College Hoops: Big East Big Dogs Rule the Kennel

Georgetown and Syracuse both avoided upsets last night to maintain some semblance of sanity in a conference that can come across as schizo at times.

The Hoyas, after being down by six at half on the road at Louisville, managed to lock down the upstart Cardinals in the second half with some stifling defense and poor UL shooting.

Offensively, Georgetown was led by Austin Freeman’s ridiculous 24 second half points, allowing the Hoyas to finally pull away from Pitino’s squad. The Hoya guard was simply unconscious from deep, hitting 5-6 from beyond the arc and 9-12 from the field. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap when a cat like Freeman finds his stroke.

In the other Big East headliner, Syracuse survived an offensive outburst from the Providence Friars, who seemed all too comfortable against the ‘Cuse zone. The recipe for defeating the Orange’s defensive rubik’s cube is unselfishness and hot shooting, and the Friars got both in the first half last night on their way to 53 first half points.

The ‘Cuse answered with an offensive outburst of their own in the second half, dropping over a nickel on the Friars behind the emerging post monster Rick Jackson and his 28 points on ridiculous 13-17 shooting.

If Jackson continues to give the Orange an elite back to the basket threat to go along with the deep sniper Andy Rautins and the athletic scoring wing Wes Johnson, the Cuse, in my mind, is the best team in America and a shoe-in for a one seed.

With a win Saturday vs. Nova, you can mark ‘em down on the one line.

This article was written by Kevin Berger of March To March

Follow Kevin on Twitter: @MarchToMarch