Big East Conference Tournament Notebook
NEW YORK – It was clearly evident Louisville was not ready for the bright lights of the big apple.
2 media timeouts, 1 hot dog, 1 Poland Spring and 3 Mark Jones walk-bys later, Louisville finally made a field goal.
The New York Rangers also had finished their match in Atlanta and returned home.
The Cardinals actually connected for their first field goal with 9:17 left with the second coming at the 4:30 mark. The result was a 39-16 deficit at the break. A resilient second half effort made the final score respectable, a 61-56 loss to Pittsburgh.
The main story though from the first two days at MSG has been Syracuse dethroning No. 1 UConn. The Huskies, marred by horrific shooting and what appeared to be a half-hearted first half effort, fell 86-84 in overtime. Commissioner Mike Tranghese, who has been here all 27 years, described the thriller as one of the greatest games he’s ever seen in the Big East Tourney.
Syracuse, who on Wednesday did not use a single substitution in the second half versus Cincinnati, turned to Gerry McNamara. “Without Gerry we wouldn’t have one 10 (bleeping) games this year. Okay not 10,” said Jim Boeheim in response to speculation on G-Mac’s capabilities.
After hitting the game-winner against the Bearcats, McNamara, with 5.4 seconds remaining, went the length of the floor and hit a three-pointer to tie and force an overtime session, where they’d inevitably go on to win by 2.
In the first semifinal on Friday the Orange play Georgetown, who defeated Marquette 62-59. Villanova and West Virginia/Pitt will play in an exciting second semifinal.
Meanwhile Mike Wilbon, Andy Katz, Allen Houston and the logo Jerry West are all here. Also, it is being reported that starting in 2007-08, every member team will play each other, with three specific Big East opponents twice on each schedule.
