The way the Hoyas’ season has gone, this ending was to be expected. With three seconds left, Georgetown trailing by three, the ball ended up in the hands of Nikita Mescheriakov. He lets it go, and the three point attempt bounces off the top of the backboard. Not even close.

Georgetown kept the score close in this one, but its play demonstrated that this team was far away from making a Big East tournament run. Even a lowly team like the Red Storm could impose its game on the Hoyas, forcing Georgetown into a physical battle it couldn’t win.

St. John’s forced the Hoyas to commit 25 fouls today, its second highest total this season. The few Hoyas who were effective were the ones most plagued by foul trouble. Chris Wright (14 points) played just 24 minutes after picking up his fourth early in the second half. Freshman Greg Monroe (13 points, 8 rebounds) fouled out with 1:34 left on the clock.

With the stars on the bench, Georgetown’s reserves could not step up. St. John’s especially capitalized on the absence of Wright’s handle, using full court pressure to great effect. The Red Storm forced 15 turnovers, picking off numerous passes as the Hoyas tried in vain to get the ball over halfcourt.

This was by all means a game Georgetown should have been able to win. Despite shooting just 37.5% from the field, the Hoyas were still better than St. John’s (35.3%). They even won on the boards after being outrebounded by 21 in last week’s meeting. But this Georgetown team continued to show it just doesn’t have what it takes to win in this conference.

Hours before the beginning of spring football camp, Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano announced the hiring of Robb Smith and Randy Trivers to fill vacant coaching positions.

Smith, former assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Maine, will coach special teams and outside linebackers for Rutgers in 2009.

Trivers coached Syrcuse running backs for the last two seasons and will fill the same role with the Scarlet Knights.

As Georgetown gets ready to kick off what it hopes will be a long week in New York against the Red Storm, there is a sense of deja vu. Exactly a week ago, the Hoyas were in Madison Square Garden taking on St. John’s. That was the day the Hoyas bubble officially burst, as they allowed the Red Storm to mount a 15 point comeback with less than ten minutes to play en route to a 59-56 overtime loss.

That was one of the worst games Georgetown has played this season, which is saying something considering how the Hoyas have performed lately. It would be hard to write that game off as a fluke looking at Georgetown’s other games, but there are reasons why this time may be different.

For one, sophomore guard Austin Freeman will start in this one after missing the last meeting with an injury. The Hoyas sorely missed Freeman’s scoring (11.6 ppg) and rebounding (4.3 rpg, second on the team).

And while Saturday’s 48-40 victory over DePaul may have been even uglier than the St. John’s game, junior DaJuan Summers did show signs of life, going off for 13 points in the second half to prevent an embarrassing loss to the lowly Blue Demons. If Summers can be the player he was earlier in the season, Georgetown’s tournament run will be a lot easier.

If the Hoyas take down St. John’s, they’ll advance to face Marquette on Wednesday. But as a team that hasn’t been able to string together consecutive victories in nearly two months, Georgetown should just focus on the matter at hand.

First Teams Out

DePaul: It would be cool to see an 0-18 team win the conference tournament, but I doubt that will happen in my lifetime. Logic dictates Cincinnati over DePaul.

St. John’s : The Johnies are just too young and inexperienced to get past Georgetown.

Rutgers : Notre Dame will be trying to salvage their season and won’t slip against the Scarlet Knights.

USF : Seton Hall will make it past the Bulls who have lost seven of their last eight games.

Upset Alerts: Georgetown and Syracuse

Georgetown has been the definition of hot and cold, but I’m going out on a limb and putting the Hoyas in the semifinals. With predetermined match ups against St. John’s, Marquette and Villanova they have a good shot.

Marquette is still trying to fill the hole left by an injured Dominic James, and Villanova suffered their worst shooting perfomance of the season against Georgetown less than two weeks ago.

Jim Boeheim has a history of leading Syracuse on incredible runs through the Big East Tourney. I think he will do it again this year with wins over Seton Hall and third ranked UConn.

UConn is the better team, but something tells me that the Huskies will come out flat after byes in the first and second rounds.

Final Four

Pitt will punish Georgetown and Louisville will take care of Syracuse after both underdogs finally run out of steam. 

Between the two, Louisville has a more well-rounded team and the Cardinals will win the conference tournament after having won the regular season.

But that’s just how I see it.

Big East Tournament Schedule

With a little help from Pittsburgh’s victory over No. 1 Uconn earlier today, the University of Louisville Cardinals won their first ever outright Big East Conference championship with a 62-59 victory over West Virginia.

Four years after finishing their inaugural Big East season as an NIT team, the Cards (25-5, 16-2) captured the league title behind an outstanding performance from their senior leader Terrence Williams.

Williams scored a game high 20 points against WVU, while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out seven assists.

In a game that went down to the final possession, U of L pulled out the victory behind an incredible all around defensive performance. The Cards held the Mountaineers to 40% shooting for the game and just 2-12 behind the three point line.

Senior forward Alex Ruoff had one of his worst performances in a Mountaineers uniform. Ruoff needed just one three point basket to take his place as the all-time leading three point shooter in WVU history, but finished with a goose egg in the scoring column.

Freshman forward Devin Ebanks led WVU with 16 points to go along with his 10 rebounds.

Though the Mountaineers outplayed the U of L on the backboards to a 36-21, the all-around effort displayed by the Cards on both ends proved to be the difference maker.

The win gives Rick Pitino’s squad the No.1 seed in the upcoming Big East conference tournament and ensures the fact that they won’t have to mix it up with UConn and Pitt before the championship game.

The Cards now enter the conference tourney having won seven straight and 17 of their last 19 games.

Syracuse has finally picked up a marquee win in the Big East.  Yeah, there was the Notre Dame win while they were ranked and the Georgetown win in OT, but for the first time, SU has beaten a team ranked higher than itself in the conference standings.  Syracuse went on the road and beat Marquette by seven (a win predicted on this website a few weeks back – before the Dominic James injury).  The win gives the Orange a four game winning streak heading into the Big East Tournament and finishes the regular season on a 5-1 run (I had predicted 6-0, thanks Villanova). 

Syracuse is now the six seed in the BET and avoids to possibility of having to face Notre Dame in the second round.

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The SU women lost in the first round of the Big East Tournament this week.  St. John’s knocked off Syracuse when Sky Lindsay hit a last second shot to give the Red Storm a two point win.

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The football team released the fall schedule…Last year I picked six wins and got three.  This year I’ll give you four wins (in bold) that are reasonable and we’ll go from there.

Sept. 5, Minnesota
Sept. 12, at Penn State
Sept. 19, Northwestern
Sept. 26, Maine
Oct. 3, South Florida (Homecoming)
Oct. 10, West Virginia
Oct. 17, Open
Oct. 24, Akron (Family weekend)
Oct. 31, Cincinnati
Nov. 7, at Pittsburgh
Nov. 14, at Louisville
Nov. 21, Rutgers
Nov. 28, at Connecticut
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The ‘Cuse has lost out on football recruit David Oku.  The runningback re-opened his recruiting after Phil Fullmer was shown the door at Tennessee.  He chose the Volunteers anyway after considering Syracuse and Auburn too.

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The Orange hoops squad added another recruit for next season.  DaShonte Riley, a 6-11 center from Detroit County Day, will join local star Brandon Triche and James Southerland in SU’s next freshman class. 

There is a slight problem with Riley’s addition.  With redshirt Mookie Jones, Riley, Southerland and Triche as freshmen; Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph as sophomores; Wes Johnson, Rick Jackson, Sean Williams, Jonny Flynn as juniors; and Eric Devendorf, Arinze Onuaku, Andy Rautins and Paul Harris as seniors, Syracuse has 14 scholarships handed out – that’s too many.  It begs the question of how that situation will be fixed.

This probably isn’t how Jessie Sapp imagined his Georgetown career would end.

Sapp, the senior guard from New York City, has been an integral part of John Thompson III’s Georgetown renaissance, starting for the past three seasons as the Hoyas won back-to-back Big East titles and made it to the Final Four. He also established himself as a fan favorite, and not just for his late game heroics and big shots, as this Hoya op-ed attests.

But this year has been a disappointment for both Sapp and his team. The Hoyas have collapsed in Big East play, to the point where I’m not ready to call the outcome of today’s game against the Blue Demons (0-17 in conference) a foregone conclusion. And Sapp has seen himself replaced in the starting lineup due to poor play and rumored locker room issues.

Now Sapp and his teammates must play what is essentially a meaningless regular season game. Georgetown likely needs to win the Big East tournament to make the NCAA tournament, and by my calculation are locked into a rematch with St. John’s on Tuesday in New York after Seton Hall’s overtime victory over Cincinnati.

There won’t be many students on hand to see Sapp say goodbye to the Verizon Center, as Georgetown is on spring break. But those who are there have a good chance of seeing a Hoya victory, a rare occurence as of late. Georgetown hasn’t won at home since February 3 against Rutgers. Thankfully the Blue Demons may allow Sapp to exit the Verizon Center on a high note.

Saturday, Sept. 5 – Cincinnati* [date subject to change]

Saturday, Sept. 12 – Howard

Saturday, Sept. 19 – Florida International

Saturday, Sept. 26 – at Maryland

Saturday, Oct. 10 – TBA

Friday, Oct. 16 – Pittsburgh* (ESPN at 8 p.m.)

Saturday, Oct. 24 – at Army

Saturday, Oct. 31 – at Connecticut*

Thursday, Nov. 12 – USF* (ESPN at 7:30 p.m.)

Saturday, Nov. 21 – at Syracuse*

Saturday, Nov. 2 – at Louisville*

Saturday, Dec. 5 – West Virginia (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2)

*denotes Big East game

Villanova 97 – Providence 80

Villanova

Scottie Reynolds led his team with 23 points, and seniors Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson both scored 19 in their final games at the Pavilion.

The Wildcats scored 13 three-point shots thanks mainly to Reynolds who went 5-for-9 from behind the arc. Anderson and Coery Stokes shot 3-for-5 from three-point range

Providence

The Friars chances of making the NCAA Tournament are situation critical after their loss to #11 Villanova.

Providence committed 20 turnovers and allowed three Villanova players to average 19 points.

Weyinmi Efejuku finished with a game-high 29, and  teammates Jonathan Kale and Sharaud Curry each scored double-doubles.

Yet, no stat makes up for Providence’s lack of effort in the closing minutes of the game.

Although it wasn’t a blow out, it was clear that Providence was not going to pull off the upset midway through the second half.

With an 18-12 record, and quality wins over Syracuse and Cincinnati, the Friars will not make the the Big Dance unless they go to the semi-finals of the Big East Touney

First Half

20 – 15:19

Weyinmi Efejuku scored the Friars first ten points and went 5-for-5, from the field.

Dwayne Anderson scored five for Nova before Cunningham tied the game at 11.

Efejuku shot 5-for-5 and has 12 of Providence’s 13 points.

 15:19 – 13:25

Scottie Reynolds hits a three to give Nova a 16-14 lead.

Efejuku misses his first shot and Cunningham scores a lay up.

The Wildcats have scored 7 unanswered points.

13:25 – 11:37

After a steal, Reynolds sets up Dante Cunningham who drops a three to make it a 20-14 advantage for Nova.

Villanova on a 9-0 run.

11:37 – 7:10

Jeff Xavier scores his first basket (22-16), becomes the first non-Efejuku Friar to hit a field goal.

Efejuku get’s called for goal tending blocking a lay up from Reynolds, making it a 24-16 game.

The Wildcats reach their biggest lead of the night thus far (32-20) after Reynolds and Shane Clark hit back-to-back threes.

Providence has committed 8 turnovers. Efejuku has missed three consecutive field goal attempts.

7:10 – 2:18

Marshon Brooks hits a three making it a nine point game, 32-23.

A Jonathan Kale lay up to put Providence on a 5-0 run before Coeey Finsher hits two foul shots (34-25).

Brooks goes coast-to-coast and was fouled (not called), cutting the deficit to 34 - 27.

Corey Stokes answers with a three, before Curry and Hanke scored their first points of the game, chipping Nova’s lead to 5 (37-32).

2:18 -  Halftime

Geoff Mcdermott sets up a huge dunk by Brooks who makes it a one possession game 37-34.

The Wildcats pulled ahead with a three from Stokes.

Efejuku is called for his second foul with under 10 minutes remaining.