The anticipation begins to build around the middle of December. At this point, fans of college basketball teams have seen their clubs play several times and have at least some feel for the season. But they're tired of the non-conference patsies and the interesting games occasionally sprinkled in. As Christmas comes, conference season is even closer and the anticipation grows. Finally, after the New Year's Day bowls are done and folks are already starting to flake out on their New Year's resolutions, the college basketball fan is rewarded with the beginning of conference play.
For two of the 14 Big East fan bases who saw their favorite team open conference play this week, the opener dealt a harsh dose of reality. Villanova and Providence fans entered conference play with high hopes after solid non-conference slates, but with road openers in the Midwest, neither team found anything approaching success on Thursday night.
The loss for Villanova was a surprise considering the Wildcats' national ranking (17th) and DePaul had scuffled to a 4-7 start. But we mentioned in this space yesterday that the Wildcats' defense hadn't been good, a fact masked by a mediocre non-conference schedule. It seemed, though, that the Blue Demons were akin to most of the unimpressive fodder the Wildcats had dispatched so far, but DePaul proved to be much tougher than the Temples and Central Floridas of the world.
DePaul had the second most impressive offensive night of the young Big East season, scoring 1.31 points per possession (only Marquette has done better in the seven Big East games so far) in a 98-86 win. The Blue Demons have had a pretty solid season offensively, and they showed balance on Thursday with six players in double figures. Not among them was Dar Tucker, who played just three minutes thanks to a balky ankle. DePaul only played six players with the exception of Tucker's cameo, as Jerry Wainwright shortened his bench to great effect.
The big difference in the game -- and we saw this in losses by Louisville, St. John's, Rutgers and West Virginia this week -- was Villanova's outside shooting. DePaul's 3-point field-goal defense was the worst in the conference entering the game, yet Scottie Reynolds and Malcolm Grant combined to shoot just 2-of-8, and that was actually better than Villanova's 23.1 percentage of the game (6-for-26). The 3-point shot has been the demise of so many Big East teams in the conference season.
The Wildcats showed great fight to battle back and make the game close down the stretch, but the team looked immature -- as it is a very young squad -- committing five turnovers at a crucial juncture and failing to work for good shots consistently. Dante Cunningham won his matchup with Mac Koshwal, and Corey Fisher looked like a stud, but Shane Clark was noticeably quiet (if that makes sense), and the bench didn't bring the same punch it has in the past. In the end, Villanova will need to play better defense or be forced to shoot exquisitely to win in the Big East this season.
As much fight as the Wildcats showed in Chicago, Providence showed none of it up I-94 at Marquette on Thursday night. After a couple of early spurts got Providence a 23-20 first-half lead, the Golden Eagles settled down and carved up the Friars' 2-3 zone like so much Christmas turkey. Marquette started to find its stroke from deep, especially Dominic James, the game's star who scored 21 points, 12 on 3-pointers. The Golden Eagles looked like a top-10 team, pulling away for a 96-67 throttling that ended with a denouement of walk-ons and garbage-time lay-ups.
More disconcerting than the defense -- though it's hard to imagine anything more worrisome than allowing 1.33 points per possession -- was the lack of mental toughness that Providence showed. Playing without its two point guards -- Sharaud Curry and Dwain Williams are injured -- the Friars were haphazard in their treatment of the ball, self-destructing with 12 first-half turnovers. Weyinmi Efejuku was the No. 1 culprit. The tantalizing talent picked up three fouls in the first half along with five turnovers, and each jumpshot was farther off than the one before it. On a night when Providence needed Efejuku to be a shining star, he was a black and white dwarf.
Despite being the smaller team, Marquette out-toughed Providence, hustling to every play, diving for every loose ball and embarrassing the Friars on the glass, 37-23. Geoff McDermott only had four rebounds in 36 minutes, though he at least seemed willing to throw his body around. Randall Hanke was so inept in the middle of the backline of the 2-3 zone that he played just 10 minutes, despite the advantage he was supposed to give the Friars on offense.
Providence now heads to DePaul for a Saturday night soiree with the Blue Demons. If the performance against Marquette was "just one of those nights," the Friars can be glad it came against a team they probably weren't going to beat anyway. Either way, Providence travels to Chicago in need of a point guard and an infusion of toughness. For both the Friars and Wildcats, anticipation has led to doubt, and 17 more Big East games to prove that the first one was not a true accounting.
Notre Dame 69, West Virginia 56: The Mountaineers' performance against Oklahoma appropriately cooled my enthusiasm for them, and Notre Dame's inside domination on Thursday made it downright frosty. Luke Harangody smells of a first-team Big East player after another super performance -- 29 points, 16 rebounds on 11-of-16 shooting. The sophomore's night helped Notre Dame survive Rob Kurz's 1-of-5 shooting and four turnovers and Tory Jackson's six turnovers. Notre Dame has had the turnover bug before this season, and the 20 giveaways are distressing, but the Irish's defense made up for it. Let's face it -- West Virginia isn't going to win games against good teams when it shoots 5-for-25 on 3-pointers. Bob Huggins' offense doesn't provide for the bevy of open looks that John Beilein's did, and we're beginning to see that now. Darris Nichols (3-for-9) needs to be better and Joe Alexander (just nine points and four rebounds) needs to be bigger.
Connecticut 98, Seton Hall 86: The Huskies had to be wondering what was going on. They shot 58 percent from the floor in the first half and somehow trailed by one at halftime against Seton Hall. If there's one thing Connecticut isn't, it's a great shooting team, and it seemed impossible that the Huskies could lose a game when they shot so well. It may not have been impossible, but UConn showed a loss wasn't likely by pounding the ball inside in the second half, shooting 35 free-throws and scoring 51 points despite a drop in field-goal percentage from the first half (to 42 percent). Jerome Dyson was especially impressive, not so much in scoring 27 points but in doing it on just 14 field-goal attempts. At 7-foot-3, Hasheem Thabeet is about a foot taller than four-fifths of the Seton Hall starting five, and he deterred Seton Hall from playing in the paint. The Pirates took 33 3-pointers, making a mediocre 11. Freshman Jeremy Hazell had six of those makes for 28 points, as he tried to keep Seton Hall in a game that trickled away in the second half. Against a team as big and talented as Connecticut, Seton Hall needs to force a ton of turnovers to be competitive, and even the 16 the Pirates forced on Thursday night weren't nearly enough.
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