Big East Report (Jan. 22)

Big East standings through games of 1/21/07:

1. Pittsburgh 17-3 (5-1)
2. Notre Dame 16-3 (4-2)
3. Syracuse 15-5 (4-2)
4. Marquette 17-4 (4-2)
5. Georgetown 13-5 (3-2)
6. Providence 13-5 (3-2)
7. Louisville 13-6 (3-2)
8. West Virginia 14-4 (4-3)
9. Seton Hall 11-7 (3-3)
10. DePaul 12-8 (3-3)
11. Connecticut 13-5 (2-3)
12. Villanova 13-5 (2-3)
13. St. John's 11-8 (2-4)
14. Cincinnati 10-8 (1-3)
15. South Florida 10-10 (1-5)
16. Rutgers 8-11 (1-5)

My personal power rankings: (previous ranking in parenthesis)

1. Pittsburgh (1)
2. Notre Dame (3)
3. Georgetown (4)
4. Marquette (5)
5. Syracuse (2)
6. Louisville (10)
7. Providence (6)
8. Villanova (11)
9. West Virginia (7)
10. Connecticut (9)
11. Seton Hall (12)
12. DePaul (8)
13. St. John's (14)
14. Cincinnati (16)
15. South Florida (13)
16. Rutgers (15)

This week's games and predictions: (home team in CAPS)

Monday, January 22, 2007:

LOUISVILLE 78, Connecticut 71

Tuesday, January 23, 2007:

PROVIDENCE 84, Villanova 82
Notre Dame 72, ST. JOHN'S 66

Wednesday, January 24, 2007:

SOUTH FLORIDA 67, Rutgers 62
GEORGETOWN 75, DePaul 68
MARQUETTE 80, Seton Hall 75
WEST VIRGINIA 73, Marshall 65
Pittsburgh 78, CINCINNATI 64

Saturday, January 27, 2007:

CONNECTICUT 74, Providence 68
GEORGETOWN 77, Cincinnati 61
Seton Hall 78, RUTGERS 70
NOTRE DAME 83, Villanova 75
PITTSBURGH 75, St. John's 60
LOUISVILLE 79, Syracuse 76

Sunday, January 28, 2007:

Marquette 84, SOUTH FLORIDA 68
WEST VIRGINIA 68, DePaul 64

Big East weekly awards: (from the Big East website)

Big East Player of the Week:

Dominic James, Marquette: "James earns Player of the Week honors for the second week in a row after leading Marquette to a pair of road wins. On Sunday, he scored a game-high 23 points and hit the game-winning free throws with 0.9 seconds left in overtime in a 77-74 win at No. 6/6 Pittsburgh. James did not commit a turnover in 39 minutes. Earlier in the week, he had 16 of his 18 points in the second half in a 74-65 win at Louisville. He dealt five assists in both contests."

Big East Rookie of the Week:

Scottie Reynolds, Villanova: "Reynolds averaged 26.5 points and 5.0 assists while sparking Villanova to a pair of victories against ranked opponents. He scored a career high 27 points while shooting 8-of-12 from the floor in a 102-87 victory over No. 20/20 Notre Dame. In a 76-69 win over No. 21/23 Texas that the Wildcats played without leading scorer Curtis Sumpter, Reynolds stepped up to post 26 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals."

Big East Weekly Honor Roll:

Marvin Gentry, Cincinnati: "In a 1-1 week, averaged 21.5 pts., 5.5 rebs., which included 32 pts. in an overtime win vs. West Virginia."

DaJuan Summers, Georgetown: "Averaged 17.0 pts., 6.0 rebs. and shot 68.8 percent in a 2-0 week on the road."

Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh: "Averaged 19.0 pts., 14.0 rebs. and shot 50 percent in a 1-1 week."

Herbert Hill, Providence: "Averaged 18.5 pts., 14.0 rebs., 5.5 blocks and shot 53.6 percent in a 1-1 week."

Terrence Roberts, Syracuse: "Averaged 14.0 pts., 10.0 rebs. and shot 77.8 percent in 1-1 week."

Best win:

Marquette 77, Pittsburgh 74 (OT)- The Golden Eagles are red hot right now and needed this game to have a shot at winning the regular season league title. They need to avoid a let down at home against Seton Hall on Wednesday night.

Worst loss:

Cincinnati 96, West Virginia 83 (OT)- You had to figure Cincinnati would eventually beat someone, but I thought it would be USF, Rutgers, or St. John's. This is an awful loss for a West Virginia team that is finally coming back to earth (keep in mind they did not play a strong out of conference schedule) and approaching the NIT fast.