Three games were on the schedule Wednesday night for the Big East Conference, and as much as I do not want to repeat myself -- which seems to be a common practice Thursday mornings -- something crazy happened. So, without further delay here's SB Nation's New York weekly, Blogging Around The Big East.
Typically, a lead story in a SB Nation New York post like this starts with one of the local college hoops teams, not this morning. That's because Providence Friars senior point guard Marshon Brooks netted a Big East-record 52 points in a 94-93 loss to the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, RI.
"Early in the night when I hit a few shots, I felt that I could have a good game," Brooks told Friars.com.
That good of a game? Now, I am not one to glorify personal achievements, especially in a loss, but Brooks outscored the DePaul Blue Demons, who lost 76-51 to the St. John's Red Storm, and the No. 11 Georgetown Hoyas, who lost at home, 58-46, to the Cincinnati Bearcats Wednesday night! Brooks went 20-of-28 from the floor to tally the most points scored in a single-game in the nation this year. Wow.
Unfortunately for Brooks, who entered the contest as the nation's second-best scorer with 24.4 points per game, there's not a Providence blog at SB Nation. And, the Notre Dame blog Rakes Of Mallow doesn't seem impressed by Brooks or Notre Dame's freshman guard Ben Hansbrough scoring a team-best 32 points (was anyone guarding anybody in this game?).
Red Storm roll past Blue Demons
As mention earlier, the St. John's Red Storm earned their fifth straight victory Wednesday night. Senior guard Dwight Hardy had a game-best 21 points for the Johnnies. Rumble In The Garden is pumped about the St. John's victory.
"Tonight, the Red Storm played like a serious team should - with purpose, with seriousness, and with an eye towards creating separation on the scoreboard," wrote Pico Dulce Wednesday night.
The St. John's basketball schedule features the Red Storm traveling to Philadelphia Saturday afternoon to play the Villanova Wildcats (2 p.m.). Next week, the Johnnies will conclude its regular season by playing at the Seton Hall Pirates, Thursday (7 p.m.), March 3, and hosting the South Florida Bulls, Saturday (8 p.m.), March 5.
Cincinnati drops Georgetown, collects third straight win
Just when many Big East enthusiasts thought the Georgetown Hoyas were righting their wondering ship and ready to conquer the nation's best conference. They fall off the face of the earth, again -- the Hoyas began Big East play 1-4 and now have dropped two of their last three contests. Georgetown scored a season-low 46 points against Cincinnati, which collected their third straight victory.
"Georgetown had its toughest night of the season tonight," wrote JGD of the Casual Hoya Wednesday night. "The Hoyas shot a woeful 25% from the field, while Cincinnati played its best game of the year. It was one of those nights where the Hoyas could not get anything to drop. The Bearcats, on the other hand, could do no wrong as they played themselves off the bubble."
JGD is also concerned about the injury suffered by senior guard Chris Wright, who broke his hand in the loss.
"Here's the reality. Chris Wright's injury will keep him out for the rest of the season, and we can all wave goodbye to any chances of a victory on Saturday against Syracuse or post-season success. If he can somehow come back any time in the next month, then this game was a complete anomaly, a blip on an otherwise highly successful season, but there is very little chance that is the case."
Down The Drive is calling this one of the best wins in the era of head coach Mick Cronin.
"This was the best defensive performance by a Bearcat team in the Cronin era," wrote Matt Opper Thursday morning. "There have been some absolute slaughters in Cronin's years, UC hasn't exactly played a brutal schedule in the non conference, and given Cronin's love of all things defensive the Cats have shut down people before. But the stakes this time were higher, the opponent was better and the degree of difficulty of having to shut this Hoya team down in that building to have a chance is unmatched."
In other Big East news, it seems that the UConn basketball program and head coach Jim Calhoun is in trouble, again. According to SB Nation's The UConn Blog, the Huskies and Calhoun are being punished for the recruitment of Nate Miles, who never actually played a game for UConn, but was given benefits by a person deemed to be a booster.
The punishment from the NCAA is listed below:
- JimCalhoun will be suspended for the first three Big East games during the 2011-2012 season
- UConn is restricted to 12 players on scholarship per year for the next three years, ending after the 2012-2013 season.
- UConn will also be on probation for the next three years from the date of the report.
Also, there's only a couple weeks left to vote for the winner of The Bob Cousy Award (the nation's best point guard). Senior guard Corey Fisher of the Villanova Wildcats and junior guard Kemba Walker of the UConn Huskies are among the 10 finalists. Fans of The Nova Blog, The UConn Blog or the Big East Conference can vote here. The player with the most votes earns one point towards the final committee vote.
I voted for Mr. Fisher. Here's the current Big East standings.