Big East Tourney Notebook (Day 1, Session 1)
By: George Rodecker, Columnist
Photo Credit: St. John's Sports Information
Welcome to the Mecca, welcome to the World’s Most Famous Arena: Madison Square Garden.
And so it begins. The Big East Tournament. All 16 teams in their ever-loving glory.
Session #1
The thing about the Big East tourney and all of tourney week is that the phone never stops ringing and I keep running into some of the best people in the game. Conversations seemingly never stop popping up and the topics are most frequently about coaches coming and going as well as the draft status of players.
After a hearty Big East breakfast of hot dogs, chicken parmesan, ziti and soft pretzels (honestly, that’s what they had) I decided to walk the arena and scope out my sources.
Doris Burke is in the house. After doing color last night for the ESPN telecast of the UConn women’s 70th consecutive win, she scooted down to the Garden where she will do color commentary. Burke, a former Providence Friar has crashed the good old boys club of color commentary and has already proven to be one of THE very best. Burke speaks in simple terms, breaks down the game with relative ease and makes it an educational, yet entertaining for the fans. Glad to know she’s explaining what’s going on.
Ron Neclario is here as well. Neclario is the head coach of the highly successful Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens and has sent Duane Causwell, Royal Ivey and Rafer Alston to the NBA. Neclario perpetually hears his name mentioned for D-I assistant jobs. Maybe this is his year!
When FDU fired very long term head man Tom Green back in the summer, the handed the reins on an interim basis to Greg Vetrone a former disciple of Jerry Tarkanian. “Shoes”, as Vetrone is known lead the Knights to a 11-21 season, and was rewarded today by having the interim title removed and being named the head coach. Amazing what 11-21 can do for your career.
In the Big East opener Stan Heath and his No. 9 seed South Florida Bulls bested No. 16 seed DePaul 58-49 for their first ever Big East tourney win, and likely sent DePaul interim head coach Tracy Webster packing. Webster, who replaced his boss Jerry Wainwright, didn’t get very much more out of DePaul than Wainwright did, ending the season on a 13 game losing streak. Assuming the obvious that Webster is not retained, DePaul will prove to be one of the better but challenging jobs opening east of the Mississippi!
Meanwhile Heath, who has had remarkable success at previous stops at Kent State (30-6) and Arkansas (82-71 after a 9-19 start) has taken the Bulls to their 20th win against 11 losses with the DePaul victory, and has South Florida poised for ongoing success. They now get No. 8 Georgetown tomorrow at noon.
NBA scouts are all over the arena. I’ll be spending tons of time with this group – all in the hopes of getting more and better information regarding the players who are graded as draft ready.
UConn, the No. 12 seed versus No. 13, Saint John’s. Somebody forgot to tell the Johnnies that it’s UConn.
They have led from the start and with 7:59 to go lead the Huskies 51-42.
Several media types are offering up the notion that the UConn seniors are mailing it in and have quit on the coaching staff, their teammates and themselves. There’s plenty of media speculation about the coaching future of Norm Roberts at St. John’s and it’s all just that – speculation. University President Father Donald Harrington makes the eventual decision and he NEVER takes a spin on the rumor mill.
The folks running thee show here in the Garden acknowledged that this is the 25th anniversary of the Big East sending three teams to the Final Four. Never been done before or since. Then they called out Louie Carnesecca the St. John’s coach at the time.
With 5:20 to go, the Johnnies lead UConn 59-42. Is a rout on?
Several scouting services have the Huskies’ Stanley Robinson being drafted anywhere from 12 to 20. Every NBA scout I’m hearing from today says Robinson lasts way into the second round. He does nothing especially good enough to warrant lottery consideration. Besides the NBA guys are hearing the quit talk too and that doesn’t sit well with them at all.
Now there’s 2:29 to go and it’s 67-44. It’s no longer a rout: it’s now an embarrassment!
The final scores said it all: Saint John’s 73 – Connecticut 51. Wow!
For an opening session in a 16 team tourney it was entertaining. By the time the second session ends around midnight, I’ll look back and think tedious, not so entertaining any longer.
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