Tag Archives: Big East Basketball

Apr 5 2011

UConn Ends Butler Run, Capture NCAA Div. I Title

By Matt Noonan

This was not your storybook ending for Butler, who finished yet another season on the losing end, as the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team celebrated a NCAA Division I basketball championship in Houston, Texas on Monday with a 53-41 win over the Bulldogs.

Butler, the team that truly represents the meaning of “student athletes” was forced to watch an elated Huskies bench celebrate a victory that clearly wasn’t too impressive.

In fact, the Bulldogs contained the Huskies two stars, Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb, who finished the game with 28 points and 16 rebounds combined.

Butler’s Matt Howard was extremely quiet and ended his final game with seven points, six rebounds and one steal, which may have not been what he had expected, but Shelvin Mack led the team with 13 points.

The game began at an incredibly slow pace, as fans watched the heavily favored Huskies struggle to maintain momentum, but also, connect on their shots. The Bulldogs sloppy play held UConn to just 19 points during the first half, but once the final 20 minutes of regulation began, the Huskies executed their offense, flexed their muscles and tacked on an additional 34 points to secure the win.

UConn Leaders:

Kemba Walker – 16 points/9 rebounds/1 assist/ 1 block

Jeremy Lamb – 12 points/ 7 rebounds/ 2 assists

Alex Oriakhi – 11 points/ 11 rebounds/ 4 blocks

 

Butler Leaders:

Shelvin Mack – 13 points/9 rebounds/1 assist/ 1 block

Matt Howard – 7 points/6 rebounds/ 1 steal

Chase Stigall – 9 points/2 rebounds/1 assist/ 1 steal

 

Apr 1 2011

Willwerth: Just a few thoughts on the UConn Huskies

By Brian Willwerth

Talk about Husky Hysteria.

Over the next few days, the University of Connecticut has the chance to celebrate not one, but two national championships in basketball. The men’s and women’s teams are both getting ready for the Final Four in their respective tournaments.

Take your pick for National Player of the Year candidate: Kemba Walker or Maya Moore. Both were chosen this week for the John R. Wooden All-American team.

Let’s start with Walker. The All-American has put the Huskies on his back during the team’s run to Houston, averaging more than 26 points a game in the postseason. Connecticut won nine games over a span of 19 days: five in the Big East Tournament, four more on the road to the Final Four. The Huskies won the West Regional as a #3 seed. UConn is the highest seed remaining in the tournament. Does this make them the favorite to cut down the nets on Monday night?

The way this tournament has gone, I wouldn’t bet on anything at this point.

But I digress.  For the Lady Huskies, look no further than Maya Moore. For the second time in her career, she’s been honored as the United States Basketball Writers Association Player of the Year. Who can argue with that selection? The senior forward is averaging 22 points a game this season. In the regional final against Duke, she became just the seventh player in NCAA history to score 3,000 points in a career.

Consider this: in the last three seasons, the lady Huskies have lost one game. ONE. On December 12th, Stanford ended their NCAA-record 90-game winning streak. Since that lone loss, UConn has not tasted defeat again. The Lady Huskies are once again the overall #1 seed in the tournament.  A rematch with the Cardinal is possible in the NCAA championship game in Indianapolis, if both teams advance.

And then, there are the coaches: Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma. Both are the College Basketball Hall of Fame. They’ve won nine national championships between them: two for Calhoun, seven for Auriemma. Those numbers speak for themselves.

If Connecticut pulls off dual national titles, it won’t even be the first time a Division I school has accomplished such a feat. It happened back in 2004 as well.

The school that did it? UConn.

**information from uconnhuskies.com was used in this report.**

Mar 20 2011

NCAA March Madness Day Three Wrap Up

The Butler Bulldogs beat Pittsburgh, but it wasn't pretty!

By Andy Lindberg

Day one of round two of the NCAA College Basketball Championship Tournament began on Saturday with much fanfare and hullabaloo.  When was the last time you saw someone use the word hullabaloo?  Probably the last time you saw Pittsburgh play as expected in the NCAA tournament.

Also, doesn’t “round one” or “round two” remind you of Mortal Kombat?  I just picture #12 Richmond as Sub Zero kicking the butt of Vandy (Reptile) and Morehead State (the oft maligned Johnny Cage).  Sorry for the side note, but if you’re like me, the same old same old gets boring very quickly.  I’ll try to make this re-cap as painless and as inappropriate as possible.

I’m going to get the game of the day and the upset of the day over with in one fell swoop.  8th seeded Butler beat #1 Pittsburgh in the single most bizarre final seconds I have ever witnessed in a college basketball game.  All right, fair is fair, it was the crappiest basketball I’ve ever watched.  Butler’s Shelvin Mack shouldn’t have been anywhere near Pitt’s Gilbert Brown with 2.2 left on the clock.  Brown was streaking down the sideline and the shot would have been damn near impossible to sink at that speed and from that angle.  Then, Brown missed the second of two free throws with the score tied at 70, and Butler’s Matt Howard snagged the rebound and alertly threw up a prayer in hopes of drawing a foul.

Yes, he drew the foul.  Apparently Pitt’s Nassir Robinson thought it would be a good idea to try to block the shot.  A shot, which was thrown up with one hand from the opposite end of the court.  In short, it proved to be a poor life decision and Howard won the game at the free throw line.

I feel bad for Robinson, to be honest.  Just as I felt bad for Mack for the first foul and Brown for missing the free throw that would have won it for Pitt.  But just because there’s no crying in baseball doesn’t mean there’s no crying in basketball.  Weep away, thy bracket-busted brethren.

All right, what else do I have to do?  Oh, stat of the day.  Well, I’m not going to do that because honestly, the most important stat is the score at the end of the game.

Nah I’m just kidding and that didn’t even make any sense.  The score isn’t an individual statistic.

Unless you score all of the points for your team, then it is an individual statistic.

I’ll go with Jimmer Fredette from BYU having 34 points against Gonzaga and there’s still 2 minutes left in the game.  That’s right, I just did the stat of the day and the game isn’t even over yet.  Do you know that that means?  Jimmer’s stats could actually be higher by the time you read this.  Or, they could not.  The anticipation of viewing the box score should be killing you at this point.

Truth be told, I just picked Fredette because I fricking love his name.  Jimmer.  There’s no much you can do with that.  The Jimmer Man, a Jimmering candle, winner, winner, chicken Jimmer.  The possibilities are as endless as they are annoying.  This is a rare honor from me to the Jimmer.  See, every year I pick out who I hate more between Duke and UNC (I hate both passionately) by whichever team has the large, dingy white dude rolling around like a stud.  A few years ago I hated UNC more because of Tyler Hansbrough.  Now I hate Duke because of Kyle Singler.  Is that a logical reason to hate a team?  Many would say no.  I would say yes.  Jimmer fits the profile!  Why I do not house the ultimate disdain for him or BYU is unknown.  Maybe one day I will learn to hate him as well.  Only time will teach me how…

Looking ahead to Sunday (or today, for those of you who are reading this when it is published), shockingly, there will be more basketball!  Who knew?  Notable matchups will be 8 George Mason vs. 1 Ohio St., 5 Arizona vs. 4 Texas, 1 Duke vs. 8 Michigan, and 1 Road Runner vs. 16 Wile E. Coyote.  Does Coyote have what it takes to finally put that effing bird on a platter with all the trimmings?  Not if he still shops at ACME.  Runner has the speed, and Coyote, although he tries, has yet to compensate.  However tomorrow I predict a different outcome.  Best matchup of the day, in my opinion, which should most assuredly not account for much at all if you knew my history of picking the NCAA tourney.

That all being said, I don’t tweet or have Facebook, so if you hate my daily recap, I invite you to comment on it!  Odds are if you hate it you’re the type of person who thinks dunking is a better facet of the game than the 3-pointer and the home run trumps gunning a runner down at the plate.  Or you’re a person who enjoys the serious recap of tournament play, in which case you stopped reading this very, very early on.  If those first two points apply to you, you shouldn’t be reading a sports blog, much less reading one written by me in about 7 minutes whilst simultaneously frying up a chicken breast.  Oh yeah, I type and cook.

Are you not entertained?

Mar 10 2011

Bad Referee Calls

On behalf of the big news on Thursday regarding the referees that possibly blew or made the wrong call during an important Big East tournament game that coasted Rutgers University their chance to advance in the conference tournament, we thought, why not take a stroll down memory and witness some other awful calls that had serious impacts on games and teams.

1.) In the NFL there has been some awful calls over the past few seasons, but one team thats has endured some really bad calls is the Denver Broncos. Did Broncos quarter Jay Cutler‘s pass hit the ground or was it caught by Brandon Stokley?

 

2.) Sure, referees are people and often make mistakes too, but do they deserve to get punched in the face during a game?

 

3.) What happens when referees favor one team or school over the other? Not quite sure, but in this particular video, Duke received an extra offensive opportunity as a gift, instead of retreating back onto defense.

 

4.) Remember when the Cutler and the Broncos technically fumbled the ball… or … did they actually throw a forward pass? Well, needless to say, NFL’s top official, Ed Hochuli seemed uncertain after the play was ruled dead.

 

5.) Ever wonder what happens when high school basketball players disagree with the referees? Similar to the pros, it can get messy and strange real quick.

 

6.) Even the players get upset when the referee doesn’t make the right calls, especially the Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows.

 

7.) Remember the World Cup in June and July of 2010? Remember when Team USA was snubbed due to the referees? Certainly Landon Donovan wasn’t happy.

 

8.) Did you happen to see a foul recorded by the Detroit Pistons? Seemed like the Orlando Magic showed off some acting in quite an impressive play that led to two free foul shots.

 

9.) Wasn’t Duke’s Greg Paulus clearly out of bounds on this particular play? How did the referees not see this?

 

10.) One of the best things about watching the referees make bad calls is hearing what the announcers have to say, which in this case, Boston Celtics color commentator and former NBA great, Tommy Heinsohn, really shared his “two cents.”

Feb 24 2011

Marshon Brooks Records 52-points in loss to Notre Dame

By Brian Willwerth

When you think of the top players in college basketball, a few big names come to mind immediately: BYU’s Jimmer Fredette, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith at Duke, and Connecticut’s Kemba Walker.

It turns out Walker isn’t the only one racking up the points in the Big East.

Enter Marshon Brooks of Providence. He’s averaging 25.4 points per game, second in the country behind Fredette. Brooks added to his lofty totals when he lit up Notre Dame for a Big East record 52-points in a 94-93 loss to #9 Notre Dame on Wednesday at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

It was a banner night all the way around for the 6-foot, 5-inch Senior from Stone Mountain, GA. Brooks made 20 field goals, breaking the old Big East record held by Miami’s Steve Rich in 1996. His 52-points are the most scored in a single game in the country this year and the most ever scored in a game against Notre Dame.

The senior is used to getting buckets in bunches. On February 5, Brooks had 43-points in an 83-81 loss at Georgetown.  Coupled with last night’s performance, he joins Jimmy Walker and Eric Murdock as the only Friars to score at least 40 points twice in a season, according to the team’s website.

Brooks has been a bright spot in what has been a difficult and frustrating season for Keno Davis squad. After knocking off nationally-ranked Louisille and Villanova in late January, the Friars have lost six of their last seven. Providence is just [3-12] in the extremely tough Big East.  The Friars haven’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2004.

Brooks says his biggest thrill in sports was watching Kobe Bryant score 81-points in a game against the Raptors, according to Brooks’ profile on the team’s official website.

There’s nothing shabby about putting up 52 in college.