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The Big East Tournament Report: Opening Round

No drama on day one? How lame.
One thing is for sure; even if your team loses you can still see an entertaining game in the Big East Tournament. Minus the ‘Cuse game, there were some dandy contests. Since I did an entire postgame report on the Syracuse game, I will skip the contest and report on the other three.

#12 Providence v. #5 West Virginia
In the afternoon cap, we saw a Providence team with the lowest seed in the tournament, play a team that has been an interesting and inconsistent team. Tim Welch is a good coach, but you could tell that the Providence team was overmatched on paper to West Virginia. Providence hung in the game and kept it close, but West Virginia eventually pulled away. West Virginia held the Friars to only two field goals in the last seven minutes. This was a sloppy game with a lot of missed lay ups and errors. West Virginia advances to play Connecticut. Final Score: Providence 53 – West Virginia 58.

#10 Cincinnati v. #7 Pittsburgh
This was probably the best game of the day. While Cincinnati had been down by as much as 11, they continued to hang around and fight back. With just under seven minutes remaining, Cincinnati had the lead cut to two. Deonta Vaughn on Cincinnati almost single handedly kept Cincy in the game with 30 points, most of which came in the second half. But it was not enough as Pitt pulled away in the last minute to allow them the chance to face Louisville. Final Score: Cincinnati 64 – Pittsburgh 70.

#11 Seton Hall v. #6 Marquette
In the final game of the day, the Hall was playing in a friendly atmosphere against a Marquette squad coming off a loss to Syracuse to end the season. The Hall gave it the good old college try, but they could not ever get over the hump and take the lead in the second half. With about six minutes left, Seton Hall was only down by one point. They looked as if they would perhaps go on a run, but Marquette was simply the better team down the stretch. They will face Notre Dame in round two. Final Score: Seton Hall 54 – Marquette 67.

I managed to go 2-4 on the day with my predictions. Sadly the Hall could not pull one out for me and save face. Every higher seed advanced out of the first round, making a somewhat boring start to the tournament. We shall see if any teams can pull the stunning upsets on day two. The easy money would be on ‘Nova upsetting Georgetown, but do not count Marquette out of upsetting Notre Dame. Enjoy the quarterfinal round, and I will see if I can salvage some predictions for the second day.

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