Breaking Down The Big East 2012-13 Basketball Schedule

Notable Games

Syracuse at Pittsburgh (February 2): Former and future conference mates square off perhaps for the final time as Big East members. There’s no love lost between these two teams, though the hardwood rivalry may soon lose its edge as the schools form new rivalries in the ACC. Don’t be surprised if the refs swallow the whistles in this game (they usually do anyway). Newly appointed Big East commissioner Mike Aresco won’t shed tears if these two teams labor through their lame duck season all bruised and battered. Syracuse hasn’t won at the Petersen Events Center since 2004, when the two teams combined for 95 points in a game that made a stop in overtime. If Syracuse and Pitt have a burning desire to play another defensive struggle in their final regular season matchup as Big East schools, they better get over it quickly. Scoring in the 40s doesn’t cut it in the ACC.

Marquette at South Florida (February 6): I don’t blame you if this game doesn’t tickle your fancy. And I don’t even fault anyone who chooses not to watch it. But this early Febuary meeting will tell us a lot about how each of these two programs stacks up. With the losses of senior leaders Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder, Marquette loses 48-percent of its scoring from last year’s team. How the Golden Eagles atone for that remains to be seen. Buzz Williams’ team will face its toughest offensive assignment of the season against South Florida’s blistering D, so this game should serve as a great litmus test for where Marquette stands offensively. The Bulls, meanwhile, will have their own challenges against the different defensive schemes Williams will throw at them. Marquette and South Florida are both NCAA tournament caliber teams thanks to their rigid defenses, but both schools have a lot to prove on the offensive side of the ball to amount to anything more than a bubble team in 2012-13.

Louisville at Notre Dame (February 9): No two teams in college basketball have engaged in a more competitive series over the last five years than Louisville and Notre Dame. In five of the last seven meetings, Notre Dame and Louisville have played into [at least one] overtime. Since the 2007-08 season, all but one game between these two programs has been hotly contested. The one blowout: a 90-57 Notre Dame thumping of then-No. 7 Louisville back in 2009. Recently, the two schools played a memorable, double-overtime thriller at the KFC Yum! Center in January of last season. Notre Dame came into the game smarting from a blowout loss at Cincinnati three days prior. Charged and motivated, the Irish pulled off the upset in Louisville, then reeled off 10 wins in their next 12 games while riding the momentum of that signature victory. Louisville has taken six of the 10 meetings with Notre Dame since joining the Big East, but last season’s double overtime home loss may be ringing louder than any one of those six wins, including the semifinal win over the Irish at the Big East tournament.

Louisville at Syracuse (March 2): Stop me where you’ve heard this before: The Big East, though rife with depth, lacks a strong upper tier of elite-caliber teams. Of the 15 schools remaining in the conference, only Louisville has the paper makings of an upper echelon team on a national scale. Even the Cardinals, with all of their strengths, sorely lack reliable outside shooting to avoid the huge offensive dry spells they’re prone to. Louisville was a bad 3-point shooting team last year, and that was with departing seniors Kyle Kuric (who had an off-shooting year) and Chris Smith leading the team from long-range. Still, if anyone in the Big East has the potential to become elite in 2012-13, it’s Pitino’s Cardinals. And if anyone is going to challenge Louisville for conference supremacy, it’s the team that lost just one regular season game in the conference last year. Syracuse swept Louisville in two offensive eyesores games last season, snapping a 7-game losing skid against the Cards entering the year. SU will have its hands full with Rick Pitino’s boy this go-around, but 34,000+ in the Carrier Dome bidding farewell to Louisville for the final time could be the neutralizer. Jim Boeheim will miss a lot of things about the Big East. I’m guessing having to play Rick Pitino at least once, often twice, per year won’t be one of them.

Syracuse at Georgetown (March 9): When Syracuse and Georgetown squared off on the final game of the first-ever Big East season (1979-80), this longtime conference rivalry was borne. Syracuse, toting a 57-game home winning streak at Manley Field House, had one last home tilt against Georgetown before moving into its new digs, the Carrier Dome. The Hoyas clawed back from a 14-point halftime deficit and upset Syracuse 52-50, snapping the longest home winning streak in Syracuse history. Following the final buzzer, then-Georgetown head coach John Thompson II snatched the P.A. microphone and proclaimed to the crowd: “Manley Field House is officially closed.”

That was how the script played out when the two teams locked horns during the inaugural Big East season. Now, in their final meeting as Big East foes, these two old school rivals deserves a similar sendoff. Does the stoic Jim Boeheim have something retaliatory up his sleeve, 32 years removed from that dark afternoon in Syracuse lore? If SU pulls out the win, does Boeheim take to the Verizon Center mike and declare: “The Big East is now officially closed.” Man, that would be great theatre. This isn’t Georgetown of the mid-80s, or Syracuse of the late-80s. The venom isn’t as ramped up as it once was. But there’s no holding back by the time March 9 rolls around. This is the last time these two hated rivals duke it out on the Big East regular season stage. Regardless of the quality of either team, these two programs owe it to their fans, to the conference as a whole, to go out with a bang.

Other Games To Keep An Eye On:

Providence at Georgetown (January 16)
Marquette at Cincinnati (January 19)
Connecticut at Pittsburgh (January 19)
Georgetown at Notre Dame (January 22)
Notre Dame at Syracuse (February 4)
Seton Hall at Rutgers (February 12)
Syracuse at Connecticut (February 13)
Cincinnati at Notre Dame (February 24)