Hot off the presses (or, um, out of my e-mail inbox), the Big East Conference’s weekly honorees…

BIG EAST OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Dion Lewis • Fr. • RB • Pittsburgh • Albany, N.Y. Lewis ran for 180 yards on 31 carries, including touchdown runs of 1 and 58 yards, to help Pittsburgh improve to 3-0 in the BIG EAST with a 24-17 win at Rutgers. Lewis averaged 5.8 yards per carry against a Scarlet Knight defense that had limited opponents to just 2.3 yards per attempt. Lewis leads the BIG EAST and ranks third nationally in rushing (131.1 yards per game).

BIG EAST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Lawrence Wilson • Jr. • LB • Connecticut • Tuscaloosa, Ala. Wilson had a game-high 16 tackles — the most by a BIG EAST player this season — to go with a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery to lead a Connecticut defense that forced four turnovers in a 38-25 win against Louisville. Wilson leads the BIG EAST with 66 tackles this season and is 19th nationally with 11 tackles per game.

BIG EAST SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Jacob Rogers • Jr. • K/P • Cincinnati • Warsaw, Ind. Rogers was a key player in Cincinnati’s 34-17 win at No. 21/21 USF as he scored 10 points and averaged 45.1 yards on seven punts. Rogers made field goals of 37 and 29 yards, had a long punt of 53 yards and had two kickoffs go for touchbacks.

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL

Zach Collaros, QB, Cincinnati — Came off the bench to rush for 132 yards and two touchdowns while going 4-for-7 with 72 passing yards in a 34-17 win at No. 21/21 USF.

Andre Dixon, RB, Connecticut — Ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns on 33 carries in a 38-25 win against Louisville.

Jon Dempsey, LB, Louisville — Had a game-high 16 tackles — the most by a BIG EAST player this season — with a half sack and a tackle for loss in a 38-25 loss at Connecticut.

Devin McCourty, CB, Rutgers — Had 11 tackles, including a tackle for loss, and registered his fifth career blocked kick with a punt block in a 24-17 loss to Pittsburgh.

Reed Williams, LB, West Virginia — Had eight tackles with a forced fumble and two pass breakups to help hold Marshall to 207 yards of offense in a 24-7 win.

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Concussions from sports are now officially an epidemic, says the Centers for Disease Control. CBS’ 60 Minutes examined that, and the brain diseases that are linked to concussions. The bits with Hall of Famer John Mackey – who lives in a facility and suffers from dementia – were awfully convincing of how scary this can be.

Makes you think Owen Schmitt (a former Mountaineer) should rethink smacking himself with a helmet.

Shame this one isn’t at West Virginia. Greg Paulus could try the shoe-on-the-other-foot thing, and maybe even in front of Cam Thoroughman. 

The last time Paulus took on West Virginia, he was one of the blue blooded elites (re: the point guard of a Duke team that counted eight McDonalds All-Americans on its roster). West Virginia was an aspirant, led by a first-year head coach who happened to also be an alum.

The NCAA Tournament bracket pit Duke and West Virginia in a second-round match-up in Washington, DC, the Blue Devils went up five at the half and then West Virginia pulled out a stifling, life-taking man-to-man defense.

Duke missed 15 straight threes, tiny reserve guard Joe Mazzulla gave Duke’s backcourt fits and the ostensibly no-named, low-regarded Mountaineers upset Duke, 73-67.

“I do remember that well,” Paulus said today, speaking on the weekly teleconference that’s part of the duties of his new gig, as Syracuse’s starting quarterback.

Paulus recapped the game that ended his junior basketball season, he wouldn’t be baited into calling West Virginia’s celebration uncouth (“They definitely celebrated” was all he’d offer) and he made only a benign transferral, saying “playing in all those big games, I think that has helped.”

Yes, but now, look at what this match-up is. Paulus is the underdog Joe Alexander was for West Virginia: Alexander barely played as a high school senior at Hargrave Military Academy, Paulus hasn’t played football in the four years before this one. Doug Marrone is in his first year at his alma mater, just as Bob Huggins was in Morgantown two years ago. West Virginia has definitely recently been the Big East’s fancy recruit-filled elite. (I’m not going to force the blue blood tag. I’ve been to Morgantown.) Syracuse hasn’t had many recognizable names on its locker stalls in the last few years.

If Paulus needs any sort of reminder of the power in all that, he can just pull up this old game story. It’s the one where Thoroughman, a 6-foot-7, 235-pound reserve forward heard about the eight All-Americans and asked if Paulus was one of them. And when told yes, he said, “Oh my God, are you kidding?”

So what’s Paulus these days? Blue blood or blue collar?

Ed note: Cam Thoroughman is no shrinking violet. Here he is decking one of Paulus’ old teammates. I’d wager he’s probably one of Puskar Stadium’s better hecklers.  

Who does the Bulls’ hair?

Okay, that out of the way, there’s B.J. Daniels, South Florida’s brand-new starting QB. He makes his debut Saturday, at Florida State, and then, he’ll become the Big East’s third one-time hoopster to start under center. Daniels played in 19 games, averaged 2.8 minutes and finished the season with three field goals, seven rebounds, four assists and, uh, 12 personal fouls.

Of course, football success isn’t predicated on basketball success. West Virginia’s Jarrett Brown played hoops for the Mountaineers two years ago, quit, and is now not only the starting QB, but a player Louisville Lb Jon Dempsey said he’d like on his own team.

Greg Paulus started three years on Duke’s hoops team, lost his starting job his senior year and then came up to Syracuse, won the starting QB job and has helped revitalize Orange football.

As for other basketball-turned-football players playing today…

USC WR Jordan Cameron went to BYU to play basketball, transferred to Ventura JC and is now a two-sport guy for the Trojans. He played in three basketball games last year.

Louisville WR Josh Chichester spent his football redshirt season as a reserve for Rick Pitino.

TE Jimmy Graham put in four years on Miami’s hoops team, earned a degree in marketing and management and is now spending a fifth year playing for Randy Shannon.

DE Matt Lagrone played basketball at Nevada for two years before transferring to Oregon State to play football with his younger brother.

Houston TE Fendi Onubon has a Paulus story – he played basketball at Arizona for four years and then went to Houston for a fifth year and football.

Baylor’s leading receiver, Kendall Wright, spent the off-season as a reserve on the Baylor basketball team.

This is making me think of Shaq’s show and when he played football “against” Ben Roethlisberger. I have to think basketball players are better athletes than football players… what do you think?

Talk about worst possible outcomes.

In the aftermath of a 92-66 drubbing at the hands of the Mountaineers, it’s hard to believe that the Pirates were within eight points during the second half.

West Virginia had six players in double digits – the Hall only had six different players score, for the record – shot better than 50 percent from the floor, and simply overwhelmed the flailing Pirates.

Jeremy Hazell gave the Hall everything he could, with 29 points, but received little to no help. Robert Mitchell, coming off an impressive performance against Syracuse, was neutralized. His 2-11 mark from the floor hurt.

John Garcia came back, but wasn’t even close to 100 percent. That can be evidenced by his zero points and five fouls in 16 minutes on the floor.

It all leads into what will be another tough one for Seton Hall when Villanova rolls into town on Tuesday. The Wildcats lost their Big East opener against Marquette two days ago, and will come to South Orange hungry.

I’ll have more on that as it approaches.

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It’s about an hour from Gametime at The Rock, and the Pirates are gearing up to host the Mountaineers.

West Virginia hasn’t played a Big East game yet this season, so you can expect them to come out ready to roll. They’re winners of four straight, and destroyed Ohio State last weekend.

The Mountaineers are 10-2 on the season, only falling to Kentucky and Davidson. They aren’t as hyped as an upper echelon team this season, but have plenty of talent – and certainly come packing with enough to be heavy favorites today.

Local kid Da’Sean Butler killed the Hall last year, and will likely do so again today. He’s a step ahead of what the Pirates can throw at him. Alex Ruoff and Darryl Bryant are talented enough to run with the Pirates’ guard heavy attack and, like everyone else in the Big East, West Virginia has a deeper bench than the Hall.

For Seton Hall to come out of this with a win, they’ll need Jeremy Hazell to be lights out, and Robert Mitchell will have to play like a man that’s five or six inches taller. Otherwise, it could get ugly.

Every team wants to get its first conference win, but todays really represent something for the Hall. The Pirates next three games are against Villanova, Notre Dame, and Connecticut – which means a loss today makes an 0-5 start all that more likely.

I’ll be back throughout, or after, the game.

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Oh what a difference conference play makes.

Bobby Gonzalez’s one game suspension for the Big East opener or no, the Pirates got whacked by Syracuse on Tuesday night. The 7 percent mark from three point range was a nice kick in the rear too, especially considering the Hall’s general success from long distance this season.

In the end, a loss really could have been anticipated. Syracuse is an elite team, Seton Hall is not – pretty simple math. It’s, as usual with the Hall, the how that really grinds things home. The Pirates were never in this basketball game, and looked entirely overmatched in every aspect.

Worse, in Mike Davis’ first chance to really impress he looked like… well, Mike Davis. It seems quite apparent to me that until John Garcia returns, the Hall will need a minor miracle to beat the Big East teams with legit big men.

Fortunately for the Hall, they won’t be outsized all that much by West Virginia in tomorrow night’s contest. The Mountaineers are good, but sheer size isn’t their game.  That said, Da’Sean Butler could still eat the Hall up in his homecoming (he hails from Newark, so I’m envisioning quite a following for him at the Prudential Center).

I’ll have more on the game itself tomorrow, now that I’m back from my unfortunate hiatus.

That’s all for now, y’all.

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