BigEastSportsBlog.com

My colleague Adam Zagoria sat down with Rice star – and UConn, Seton Hall and St. John’s recruit – Kadeem Jack and his teammate Shane Southwell today at SNY’s studio. They talk about college, their official visits and this weekend’s SNY Invitational. Check it out right here.

Heckuva Fiesta Bowl. Still would’ve liked to see both teams pitted against one of the BCS conference schools though. We could’ve had TWO Oklahoma-Boise State Fiesta Bowl reduxes… apparently it’s not enough to just be employed… Sad day for the Jets family… Surprise, surprise, someone hates Avatar. And it’s the Right…

A Big East bowl season review. (ESPN.com)

Pitt pulled out a winner in Cincinnati because the Panthers had moxie. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Randy Edsall was nervous last week in Birmingham. Really. (Republican-American)

UConn won the national Orange Bowl Courage Award and Edsall got to stand next to a stuffed Orange. (UConnHuskies.com)

Before a busy weekend of recruiting, an update on Louisville’s commitments. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Two Florida assistants are set to join Charlie Strong’s staff. (Gainesville Sun)

Expansion work on PapaJohn’s Cardinal Stadium is chugging along. (U of L Card Game)

A quick hoops primer for the NY-metro area folks transitioning out of football season. (MSG.com)

The CFL’s scouting South Florida DB Jerome Murphy and QB Matt Grothe… the International Bowl may be kaput. (Tampa Tribune)

Jason Pierre-Paul could make his NFL decision (go now, go next year) Thursday. (St. Petersburg Times)

Syracuse plays at Washington Sept. 11… The Orange have a new defensive line coach. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

So the Orange were again outside-looking-in on the postseason. Not so in the NFL: Syracuse has seven alums in the playoffs. (SUathletics.com)

Grading the WVU-FSU game. (Smoking Musket)

Question: Do you know whether its possible to get detail on which games will be showed on SNY when it simply says “college basketball”? I’m trying to find out what the 4:30pm Saturday afternoon game is (11/14). Thanks, Jeff

Excellent question, Jeff. Especially since every time I input that schedule over on the right side, I have to go chasing this info down myself! Well, yesterday, my fabulous editor Ted built us a link to the whole season schedule. If you click right here, you’ll be taken right to it. I suggest bookmarking it. And as for that 4:30 p.m. Saturday game, it looks to be a tape delay replay of the previous night’s Centenary-Marquette tip.

Make sure to check out the video player in the right sidebar. We have previews of Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall and UConn running right now.

There I am, suddenly 6-9, interviewing Rutgers’ Greg Echenique. Wait till you see the video footage.

As promised this morning, some hoops stories. I couldn’t possibly get them all (or even half), but here’s a decent sampling.

Morgantown, New York City, both home. Who would’ve thunk? Nova’s the preseason no. 1, there aren’t 38 star seniors, but give the Big East time. Cream always rises. (SNY.tv)

John Marinatto has a sense of humor. Or maybe Mike Tranghese does. (NJ Newsroom)

Rick Pitino was obviously the draw of the day. Sex scandals tend to do that. (NY Daily News)

Pitino talked about thoroughbreds’ blinders and he promised no more distractions. Fat chance. (Providence Journal, USA Today, AOL Fanhouse)

Maybe to deflect some of that, maybe just to be honest, Pitino figured it was as good a time as any to knock Rutgers’ facilities. (Star-Ledger)

It wasn’t so much quality of the truly good teams yesterday as it was quantity of the truly good. (Journal Inquirer)

Jay Wright thinks his team is prettier than last year’s. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Jim Calhoun’s lost 500 pounds. In two players. (Hartford Courant)

There’s a shift in Big East power. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

24 hours later, I still have no idea what to make of the Cal Baptist Lancers.

They were ranked No. 1 for awhile in the NAIA, but lost to the league’s No. 18 over the weekend. None of the players, conferences or even schools in the NAIA ring any bells, which is going to lead me to believe that not many folks have scouting reports on these kids.

I can tell you that they rely on three players to do most of their heavy lifting, however. Seniors Omar Krayem and Mark Roussin average 18.2 and 17.8 points a game, respectively, while sophomore Davey Hopkins chips in 14. Yes, his name is Davey.

The Lancers have okay depth on the bench, including a 6-foot-three-inch FORWARD (that’s what he’s listed as, anyway) that averages just over 10 points a game.

Regardless, tonight’s matchup should be a runaway win for the Pirates. The Lancers have no real size outside of Roussin, which will allow John Garcia, Robert Mitchell and maybe even Mike Davis dominate the small Cal Baptist team. I could see Garcia popping for 20-plus points and 15-plus rebounds easy, if they even need him on the floor that long.

Cal Baptist is a great team for their league, but shouldn’t be butting heads with a Big East school, especially right before getting into their own conference schedule. Cal Baptist seems to know this, though, and officially list the game as an exhibition.

If anything I’d say that gives them a few points… they have legitimately nothing to lose in this game, and can play without any regrets. Seton Hall, meanwhile, would be torn to pieces if they lose.

I’m still calling a massive win for the Pirates, though I could see Cal Baptist giving them a good 15 minutes.

If you need somewhere to listen to the game tonight, check out www.wsou.net, where the call’s free.

That’s all for now, folks.

-Skip

The powers that be have unanimously named John Marinatto commissioner of the Big EAST. Marinatto will take over when current commish Mike Tranghese officially retires this summer after having held the title for 18 years.  

The decision to put Marinatto in charge is no real surprise. He has worked as Tranghese’s second-in-command for seven years. Marinatto said during a press conference on Wednesday that his highest priority as commish will be to arrange the next series of bowl opportunities for the conference’s football teams since current bowl contracts expire after the 2009 season. Read More

 “I truly believe that the next decade will prove to be the best decade in the history of the Big East conference and for its members.” – John Marinatto

Adam Zagoria at SNY.tv caught up with Norm Roberts, Fred Hill and Bobby Gonzalez at Big East Media day on Tuesday and examined the New York teams’ recent struggles and promise for the future.

Zagoria also detailed the strength of the Big East this season, a year in which many believe up to 10 conference teams could make the NCAA tournament.

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