm coach Norm Roberts to remind his players of it in his preparation leading into this game.

[herboturbo]

For that first review coming out today it sure is out of date.  St. John's announced Hamilton wouldn't play two or three days ago. 

[NYWarrior]

.......proof that Rivals is dead

[NYWarrior]

Cracked Sidewalks

http://marquettebasketball.blogspot.com/2007/03/back-in-new-york-groove.html