Notre Dame Wins!

In the Daily Onions universe, this headline is true. Notre Dame did indeed win last night, on the basketball court. Eddie Lacy, AJ McCarron, Amari Cooper, Nick Saban, Ha Ha Clinton-Dixon (who doesn't love a Ha Ha) and AJ McCarron's girlfriend made sure that Notre Dame wasn't even close to winning on the football field last night.
Now that we've mentioned Katherine Webb, like every other blog out there, we can move on to the real reason we are here.
The Big East conference season is underway. It is time to figure out who is for real, who looked really good out of conference but has stumbled out of the conference schedule gates and who deserves some more attention from the conference.
Here are two teams that haven't had the conference starts they were really hoping for...
-Pitt Happens: The Panthers, coming off a disappointing season (College Basketball Invitational, anyone?), got off to a good start this year. With 12 wins in their first 13 games (one loss to Michigan), Pitt was ranked in the Top 25 as Big East play started. They lost at home to Cincinnati and then went to the RAC and fell to Rutgers. Things don't get any easier as tonight they'll be on the road again at Georgetown. Panthers staring at an 0-3 start in conference play. 
-Bearcats Down: The 'Nati was ranked #8 in the country just two weeks ago. Lots of chatter about how good they were and everyone was very high on Sean Kilpatrick (as they should be). They won their first 12 games, lost a tough one at home to New Mexico State by 1, and then kicked off conference play with a victory at Pitt. Last Saturday, St. John's came to town and downed the Bearcats, and then last night Notre Dame beat them on their home court. For those of your scoring at home, they've lost 3 of last 4 games, all at home. Not a good recipe for success in conference.

Order of Onions for the Hoyas

Before we get into last night's action, let's talk about Onions. Bill Raftery coined the phrase for when players come up with big time shots down the stretch. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, better than a classic Raftery "ONIONS" call. We can talk all about his other phrases and made up words that Raftery goes to throughout a game, but Onions is what we all want. Here is one of our favorite examples of an classic Onions call from last year's NCAA tournament.



Since it's Friday, here's another CLASSIC Raftery call, along w/ Gus Johnson. I wish we had a camera on what Gus and Bill looked like as they were doing this. I mean you have a couple of Onions calls from Raftery, you have Gus going nuts, even letting out a "Larry Bird" (where'd that come from), and you get a lot of weird noises.
                                                    

Anyway, back to current day. To follow up the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, last night kicked off the two day Big East-SEC Challenge. While tonight's games between Syracuse and Florida, and Louisville and Vanderbilt will get most of the hype, a few of last night's games had some classic finishes. Before we get to that, let it be known that Kentucky put a spanking on St. John's behind the ridiculous 15-15-8 (blocks) line from super frosh Anthony Davis. Providence got one back for the Big East with their nine point win over South Carolina.

The two exciting finishes featured Ole Miss getting a running layup in the final seconds of the game to break a tie and defeat DePaul in the suburbs of Chicago.

The best game of the evening was between unranked Georgetown and #12 Alabama, in Tuscaloosa. Bama used a 10-0 run in the final minutes to take a 55-54 lead with 12 seconds to play in the game. In a perfect world, Raftery would have been calling this game, but he wasn't. Regardless, Hollis Thompson w/ an order of Onions for the Hoyas.

This is a huge victory for the Hoyas, who have now knocked off Memphis and Alabama early on this season. Expect G'town to join the Top 25 next week.

Villa-Nosedive and Other Falls from Grace

Things haven't been as easy for Kemba lately (Getty)

After five days of relaxation in Florida, Daily Onions is back! We are a bit caramelized, but more than ready for March. Who's coming with us?

Well apparently there are a few teams out there that don't want their March performances to be something to write home about. Daily Onions will take care of the writing and we'll call out some of those teams that aren't exactly peaking at the right time. Let's start close to home in the Big East.

-Villanova: Jay Wright is all dressed up for the dance but the way his team is playing lately, it looks like his ride will be picking him up for an early exit. The Wildcats have lost five of their last seven, including home games to Syracuse, St. John's and Pitt. They've also lost at Rutgers and got embarrassed Monday night at Notre Dame, when the Irish drained 20 (not a typo) three pointers. There is no doubt that Nova has talent. One of their best players, Corey Stokes missed some time with an injury, but he's been back for the past three games. They'll need some of his hot shooting if they want to end their regular season with a W, at Pitt on Saturday. Good luck with that one. It looks as though, Villanova will be the 11 seed (seriously) in next week's Big East Tournament. If the Cats don't get things back on track quickly, they'll be back in the City of Brotherly Love before the first weekend of the NCAA tournament is even over, just like last year.

-UConn: The Huskies haven't been as bad as Villanova, but the last month of basketball hasn't been that pretty in Storrs. While Kemba Walker has been coming back down to Earth (ahem, told you so), UConn has dropped down the Big East standings as well. Since January 29th, UConn is 4-5. Prior to that, they were 17-2. Things don't get much easier for the Huskies, as they are at West Virginia tonight, which begs the question, if WVU beats #16 UConn, do they storm the court? Kemba and the crew then host the Big East's hottest team, Notre Dame on Saturday. Depending on how they fare, UConn could be in the mix for a double-bye in the Big East tournament, or they could be a 10-11 seed. Those possibilities are on opposites sides of the spectrum, similar to the discrepancy between the beginning and end of the season for the Huskies.

Grant and 'Bama still have some work to do

-Texas: A few March guarantees - St. Patrick's Day, baseball's spring training and grumbling in Texas about the Longhorns tailspin at the end of the season. As we've discussed in the is space before, we aren't confident in Rick Barnes and Texas down the stretch. This year's version of the epidemic includes losing 3 of their last 4 games against unranked teams (at Nebraska, at Colorado and home against a rejuvenated Kansas State) in the last week. We are going to "steer" (athankyou) clear of the Longhorns in the Big Dance not only because of their recent poor track record, but also because of the Daily Onions "Kentucky Corollary," where we stay way from teams that are too young and inexperienced. Four of the top six players for Texas are either freshman or sophomores. One final road test for this squad on Saturday at Baylor. A win would be huge for the youngsters confidence heading into tournament week.

-Alabama: The Crimson Tide will be staying in Sweet Home Alabama if they don't make a run in the SEC tournament. A few weeks ago we were praising 'Bama for being atop the SEC West standings. Well, they will still win the weak West division, but that's no lock to get them in. Back to back losses at Mississippi and Florida (a butt whooping), along with a poor out of conference schedule that included no real quality wins, Bama is now bubbling. Coach Anthony Grant and his perfectly tailored button down shirts need to win against Georgia on Saturday, and then win at least two games in the conference tournament to have a chance to get in to the Big Dance.

-Illinois: The Fighting Illini have a fighter's chance to get into the NCAA tournament. A tough schedule down the stretch hasn't done any favors for Bruce Weber's team. They are 4-7 over their last 11, including loses in 3 of their last 4 (Purdue, OSU, MSU). There is a possibility that Illinois could play Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, which would basically be an elimination game for the loser, with the winner still needing help. Whether Illinois is able to get into the tournament or not, this season has been a bit of a disappointment. With a team full of guys like McCamey, Davis, Tisdale, etc, there is no reason they shouldn't have been just behind OSU and Purdue battling for a Big Ten title.

Coming up in our next post, we'll go the other way around, and look at some of the teams that are starting to peak at the right time.

The Weekend That Was

-We'll start the weekend recap with a look at the Big East, which had a couple of close calls, mixed in with some easy Ws. Sanity seems to be restored in the Salt City (that's Syracuse for you non-orange folk) as the Cuse is back on a two-game win streak with a walk-on-in-the-game win at South Florida. Next up for the Orange, their biggest rival, Georgetown (your mother's a Hoya). Villanova took care of business with a W over WVU, while Pitt beat Cincy easily.  In other news, ranked teams UConn, Louisville and Georgetown all squeeeaked by lesser opponents (Seton Hall, DePaul, Providence) winning by a combined 8 points. Oh, and on Sunday, #8 Notre Dame (at home) was up by 3 with 30 seconds left against Rutgers, before winning by 7. Just your run of the mill weekend in the Big East. For those of you that think the Big Ten is a better conference than the Big East, grow up.

-Speaking of the Big Ten, Daily Onions will continue THE love fest for THE Ohio State University. While the Bucks are in the hardest stretch of their schedule, they easily won on the road in Minnesota on Saturday, 82-69. They now have a week to prepare for their toughest match-up yet, in Madison against #14 Wiscaaaaansin.

-Speaking of tough road games, Kentucky knows a thing or two about that. Last Tuesday, the Wildcats lost a heart breaker to Ole Miss by two. They followed that up with a another two point loss at Florida. That marks the third time Kentucky has gone on the road in the SEC and lost by two (at Alabama three weeks ago, as well). Throw in a loss at Georgia in early January, and the Cats are 1-4 on the road in conference play. You know what type of teams lose close road games? Young and Inexperienced teams. As we said back in December, that will be the Wildcats biggest weakness this year (experience), and that's why we won't be picking them to go far in the tournament.

-Speaking of the SEC, Alabama is 7-1 in conference! We are talking about the basketball team, not football team. They won in OT at Tennessee on Saturday night, beat Kentucky, and their only loss came at Arkansas. Thursday night they go on the road once again to take on #24 Vanderbilt. Will the Tide continue to Roll?