2.24 Around The Big East

We had what amounts to a full Saturday slate in the Big East, so let's get to it!

#10 Louisville 79, Seton Hall 61 - Gorgui Dieng is good at basketball. He had 23 points on 10 of 11 shooting, and eight rebounds, including six on the offensive glass. The Pirates actually took a 17-15 lead just after the 11 minute mark of the first half when Brian Oliver's Magic Ankle hit a three pointer. The Cardinals went on an 11-2 run after that, which was essentially the difference in this one. You can check in with Card Chronicle and South Orange Juice for more on this one.

#11 Georgetown 57, #8 Syracuse 46 - YAY! for our Jesuit brothers who watched their team defeat their biggest rival in their last trip to the Carrier Dome. BOO! for Syracuse coming in to the Bradley Center on Monday pissed off. Otto Porter scored 33 - THIRTY-THREE! - of the Hoyas' 57 points to power the Hoyas as they broke the longest Syracuse winning streak in Carrier Dome history AND held the Orange to their lowest scoring total in Carrier Dome history. THAT'S how you shut down a building, kids. Casual Hoya managed to hold their shit together long enough for a recap, while Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician managed to type something up while blind with rage.

Connecticut 81, DePaul 69 - DePaul's probably lucky that they managed to slap together a three point halftime lead. I can't imagine how ugly this final score could have been if they hadn't. Shabazz Napier had 28 points to lead the Huskies, meaning I get to enjoy him throwing that up instead of having nasty flashbacks to the MU-UConn game. For me, the highlight of this one were the tweets and retweets from The UConn Blog account describing the disaster zone that is the Allstate Arena experience.

Providence 76, Rutgers 72 - Hey, nice recovery, Friars! Providence ran off 19 straight at the end of the first half to give themselves a lead and Bryce Cotton popped in his 21st and 22nd points from the charity stripe with five seconds left to ice this one. It's nice to see them bounce back from having their four game winning streak snapped in resounding fashion by Syracuse. The Friars are currently 17-12 with a 7-8 record in Big East play, along with a 4-8 record against top 100 KenPom teams, so an NCAA tournament bid is probably out of the question here. But they've really turned into something here in Ed Cooley's second season. On the other side, the Scarlet Knights have lost nine of 10, and unless something goes REALLY well next year, I don't think Mike Rice will ever coach a game in the Big Ten. You can read On The Banks for more.