Caron Butler and UConn are among 10 league teams in the hunt for the NCAAs. AP
1
Connecticut
2
Miami
3
Pittsburgh
4
Georgetown
5
Syracuse
6
Boston College
7
Notre Dame
8
Villanova
9
St. John's
10
Providence
11
Rutgers
12
Seton Hall
13
West Virginia
14
Virginia Tech
66.7
Notre Dame's shooting percentage in an 89-76 win over Pitt on Wednesday night, the best in a Big East game in 12 years, or since St. John's shot 68.6 percent against Connecticut in '90. Pitt came into the game ranked second in the country in scoring defense.
"I told the officials, 'If I say or do anything during the game that I'm not supposed to do, warn me first before you give me a technical. I've never done this before.'"
-- West Virginia assistant coach Drew Catlett, after his first game as the team's interim head coach. He is subbing for his uncle, Gale Catlett, who is on a medical leave of absence.
By Dave Hickman, Special to CNNSI.com
So you have a little bit of time on your hands and want a challenge, huh? You've got that Rubik's Cube down pat. Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy aren't even challenging anymore. And you've come up with a cure for the common cold, you're just waiting for someone to ask you about it.
OK, then, maybe you're ready for something tougher. Try this puzzle: Handicap the Big East.
Go ahead, we dare you.
That's right, first take the Power Rankings listed here at the right and lop off Virginia Tech and West Virginia from the bottom. Since Christmas, those two are a combined 1-18, so they just don't count.
Now you're left with 12 Big East teams, all of whom figure to make it into the 12-team league tournament in roughly a month. So, to handicap them, we probably need one of two things:
We need a genius, a guy with not only brains but a ton of basketball savvy. We need someone with objectivity, with the guts to make the tough calls.
Or we need a hat.
That's right, write down the 12 remaining teams, throw them in a hat and seed the Big East tournament. Put numbers in a bottle, draw straws, anything. It will work just as well as seeding teams on records or trying to come up with power rankings like the ones here.
Oh, and it's not like these are mediocre teams fighting to be the best of the rest, either. No, the Big East doesn't have a Duke or a Maryland. It doesn't have a top-five team, probably not even a top-10 team after this week.
But what it does have is no fewer than 10 teams within striking distance of an NCAA tournament berth. Eight of those teams are in the top 60 in the RPI. Two others are close to that. And with four weeks remaining in the regular season and then another week of head-banging in the league tournament, all 10 have plenty of time to make moves.
"Everybody says if you get in the top 40 (of the RPI) you're probably going to make the NCAA tournament," said Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun. "That tells me that we've got maybe 10 teams that have an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament, based upon what they do over the next four weeks and then in the Big East tournament.
"There's a lot of talk about our conference not having any great teams. But when you starting talking about having 10 teams in the top 75 in the country, that's a ton."
Indeed. And they're just knocking the stuffing out of one another. Go ahead, try to handicap a league where:
Connecticut goes to Arizona, scores 100 and wins in overtime, then four days later scores 53 and loses at Rutgers.
The league's top five teams in the RPI -- Miami (No. 18), UConn (21), Pitt (22), Syracuse (32) and St. John's (34) -- are a combined 0-5 this week heading into Saturday's games, all having lost to lower-rated league teams.
No team in the conference has a current winning streak of more than two games. Yet with the exception of Virginia Tech (nine straight) and St. John's (three), no other team has even consecutive losses heading into the weekend.
Providence swept St. John's, including a win at Madison Square Garden, yet four days later fell to a West Virginia team that had lost nine straight and its coach.
Pitt swept Georgetown and crushed Syracuse, then allowed Notre Dame to make two of every three shots and win by 13.
And at what amounts to the midpoint of the season, two games separate first and sixth place in the West division, while two games separate second and sixth in the East.
"The next four weeks are really going to be interesting for everybody," Calhoun said. "There are a couple of teams that look like they have an edge in the tournament, but I think it's going to be a wild four weeks, without question."
Brandin Knight certainly has the pedigree to excel in college basketball. After all, his father, Mel, was a star at Seton Hall. His brother, Brevin, played at Stanford and is now in the NBA.
"I had a feeling before I'd ever seen him play that this kid was going to have a good understanding of the game after having been around it his whole life," Pitt coach Ben Howland said of his junior point guard. "His freshman year he was our leader already, and we didn't have much to surround him with other than Ricardo [Greer]. ''
Now the Panthers have more to go with Knight, and Knight is making the best of the situation. He leads Pitt in scoring (14.9) and the Big East in assists (6.8). But more importantly, he has the Panthers out to an 18-4 record and a No. 21 ranking in both major polls.
Now, if the guy could just make a free throw. Is there a point guard anywhere, on any level, with free throw numbers as bad as his 47.1 percent mark?
"Part of his foul-shooting problem is I play him 39 minutes a game. It's not like he ever gets a rest,'' Howland said. "I think fatigue is a factor. But I have confidence that he's going to make his free throws in a tight game.''
HOT: Villanova G Gary Buchanan
The junior from St. Louis not only leads the league in free throw (91.5) and 3-point (49.2) percentage, his 3-point shooting is better than his 2-point shooting (45.9).
NOT: Virginia Tech
The Hokies went the entire month of January without being outrebounded, a fairly remarkable feat for even the best teams. Even more remarkable is that the Hokies were 0-8 in January.
HOT: Rutgers F Rashod Kent
Ten days after he had 19 points and 13 rebounds against West Virginia, Kent torched his home-state school again for 19 points and 12 rebounds in a 77-59 win, the Knights' most lopsided Big East road victory ever.
NOT: Georgetown in close games
In games decided by nine or more points, the Hoyas are 12-2. In anything closer than that, Georgetown is 1-5.
West Virginia coach Gene Catlett would not say specifically what is wrong with him when he took a medical leave of absence Monday, but it is generally believed to be an infection of some kind that lingered.
"It's nothing life-threatening whatsoever," Catlett said. "I just need to get away from the team and get some rest and hopefully it will clear up quickly. The players are going to be left in great hands because these guys do all the work anyway. I just get credit for it."
This season, much of that credit has turned to blame as West Virginia limped to nine straight losses, tying a school record set 65 years ago. When Catlett turned the team over to assistants Drew Catlett, Chris Cheeks and Lester Rowe, he said, "They've always told me they could coach the team better than I could, so I guess we're going to find out.''
Indeed, The Mountaineers beat Providence two days later to snap their skid.
Boston College G Ryan Sidney
Still recovering from a broken jaw and other various injuries, Sidney had 18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and just one turnover as the Eagles snapped Miami's 13-game home winning streak, 70-65.
Connecticut C Emeka Okafor and G Ben Gordon
Okafor, a 6-foot-9 freshman, had 19 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocked shots in a 100-98 overtime win at Arizona. In the same game Gordon, a freshman guard, scored 23 points and had nine assists.
St. John's G Marcus Hatten
The junior college transfer had 29 points but got zero help as the Red Storm lost at Seton Hall in overtime. Hatten is the Big East's top scorer (21.4) in league games.
There may be no clear-cut best team in the Big East, but the list of contenders has to include Miami and Connecticut, who play Saturday night at Miami Arena.
For the Huskies, this is the latest in a far-flung road trip that began with a trip to Arizona, continued with a bus trip to Rutgers and now South Florida. For Miami, it's another chance for their fans to come and see some great basketball. Oh, if only they would come. The biggest crowd in 15,508-seat Miami Arena this season has been 5,403. Six of the Hurricanes' crowds there this season have been under 2,500.
And all of this for a team that is 18-3, didn't lose a game until January and is now ranked No. 15.
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, whose team broke out of a shooting slump with that 66.7-percent performance against Pitt: "I'm a true believer in the law of averages. We were kind of due for one of those nights.'' ... Connecticut was second in the country in field goal percentage before that loss at Rutgers. ... Syracuse guard Preston Shumpert, the league's No. 2 scorer, left a loss at Georgetown at halftime when an eye infection blurred his vision. "He has a reasonable chance to play [Saturday at Rutgers] but we won't know for sure probably until game time," said Orange coach Jim Boeheim. "His vision might clear up at any time.'' ... With Willie Shaw out after knee surgery and Sharif Fordham bothered by an infected tooth, St. John's used walk-on Andre Stanley for 37 minutes in a loss at Seton Hall. He scored nine points, had eight rebounds and two assists. "Maybe I'll go search my student body today,'' said Virginia Tech coach Ricky Stokes, whose team plays the Red Storm Saturday.
Mitch Vingle covers the Big East for the Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette. His "This Week in the Big East" column will appear weekly during the season.
Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.
Boston College G Ryan Sidney
