Posts tagged ‘Tim Welsh’

It’s been a while since I filled this space. Since then, I’ve married and moved, and I’ve finally settled to the point where I can again attend to my Visions. I hope I didn’t leave you in a lurch and that you’re glad I’m back.

There’s a lot to cover, and I’m not going to do it all in one day. There are coaching changes, transfers, early-entrants and recruiting headlines to deal with over the coming weeks. We also have to do a little post-mortem for what happened at the end of March and begin to look ahead to next season.

That’s a lot to do, but I think we’re up for the challenge. Come here for the detailed analysis and opinion, and go to NBE Basketball Report for day-to-day news and notes. He’s on top of the daily doings in the Big East — and especially the recruiting scene. Between this space and his, you shouldn’t need to go to anyone else — including Andy Katz (and, of course, you should never read Seth Davis) — for some Big East love.

Today, we’re going to discuss the two coaching changes in the Big East. I’m not going to take the hackneyed stance that sees each team’s coaching search as evidence that the Big East is too brutal to attract top candidates. That’s been done, and it’s only partly true. We’ll get to that aspect of the situation, but there’s more than just that one storyline.

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There’s just one week left before the Big East Tournament, but so much has not been decided — at the top, bottom and middle of the conference.

We are the champions: Before the season, folks were about split about who they thought the best team in the Big East was. Four months later, and it appears that those two teams will play for the right to call itself the best when Louisville travels to Washington to play Georgetown on Saturday. Both teams are 14-3 in conference and off in this mid-week and therefore have about a week to prepare. Georgetown will have to figure out how it can get an inside game going that will earn it more than the four free throws the Hoyas shot in Louisville a month ago. Louisville will just be trying to cap a tremendous run of excellent basketball. The Cardinals have won nine straight, including a 14-point win over Villanova on Sunday.

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Here’s a look at the action in the Big East this weekend. Every team is playing, with seven conference games and one big non-conference rivalry matchup.

Connecticut at Notre Dame (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN): The Big East’s marquee game on Saturday features a pair of teams fresh off impressive openers. Like Notre Dame, Connecticut has a short turnover and the Huskies play a second road game in three days. The big question will be whether UConn’s frontcourt will be able to defend Luke Harangody and Rob Kurz. A couple of other involve Notre Dame’s ability to take care of the ball, and UConn’s guards’ ability to hit shots.These are a couple of evenly-matched teams, but with the Irish at home and so solid offensively, Mike Brey’s team should be the pick. If Connecticut does win, then my preseason third-place prediction won’t look as farfetched as it did a couple of weeks ago. Irish by 8.

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