Now that we are a week into the 2010-11 college basketball season, the Big East started the day as one of four conferences that could say every one of their teams made it through the opening weekend without suffering a loss; the ACC, Big 12 and Mountain West are the others.

Although you would expect most of the Big East to make easy work of their early season cupcake opponents, the parity of college basketball that has become prevalent in recent years showed itself once again with some big-time programs needing some solid play to hold off so-called mid-majors.

St. John’s kicked off the BE season with a pair of wins against William & Mary and Lehigh last Monday and Wednesday, respectively. Both games weren’t all that convincing for St. John’s, however, the Johnnies leaned hard on sophomore Nurideen Lindsey and junior college transfer God’s Gift Achiuwa, and both answered with big games.

Let’s take a look at some of the other close calls.

Friday, Nov. 11:

West Virginia 78, Oral Roberts 71: The Mountaineers opened their season facing a stout Oral Roberts squad that was the preseason pick to win Summit League. Kevin Jones led four West Virginia players in double-digits with 20 points. Truck Bryant added 17 points, including the Mountaineers last eight.

Rutgers 62, Dartmouth 56: Another young team, the Scarlet Nights jumped out to an early lead, only to be matched by Dartmouth. Rutgers got their lead up to eight in the second halfbut couldn’t close the door completely, mostly due to their lack of ball security. The Scarlet Knights turned the ball over 16 times. Dane Miller led the way for Rutgers with 12 points.

No. 4 Connecticut 70, Columbia 57

No. 8 Louisville 83, Tennessee-Martin 48

No. 11 Pittsburgh 89, Albany 56

No. 21 Marquette 91, Mount St. Mary’s 37

Villanova 106, Monmouth 70

DePaul 91, Texas-Pan American 72

Saturday, Nov. 12

South Florida 61, Vermont 59: A close game throughout, South Florida’s lead was cut to a point with 10.5 seconds remaining. Shaun Noriega made the second of two free throws, giving the Bulls a two-point edge. Vermont’s Four McGlynn missed a game-tying layup with one second remaining and Matt Glass’ putback came after the buzzer, allowing South Florida to escape. SF’s Noriega led the Bulls with 17 points, and both Augustus Gilchrist and Victor Rudd Jr. had 12 points.

Seton Hall 75, St. Francis (NY) 71 OT: The Hall’s senior guard Jordan Theodore scored a career-high 25 points, including a game-tying bucket with a second remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. Herb Pope was a force down low for the Pirates recording his first double-double of the season with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Trailing most of the game, Seton Hall scored the last six points of regulation and took over in the extra period to get their first win of the season.

No. Syracuse 78, Fordham 53

Georgetown 83, Savannah State 54

Notre Dame 80, Mississippi Valley State 67

Providence 72, Fairleigh Dickinson 61

Sunday, Nov. 14

No. 8 Louisville 68, Lamar 48: The Cards didn’t have much trouble with Lamar but took a major hit as Mike Marra went down with a torn ACL. He’ll miss the rest of the season.  The injuries woes continue for Louisville who has already dealt with Peyton Silva, Stephan Van Treese, Rakeem Buckles and Wayne Blackshear all missing time due to injury.

No. 11 Pittsburgh 86, Rider 78: The high expectations of Pitt this year could have taken a hit as they played a sloppy opener against Rider that required a 16-5 to end the game to give the Panthers their second victory of the year. Ashton Gibbs scored 24 points and Nasir Robinson added 22

No. 22 Cincinnati 65, Alabama State 40

St. John’s 82, UMBC 59

Monday, Nov. 15

Providence 80, Fairfield 72: In a game that pitted new Providence coach Ed Cooley against his former team, the Friars got a big game from Vincent Council, who had 26 points and seven assists, and Bryce Cotton, who scored 24 points. Although the win is a good building block for Providence, it probably put a dent in Fairfield’s NCAA Tournament hopes. Already with the tournament, you ask? Yup.

Notre Dame 59, Detroit 53: Without their leader and top returning scorer, Tim Abromaitis, the Fighting Irish found themselves in a dogfight with Detroit. The Titans’ Ray McCallum lit up the Irish for 20 points. With 14 minutes left, McCallum scored giving Detroit a 41-33 lead. ND answered with a 14-0 run and kept Detroit at bay the rest of the way.

No. 4 Connecticut 78, Wagner 66

No. 5 Syracuse 92, Manhattan 56

No. 21 Marquette 99,  Norfolk State 68

Georgetown 86, UNC Greensboro 45

South Florida 81, Marist 67

DePaul 80, Mississippi Valley State 70

Game to look forward to:

St. John’s vs. (16) Arizona, 11/17, 9:30 p.m., ESPN2: The Johnnies will have their tallest task of the season Thursday when Arizona comes into Madison Square Garden for the 2K Sports Classic. Sean Miller’s Wildcats have been far from convincing in their first three games, and this is the type of game that Lavin can get his guys up for, especially playing in the Garden where the Red Storm thrived last season.

Last Year:

10-23 overall, 3-15 Big East (15th)

Coach:

Stan Heath (5th season, 41-54)

Projected starting five:

G: Blake Nash, So.
G: Shaun Noriega, Jr.
F: Victor Rudd, So.
F: Ron Anderson, Jr., Sr.
C: Augustus Gilchrist, Sr.

Important departures:

Jarrid Famous 8.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg
Shaun Noriega 6.4 ppg

Inside the numbers:

77 percent scoring returning
77 percent rebounding returning

Additions:

C: Jordan Omogbehin, 7’2”, 285 – ESPNU Pos. #30
G: Anthony Collins, 6’1”, 175 – ESPNU Pos. #70

Schedule:

Toughest nonconference game: 12/3 at (13) Kansas
Toughest in-conference stretch: 2/19 – 2/29 at (11) Pittsburgh, at (5) Syracuse, vs. (22) Cincinnati, at (8) Louisville

Prediction:

12th in BE; 17+ wins; NIT berth

What to expect:

After a disappointing 2010-11, the Bulls aren’t much better off going into 2011-12. Their stud, Augustus Gilchrist is one of the most talented big men in the BE, but his run-ins with coach Stan Heath cost him some games last year because of “philosophical differences.”

Still, there are some guys to look forward to. Jawanza Poland will return to the team in December after he recovers from back surgery, and Shaun Noriega can hit from anywhere in the gym if he’s feeling it. The additions of transfers Ron Anderson, Jr. (Kansas State) and Victor Rudd (Arizona State) will give Gilchrist some help of he is up for it.

The chemistry is all off with South Florida, however. They seemed to have the pieces to repeat their bubble-bursting 2010 campaign, but they never got on track. That will be the theme this year as well as Stan Heath tries to put his guys together to reach their potential.

Next: St. John’s Red Storm

Back to Big East preview

It started when the Bulls got just their third Big East road win ever at Providence in an amazing comeback around this time last year. With Augustus Gilchrist close to returning from injury and other players coming along, they looked ready to win games and even knock off a top team or two along the way. Sure enough, that happened, as just over a week after the win at Providence, they knocked off Pittsburgh, and a few days later went to Georgetown and got a win. A few weeks later, they ended the regular season with a win over Connecticut.

With all of that, USF looked like they weren’t far from finally arriving, and the thought was they might get closer in 2010-11. Gilchrist is back, Ron Anderson, Jr. was eligible after transferring, and Toarlyn Fitzpatrick showed plenty of promise as a freshman last season to give the frontcourt a good deal of talent. But the backcourt has not measured up, and that’s a big part of why the Bulls are 2-8 in Big East play after losing 68-63 at Providence.

Defense hasn’t been an issue for the Bulls. They held Providence to 42.3 percent from the field, including 5-16 on three-pointers, and on the season opponents are shooting just over 40 percent against them. They have a solid rebounding margin with their frontcourt leading the way. On the season, they have a bad combination of poor shooting and a high number of turnovers, as they lead the Big East in turnovers by a wide margin and only Seton Hall shoots worse from the field than the Bulls. On Wednesday, 16 turnovers didn’t help in the loss, especially with 40.7 percent shooting from the field and a 6-21 mark from long range.

“It’s too much to overcome. You’re not a good shooting team as it is, and you’re giving the other team multiple possessions,” said head coach Stan Heath. “So my focus is a little more on getting better with the basketball and making it easier.”

The backcourt doesn’t lack talent. Anthony Crater was highly-regarded coming out of high school, but didn’t last long at Ohio State before heading to Tampa. Jawanza Poland and Hugh Robertson have some potential on the wing, with Robertson giving them some size on the perimeter at 6’6″. Mike Burwell had a reputation as a scorer in high school, but has struggled since arriving in Tampa.

While the team lacks a shooter who can strike fear in opposing defenses, the bigger problem is getting someone to drive consistently to make things happen. Heath noted that they only got to the foul line 12 times on Wednesday, a reflection of how they played offensively. Poland gave them that for some of the evening, and the results were generally good as he led them with 20 points. He might be the driving scorer they need to potentially open up the outside game.

“I’d like to see him do more of that, and really that was one of our game plans was to penetrate against their defense,” said Heath.

The Bulls lost a lot with the early departure of Dominique Jones to the NBA. As Heath noted, they replaced the likes of him, Chris Howard and Mike Mercer with a lot of inexperienced guards, which always means growing pains in college basketball. It’s showing right now with the guards as a unit struggling to score and complement a solid frontcourt that can compete with just about any in the Big East.

USF has been within striking distance of victory often this season. Only five of their 23 games have been decided by 11 points or more, and they are 4-1 in those games. But they are 1-13 in games decided by 4-10 points, while they have actually fared well in one-possession games with a 3-1 mark. Being so close but falling short has, not surprisingly, not been easy.

“It’s not easy on the kids, it’s not easy on the coaches because you play people so close and you come up short,” Heath said.

There’s plenty of time for the perimeter to get better, especially with first-year players in key roles. The Bulls aren’t going to make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team, and getting to one of the other postseason tournaments will be very difficult this time around. But if the guards improve, especially by becoming better scoring threats, and the Bulls take better care of the ball, some of the close losses can turn into wins. They might get closer to breaking out at that point.

The keys:

1. Defense: “I thought we came out with good energy and defensive intensity,” USF coach Stan Heath said.  At the half the Bulls enjoyed a 30-15 lead largely due to a defensive effort that limited the Blue Demons to 23 percent shooting from the field. USF doubled down on inside threat Mac Koshwal of DePaul. No one from DePaul responded especially on the perimeter.
2. Dominique Jones: The Bulls’ outstanding junior scored a team-high 20 points while taking only five shots the second half. “Dominique doesn’t care about his points or shots,” Heath said. “He just wants to win. Their zone slowed him and didn’t give him many looks but he gladly sacrificed for his teammates.

The hot shooting of DePaul guard Will Walker, who tied for game-high scoring honors with 20 points, allowed the Blue Demons to rally. They cut it to a two-possession game late before USF regrouped.

Interestingly USF did not hit a three, shooting 0 for 8 from the field. They dominated inside with a 50-20 edge on scoring in the paint.  “We have guys who can hit (outside) shots and will,” Heath said. “If we didn’t hit a three and lost I would be concerned but we won so it isn’t a big thing.” The USF mentor did admit knocking down a few against second round opponent Georgetown will be necessary.

In a tempo free note…The game had 64 possessions, a moderately slow pace with the following efficiencies:

USF  91
DePaul 78

That, anyone will agree, is great defense. DePaul finished 8-23 while ,USF advanced to 20-11, the third twenty-win season in school history. Heath did not get into “bubble talk”, stating, “Our idea is to keep playing. You keep playing here and everything takes care of itself.”

“I’ve got to watch the tape myself to figure out how we got the game into overtime, but we did, and once we got a second chance, we did a great job of taking advantage of it,” South Florida’s head coach said after his team’s 109-105 win at Providence.

The final stretch couldn’t have started and ended more differently.  With 49 seconds left, the Bulls were down by nine after a layup by Providence guard Vincent Council.  A three-pointer by Chris Howard brought the lead down to six.  Council made one of two free throws, then a dunk by Jarrid Famous brought it down to five.  Council missed two more free throws, then a layup by Dominique Jones made it a one-possession game.

After Sharaud Curry made two free throws, Jones made a short jumper just five seconds later to get it back to three.  Curry then turned it over shortly after he got the inbound pass, and Jones found Toarlyn Fitzpatrick for a three-pointer from the left wing that swished home with one second left to tie the game.

Keep in mind, the Bulls are hardly a Big East juggernaut.  They have struggled since they first joined the conference, came into the game 2-35 all-time in Big East road games and were 1-5 overall in the Big East this season.  So just winning would have been big, no matter what the fashion.

“Our road history hasn’t been very good, and this may be the biggest road win our program has had in a Big East game,” Heath said.

Once overtime started, the Bulls took over.  Certainly, the psychological aspect of blowing a lead was a major disadvantage for Providence, and the Bulls took advantage as they never trailed in the extra session.

Although the Bulls have struggled in the Big East, this isn’t a team lacking in talent, although depth is questionable.  Jones, who scored 46 points on Saturday, has been on a tear ever since he scored just five points in the conference-opening loss at Louisville.  Howard is passable at the point and Georgia transfer Mike Mercer can score, while Famous has some upside and Fitzpatrick has a chance to be very good as he grows up.  Ohio State transfer Anthony Crater has talent but hasn’t found his footing yet.

Heath said Fitzpatrick, whose game-tying three-pointer capped a 12-point, eight-rebound outing where he made all four shots from the floor, has made steady progress.  Fitzpatrick was fourth on the depth chart among post players when practice started, but moved into the starting lineup when Augustus Gilchrist went out with a severe ankle sprain.  He won’t be moving out of there anytime soon.

“His confidence is really growing,” Heath said.  “He’s really maturing.”

Speaking of Gilchrist, the Bulls could get him back soon.  He has missed the last 11 games and is almost certain to miss Thursday night’s game against Seton Hall.  Heath said Gilchrist is walking, and next Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh is a possibility.  If he doesn’t return then, the February 3 game at Georgetown is one Heath is confident he will be ready for.

“Within two or three games, I think we’ll see him,” Heath said.

If he comes back and is the player he was before the injury, the Bulls suddenly become a dangerous team.  This won’t make them a contender, but they could play spoiler late in the season if they come together the way they appear capable of.  Right now, they only go six deep, but being able to bring another good player off the bench will also help the team’s depth.

Saturday night’s win could be the first boost for this team.  Heath won’t figure out right away how his team did it, but he’s more than happy with it.  Once they get Gilchrist back, future wins might be easier to figure out.