Video Onions: McLemore, Mountaineers, Paul, Franklin and more...

Best way to relive some of last night's best plays, whether it was a dunk or Onions in the bank, is to see the video...

Let's start with Kansas, who barely escaped Iowa State at home, in overtime (97-89). The Jayhawks were down three in the final seconds, when Ben McLemore hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game. Chaos commences at the Phog.



McLemore finished the game 6-6 from 3, and 10-12 from the field, ending with 33 points. Kansas escaped this one and narrowly defeated Temple at home over the weekend. On the other side, The Mayor, Fred Hoiberg, will second guess his strategy not to foul Kansas, when his Cyclones held a 3 point lead under 5 seconds. The #foulordefend debate is a good on. Check out the hashtag on twitter.

Our old friends down in Morgantown, WV had a big road test last night in the Big 12. At Texas, the Mountaineers led by 3 with just five seconds left. They chose not to foul. Any guesses what happened next? From the corner....



Luckily, WVU ended up winning the game in overtime 57-53, which could have saved their season. A nice road win in conference to hopefully get Huggins' crew back on track.

In the Big Ten, it took only 3 minutes and change for Brandon Paul of Illinois to put Minnesota's Trevor Mbakwe on a poster.



Mbakwe and the 8th ranked Gophers had the last laugh though, winning 84-67.

Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State got his Dunk Contest resume tape ready last night, going a little Tracy McGrady, off the backboard to himself.



Other games of note in the Big East: Syracuse got a road win at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, beating Providence 72-66. The Orange rallied from a 9 point first half deficit. Rutgers, who is 2-1 after Daily Onions wrote about Mike Rice, got a nice road win over St. John's, while Villanova won its 7th straight game with a victory at South Florida. Nova heads to the Dome on Saturday to square of with Syracuse, and Daily Onions will be there.

The All "That Guy is Still in School?!" Team

We've all done it. You are watching a college basketball game and you see that player and you say, "Wait....he's STILLLL in school?" It happens a handful of times each year, and basically it means that the player is good enough to get solid playing time as a freshman, but not a sure thing at the next level that would lead them to leave school early.

This year is no different. Plenty of players out there that have been around around forever. Now presenting, the Daily Onions All "That Guy is Still in School?!" Team.

First Team
Peyton Siva - Louisville (Unanimous selection): Loyal reader Ramy actually sent us a text a few weeks back saying/asking "Siva is STILL at Louisville?!" See it really does happen.

CJ Fair/Brandon Triche - Syracuse: Fair has been a solid contributor for 4 years, but Triche is on the verge of getting the Craig Forth Award for starting every game of his four-year college career. Cuse fans will miss these two guys a lot next year (EDITOR'S NOTE: We had convinced ourselves that Fair had been at Syracuse for so long that he was a Senior. Well, he's only a Junior. So good news, he'll be back next year, and an automatic first teamer).

Miles Mason Plumlee - Duke: Good news, there is a younger brother Marshall, who is a redshirt freshman on the Duke roster.

Travis Releford - Kansas: Releford is a player that you might not know the name, but when you see him, you know exactly who he is...and then you wonder if he was a teammate of Mario Chalmers when Kansas won the National Championship in 2008 (he wasn't).

Kenny Boynton - Florida: We used to confuse Boynton with Erving Walker, who was a senior last year, similar type player. Probably leads to us thinking Boynton has been around for that much longer.

Second Team
Deniz Kilicli - West Virginia: The Turk. The Hook. The Beard. The no longer has the beard. Whatever you want to call him, he's been around way too long. Moutaineer fans are ready for him to be gone.

Mike Rosario - Florida: This one is a little tricky, considering Rosario started his career at Rutgers and then transferred to Florida. Rosario did match up against Johnny Flynn, who is now already (!) out of the league and playing in Australia. In fact, watch the video, maybe this is why Rosario left Rutgers




Derrick Nix - Michigan State: When you are a senior that is 6-7 and 290 lbs, its hard for people to miss you. Throw in the fact that you play for one of the nation's most recognizable programs, you are going to be seen a lot.

Rodney McGruder - Kansas State: One of Daily Onions favorite players, solely because of his last name...so close to McGruber!

Mike Brusewitz - Wisconsin: Big, white dude with a buzz cut that can shoot from outside and plays hard for Wisconsin. Sounds familiar, right? Well Brusewitz also used to have some flowing orange locks before he went with the Badger buzz, making him standout during his first two years on campus

Early look for next year's squad- Aaron Craft, Ohio State; Will Spradling, Kansas State. Both are juniors are could be honorable mentions this year.

Who'd we miss?

Syracuse with a "Lloyd Christmas" Victory

Saying that Syracuse's win at Cincinnati last night was the equivalent to Lloyd Christmas trading in the van for the scooter straight up, after driving a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction, might be stretch. But there's no doubt about it, this was a huge bounce back win for the Orange, totally redeeming themselves after Saturday's loss to Notre Dame.



After dropping its first game of the season at South Bend on Saturday(with Daily Onions in the building), Syracuse was on the verge of losing two straight conference road games, all in the midst of the academic Melo-drama. In front of a sold out crowd at the Fifth Third Arena, Syracuse would be facing a Cincinnati team playing good basketball recently (winners of 10 of 11 before the WVU game on Saturday), even though they were coming off a close loss to West Virginia in Morgantown. After being outplayed in the paint by Notre Dame's Luke Harangody Jack Cooley, Orange fans had to be a bit nervous going up against the Bearcats physical interior players, like Yancy "One Punch" Gates.

Put your hands up, in the air...Boeheim wins #877 (AP Photo)

Despite a deja vu all over again start from 'Nati, knocking down deep three, after deep three, Syracuse settled in and stayed in the game early (something that was lacking against Notre Dame). The Orange eventually took a 3 point lead into halftime, but a 9-2 run Bearcat run opened up the 2nd half and the Cuse was down by 4. Timeout Jimmy B. Time for the Orange to wake up, and they did. Over the next ten minutes, Syracuse outscored Cincinnati 14-3. That included a pair of threes from Scoop and Triche, and Kris Joseph became "the guy" that ESPN analysts were looking for at halftime. Joseph finished with a team high 17 points on 8-11 shooting. Scoop finished with 13, including a nail in the coffin 3 pointer in the final three minutes to put the game away for good. Sticking with the Christmas theme, Rakeem recorded a season high 27 minutes, and grabbed 9 rebounds. If Fab Melo is going to be out much longer, this is the production Syracuse will need to see from their freshman big man.

The Orange play host to West Virginia on Saturday afternoon. Huggies Boys are relatively young, but also have eighth year senior Kevin Jones, who is playing like an all-conference first teamer, as well as Truck Bryant (a poor man's Scoop). We think the Orange win this one at home (with or without Fab) by 7 points. Nothing comes easy this time of year.

Trip to South Bend: We were in person to see Syracuse fall to 20-1. A few comments on the Joyce Center and Notre Dame fans. Pretty cool place to see a game because the place is pretty small. Really not a bad seat in the place, even the highest seats would be the front of the 2nd level at a normal arena. I believe this is the first game back for the student section following winter break. They deserved to storm the court, but the overrated chant is still the worst chant in the history of sports. Really, a 20-0 team ranked number 1 is overrated. Also, I'm all for antics from student sections, but the U-S-A chants towards Syracuse's Baye Keita (Senegal) and Kris Joseph (Montreal), questionable. Also really enjoyed the 60-year (ballpark) Irish fan chanting "20-1" as the clock winded down. Thank you sir, I'll take those 20 wins in 21 games. Stay classy, Irish.

One time, at Big East Media Day....

If Midnight Madness is the official kickoff of college basketball season, then the conference Media Days are the....end of the first quarter? Hold on, what? Screw the football analogy (we'll get to an interesting analogy in a little bit though), let's just say, Media Day is awesome. We get to see who the coaches pick as the best teams and players in the conference, and you get to see a bunch of college kids look uncomfortable in a shirt and tie.

Scoop, in a Suit. (Syracuse.com)

Today was Big East Basketball Media Day in NYC, which is the home of one of the homes of Syracuse University basketball. The coaches selected Syracuse and UConn as the co-favorites for the league title this year. Next was Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Marquette, West Virginia, Villanova, Notre Dame and Georgetown rounding out the top 10. Jeez, this conference is tough.

On an individual basis, Pitt's Ashton Gibbs (and his undershirt) was selected as the Player of Year, while UConn's Andre Drummond was voted Freshman of the Year. Syracuse has Kris Joseph on the 1st team and Scoop Jardine on the 2nd team. West Virginia's Kevin Jones and Tim Abromitis of Notre Dame, both return for their 8th year of college, and were both voted as preseason 1st Teamers as well.

Daily Onions had the opportunity to attend Big East Media Day back before the 2002-03 season, when we were more Orange than Onion. We thought it'd be fun to reminisce about some of the names we chatted with that day at Madison Square Garden.

Let's check out the preseason 1st All-Big East honors that were handed out that day:

Probably taken before 1 of Bell's 6 NBA Games

• Brandin Knight, Pittsburgh - Selected as the preseason conference player of the year in '02-03, you can still find Knight in the Steel City, now as an assistant coach.
• Troy Bell (left), Boston College - This guy could absolutely light it up in college, is BC's all-time leading scorer, and had half a cup of coffee in the NBA.
• Emeka Okafor, Connecticut- Almost 10 years later, its crazy to think there was a debate over who should go #1 in the NBA Draft, Okafor or Dwight Howard. With that said, Okafor did win a National Championship, and has had a serviceable NBA career.
• Mike Sweetney, Georgetown - Undersized, big man for the Hoyas. Didn't have the body for an NBA career.
• Darius Rice, Miami, Jr.- Remember this guy? Freakishly athletic, McDonald's All-American, nephew of Jerry Rice. He ended up staying all 4 years of college, went undrafted and bounced around overseas and the D-League.
• Marcus Hatten, St. John's - Kind of like Bell, a pure scorer. Best memory of Hatten has to be playing for Uncle Phil at St. John's.

The 2nd team featured guys like: James Jones - yep, the same James Jones that is hitting 3s for the Heatles. He got his start in Miami as Hurricane; Chris Thomas - In a recent survey we just made up, this Notre Dame PG was voted most annoying player by opposing fans teams. Good to know he got an acting gig playing the PG in the movie Finding Forrester; Jerome Coleman - this Rutgers shooting guard led the Scarlet Knights to an upset over the eventual National Champions (Syracuse) that year in...New Jerrrrsey, and allowed me to exclaim "Send it in Jerome" (a Raftery fan even at a young age!) over the Syracuse radio airwaves. Shout out to Herve Lamizana as well.

Always a good time to look back at some of the players who came through the Big East. Carmelo Anthony was a freshman in 2002-03, and was picked to be the best Freshman of the Year in the conference, but was left off the 1st and 2nd team. Looks like Melo got the last laugh there.

Slick Rick: Why Don't You Sit the Next Few Plays Out

Speaking of laughs, today at Big East Media Day, Rick Pitino had some choice words about Syracuse and Pitt leaving the conference. Rick, who has been known to compare a tough start to a seasons to... 9/11, added this analogy to his resume:

"My problem is not them leaving," he said. "My problem is you did it in 48 hours. Don't run away with a girl after one date when you've been dating someone else for three or four years. You've been dating this woman for 30 years, show a little respect."

In case you forgot, Pitino, who has been married to his wife for more than 30 years, once met a woman in a restaurant, had a few drinks, and then proceeded to have sex with her in the bathroom. This occurred in 2003, and in 2009 Pitino admitted to not only having consensual sex, but also paying for an abortion. 

Pot, meet kettle. Hope you enjoyed media day.

Five Day Forecast

True or False: Two weeks from today conference tournaments will be underway. (True)
True or False: 17 days from today is Selection Sunday. (True)
True or False: Three weeks from today (Thursday 2/24), the Maaaadness will be in full swing (minus the first 4 play in games on that Tuesday). (True)
True or False: We are not excited. (False - see, you always have to throw a false in there to keep people honest)

With that in mind, Daily Onions needs to make sure we have clear eyes (and full hearts) leading into the month of March. That's why Daily Onions (along with the First Lady) will be taking a brief trip to "Camp David" (aka Florida), for some R and R. The blog will most likely be quiet until next Tuesday, unless Jimmer scores 100 in a game, Jim Boeheim invites the local media and all Big East officials over to his house for dinner, or CBS/Turner announces that the team of Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will be announcing the Final 4.

Before we go though, we want to give you a heads up on everything you should be paying attention to over the next five days (in chronological order).

Thursday

-NBA Trade Deadline - 3pm ET: We've already had two blockbuster deals this week with Carmelo coming to NY (27 points in his debut Wednesday night, as predicted by Daily Onions) and Deron Williams heading to.......'New Jersey' (SNL Governor Patterson voice). East Coast! Guaranteed there will be some lower level deals made on Thursday, but not sure there is enough movable firepower for another "Boom Goes the Dynamite" deal.

-Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls: A possible Eastern Conference Championship preview at the United Center. Two MVP candidates in Lebron and Derrick Rose. Joakim Noah in his second game back after missing 30 games with an injury. TNT in the building. In the words of 1991 Dunk Contest Commentator Magic, "It's gonna get exciting!" Bulls need a win after dropping one at Toronto on Wednesday night.

Guaranteed: Huggy will have his boys fired up for Pitt (AP)

-Backyard Brawlers: West Virginia at the Oakland Zoo. WVU is coming off a nice win over Notre Dame, while Pitt is coming off loss at St. John's. Odds are Pitt gets a W here, but if WVU is to pull another upset, good news is their fans won't be able to storm the court.

Saturday (I feel like Ahmad Rashad during "Rewind" on Inside Stuff)

-Your Mother's a Hoya: Syracuse at G-town, where the Orange will try to avenge an earlier home loss. Hmm, that's sounds familiar. Hoyas PG Chris Wright injured his wrist in Wednesday's loss to Cincy. Could be trouble in G-town.

Jimmer has played well on the road this year

-Jimmer Mania: In the most anticipated MWC game since....the last time the Cougs played San Diego State, #7 BYU travels to the Saint Diego (discovered by the Germans) to take on the fourth ranked Aztecs. Unfortunately, Gus Johnson won't be on the call for CBS, but this is the second game of a triple-header, so there should be signs of Raftery and Gus throughout the afternoon. Pretty crazy that one of these teams could be a #1 seed come tournament team, and both should be at worst a top 3 in a region.

-Cats and the Gators: And the silver spoon (too much?). Kentucky hosts Florida in the third game on CBS this afternoon. Luckily the Cats are at home. They lost AGAIN on the road in SEC play on Wednesday night (by 1 pt at Arkansas). Remember how Daily Onions has been telling you all along that UK can't win tight games? Make sure you keep listening. For what its worth - Kudos to CBS for a great lineup today. If you aren't on vacation, there is no reason you shouldn't be on your couch from 12pm-6 pm EST to watch these three games.

Sunday

-Three games tickle our fancy today. Pitt at Louisville (fun Big East game at the Yum); Purdue at Michigan State (Are the Spartans going to be hitting their March stride?); Maryland at UNC (Tarheels need to take care of business at home. Their final two games are at FSU and home against the Dukies).

-Bracketology: No, not with Lunardi. We're talking Accenture Match Play Golf. Who is your Final Four (hope it doesn't include Tiger). Final Day of play wraps up today, and should serve as a good primer for what a bracket of 64 looks like.

Big Monday

-Notre Dame hosts Villanova in the first game. Wildcats could use a victory, and a win on the road at Notre Dame would be a nice way to wind down the conference schedule. In game two, K-State will try to pull off another upset on Big Monday (beat Kansas two weeks ago). This time will be a little tougher, as they'll be on the road in Austin......Austin, Massachusetts.


That's all you need to know for the next five days. Now make sure you pay attention to what happens. There will be a quiz on Tuesday.

Happy Valentine's Day from Daily Onions

To Daily Onions loyal readers, random Google alert folks that have stumbled upon our site, and friends of re-Tweets and Facebook posts that clicked to see what we were all about:

We love you, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Rick Jackson hopes to deliver Valentines and a 'W' vs. WVU

I could think of no better way to spend Valentine's Day then by being with four of my favorite people (Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas and Sean McDonough and of course the First Lady of Daily Onions) for Big Monday. Even better, tonight's game features one of my loves, Syracuse basketball, against a team that is near and dear to the heart of many of my closest friends, West by God Virginia.

Hearts and cupids aside, Daily Onions is declaring this a "must win" for Syracuse. They've dropped three in a row at the Carrier Dome and have lost five of their last seven games. The Orange can't take the Mountaineers lightly. A scrappy WVU team will enjoy their return trip to the Dome, a place 11 months ago they beat Washington and upset Kentucky to advance to the Final Four. After WVU, the Cuse hosts an improved Rutgers team, before playing two on the road against Georgetown and Villanova. They finish the year at home against Big East winless, DePaul. Safely, I'd say Cuse goes 2-2 in that stretch, which means a win against WVU would hypothetically get them to 10 wins in the conference.

While we're at it, if Rick Jackson can get back on the double-double train, Kris Joseph can take more than 6 shots and Scoop can make better decisions, that will make this Valentine's Day even better.

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy V-tines Day,

Daily Onions

Coaches Gone....

Daily Onions has been watching lots of hoops lately (obviously), and it seems like the last few days we've seen more and more coaches absolutely BLOW UP on their players on the sideline. We're talkin' in your face, dropping F-bombs, dirty looks...ya know, what you would do to someone that did something unlawful...not make a mistake on the basketball court. With all the coaches gone wild incidents lately, it got us thinking, what else are coaches doing this year?

Coaches Gone....

....Wild The leaders in the clubhouse for this one are John Calipari at Kentucky, who had to apologize publicly for cursing out (view the video from 4:45 - 5:00) freshman Terrence Jones in the final minutes of UK's loss on Tuesday at Alabama. Mike Rice of Rutgers doesn't care if you are one of his players or an official, he's going to give you EVERYTHING he's got, for pretty much the entire game.  Not sure how that guy (or his players, for that matter) survives. K-State's Frank Martin can get you two ways, with his screaming and with his scowl. If you had a nickel for every time Frank Martin looked like the scariest man on earth, you'd be rich.

Huggins' casual look helps him get low (Reuters)

....Casual Bob Huggins of West Virginia has perfected the black pants with the black pullover windbreaker look over the last few years. Um, you know West Virginia's colors are Blue and Gold, right? Ok, just checking. Meanwhile, Pat Knight at Texas Texas goes with just a polo shirt, or spruces things up with the polo shirt/sweater vest combo.  I guess when you father is known for his sweater, you need to come up with your own thing.

....Young During Big E Hoops weekend, we saw Bob Morris's Andy Toole (30) roam the sidelines as the youngest coach in Division 1 Basketball. More well-known coaches include Josh Pastner (31) at Memphis, Brad Stevens (34) at Butler, and Jeff Chapel (of Duke fame) at Oklahoma (35). For those of you scoring at home, Jim Boeheim is a spring chicken at 66 years young.

....Lazy This tends to happen at the end of games and more so in the NBA then in the college game. Tie game, 10 seconds left, coach calls timeout to draw up a play.  The play consists of getting the ball to your scorer, clearing out and letting them take a few dribbles, pull up from 15 feet and shoot a fall away jumper with a hand in their face. That's the best you could come up with?? At least give me a ball screen.

Dress for success Jay Wright (Getty)

.....Fancy Which goes to the best dressed man in college basketball, Jay Wright. What is Jay Wright better at doing - recruiting or picking out suits? I say toss-up. Known to have top recruiting classes each season, Wright consistently gets talent from NYC, Philadelphia and NJ. He also consistently rocks three-piece suits and pocket squares. The one of the more unbelievable things about Wright's suits/coaching, is that he never loses the jacket, heck, he never unbuttons the thing. That is impressive. Let's hope the 30,000 plus in the Carrier Dome tomorrow afternoon make things a bit uncomfortable for Mr. Wright, and maybe he has to loosen the tie. Don't bet on it (the tie loosening, that is).

Survive and Advance - Big E Hoops Weekend Recap

That title is normally saved for post season tournament play in college basketball, where all that matters is that you survive the game and move on to the next one. Well, I think the same can be said for Big E Hoops Weekend. In a long, run-on sentence, here is a recap of the weekend: We came, we saw, we conquered, we watched hoops, we watched football, we danced, we ate, we drank, we dougied, we won, we lost, we played some hoops of our own, we stimulated the mind at a museum, we acted as if we were in college again, we laughed, we cried, and we dominated. In the words of the late Jim Valvano, "If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special." Well we did that for 4 straight days, and it was really something special.

Now a quick look back at the three college basketball games we caught live.

Brandi with Bob Morris

Bob Morris 60, The Mouth 57 - Due to (thanks to?) the Steelers playoff victory win against the Ravens, we arrived for the second half of this NEC matchup. Cost of admission was free, and approximately 150 people were placed throughout the stands. Highlights of this game included sitting two rows behind the Monmouth bench, catching some flack from the "Colonial Crazies," seeing the looks of shock on the Monmouth coaches and players when they realized they had a 9-person cheering section (as well as two signs - "The Mouth is in the House" and "Take it to the Mouth"), a successful alley-oop completed by Monmouth, and the purchase of 4 soft pretzels and 3 boxes of popcorn for only $10.50. Despite the Mouth falling by 3, it was an exciting start to the hoops start of the weekend.

Welcome to WVU - good luck finding your seats

West Virginia 68, Purdue 64 - In a semi-gold rush filled concrete jungle, aka The Coliseum (where it takes you 20 minutes to figure out their seating sections), the Mountaineers outlasted the 8th ranked Boilermakers from Purdue. When John Flowers and Kevin Jones are each knocking down a couple of threes in the final ten minutes of the game, you know things are going  WVU's way (not to mention the Turkish Hook from Deniz Kilicli). Purdue's JaJuan Johnson was fun to watch, as he put up 26 points and 7 rebounds. One downfall to the game included the fact that Gus Johnson was broadcasting the game for CBS, and we were not able to hear his calls first hand. The West Virginia home crowd was great down the stretch of the game, which was close the whole way. Purdue had a great look at a 3, which would have tied it with about 5 seconds left. We were a little disappointed to see the WVU student section "storm" the court after the victory. If you are 9 months removed from the Final Four, I don't think you should storm, especially when you are actually favored (ya know, that whole gambling/lines thing) by 3.5 points. Granted Purdue was ranked #8, but they had lost their previous game on the road in Minnesota. Bottom line, act like you've won games like that before. Overall, our trip to Morgantown was a success, as we even toured the campus, watched the Pats get dismantled by the Jets at a local bar after the game, and ended the night with a DP Dough.

The Peterson Events Center is a pretty damn tough place to play.

Pitt 74, Cuse 66 - I've seen a lot of basketball games in my life, whether it be as a player, coach, broadcaster, fan, spectator, whatever it might be, BUT I have never seen a half of basketball like what we saw at the sold-out Peterson Events Center Monday night. (12,995 was a record sell-out for them, aka the lower bowl of the Carrier Dome). Saying 4th ranked Pitt jumped on 3rd ranked Cuse early is an understatement. They opened the game 19-0, and Jim Boeheim had to burn two timeouts within the first five minutes.  I didn't think Cuse was going to score. With every missed Syracuse shot and Pitt make, the Oakland Zoo and Co. (including Pitt alum Larry Fitzgerald) got louder and louder. Without their leading scorer Kris Joseph (concussion), Syracuse looked scared from the start. Finally, Scoop Jardine hit a three pointer eight minutes into the game.  Cuse was on the board, and they didn't stop there. The Orange countered the Pitt 19-0 run, with a 17-0 run of their own. Then Pitt went on a 7-0 run to answer....then Cuse went on a 7-0 run. So with 1 minute left in the half, the score was 26 - 24, all scored in runs. Trading baskets didn't start happening until the final minute of the half, as Pitt grabbed the 31-27 lead.

Syracuse came out much better in the second half, and finally tied the game with about 13 minutes to play in the game. That tie only lasted a few seconds as Pitt answered right back with a 3. Syracuse would cut it to 1 point again a few seconds later, but from there it never got closer than 4 points down the stretch.  A little run by the Panthers (which included a few questionable calls against the Cuse) would push the lead up to 10. No more runs left for the Orange. With that said, if you are a college basketball fan, the Peterson Events Center is a great place to see a game, especially a Big East matchup of top-ranked teams. The Oakland Zoo student section is very good, despite their uneducated, "Overrated" chant in the final few minutes (the worst chant in sports).

On the positive side of things, Syracuse got great games from two of their freshman CJ Fair and Dion Waiters - probably their toughest game as a college player thus far. That will definitely help Cuse as the season progresses, but they clearly missed Joseph.  His status for this weekend's game with Villanova is still unknown.

And with that, Big E Hoops weekend came to a close. All the "local" home teams won, and Daily Onions was 2 for 3 on our predictions. We are hoping the basketball scheduling gods help us out again next year, as it looks like this is a weekend we'd definitely like to repeat.

Big E Hoops Weekend Preview: Game 2 - Purdue University vs. West Virginia University

As you can see, the quality of the games increase as Big E Hoops Weekend goes on, and we shift from the NEC to a Big Ten - Big East match up on Sunday afternoon.

Boiler Up

Official Name: Purdue University

Daily Onions Name: Purdon’t

Location: About 130 miles from Chicago, Indiana

Conference: The Big 10/11/12 or Legend/Leader?

Mascot: Boilermakers

Famous non-sports alumni: Neil Armstrong, astronaut; Seven Nobel Prize winners; Founder and CEO of C-Span, Brian Lamb.

Famous sports alumni: John Wooden, greatest coach ever; The Big Dog, Glenn Robinson; Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints Quarterback.

You might know them because….A perennial Top 25 team, the Boiler Makers used to be coached by Gene Keady, who had quite the hair situation going on, on top of his head. The clever student section even called themselves the Gene Pool. The past two seasons, Purdue has lost their best player Robbie Hummel to ACL injuries.

This year’s team: Coached by highly respected Matt Painter, in his 6th year, Purdue is currently ranked #8 in the country. The Boilermakers are at Minnesota on Thursday night before making the trip to WVU. To date, they are 15-1, 4-0 in conference, however they have not played anyone in the Top 25. The next two games should be great tests on the road.

Roster Check:Purdue depends on their two seniors to do much of the heavy lifting. Guard E'Twuan Moore averages 19ppg, 6rpg, 3apg, while forward JaJuan Johnson is a 19ppg and 8 rpg guy that shots close to 50% from the field. Keep your eye on Ryne Smith, a 6-3 guard that can hit from anywhere.

Best Player: JaJuan Johnson is pretty fun to watch. The 6-10, 221 lb string bean forward is one of the most versatile players in the college ranks. He can pretty much score from anywhere on the court, gets to the free throw line 6.5 times per game, and also blocks 2.5 shots per game on the defensive side of the floor. If the Mountaineers don't control Johnson, they'll have a tough time winning.

Almost Heaven

Official Name: West By God Virginia University

Daily Onions Name: WVU - Dub-V

Location: Dirty, West Virginia

Conference: Big East

Mascot: Mountaineers

Famous non-sports alumni: Emmy Award winner, Don Knotts; Lady Gaga's mom; John Chambers, President and CEO of Cisco Systems.

Famous sports alumni: Jerry West (NBA Logo); Pac-Man Jones, NFL cornerback and someone that likeded da scrip club; Andrew Luck’s Dad, Oliver (current WVU AD); Rod Thorn, President of Philadelphia 76ers.

You might know them because….you got Pittsnogled a few years ago in the NCAA tournament. Or you followed the Mountaineers run to the Final Four last year, led by senior Da'Sean Butler. Unfortunately Butler was injured in the semi-final game against Duke, and we all had to witness one of the more awkward moments in college basketball between Bob Huggins and Butler. Or you've hugged the person next to you in a bar while singing John Denver's Country Roads.

This year's team: After losing Butler and underachieving Devin Ebanks from last year's Final Four team, it was hard to tell what the Mountaineers would be this year. They struggled at times and have lost to Minnesota, Miami, St. Johns and Marquette - all games they very well could have won. Their biggest win of the season came on Saturday, when they went to Georgetown and out-grinded the Hoyas, winning by 6. Bottom line for the 'Eers, they lack the go to guy that they had the last two years with Butler. Kevin Jones was their top returning player, but he is the perfect #2 or #3 option on a team, not necessarily the #1 option. Luckily, they've had senior guard Casey Mitchell step up to take on most of the scoring (averages 17.6ppg), and he can shoot it from behind the arc.

Roster check: Senior guard Johnnie West is the son of WVU legend and NBA Hall of Famer, Jerry West. Guard Joe Mazzula is still on the team, even though it seems like he's been there for 8 years. Starting point guard Darryl Bryant, goes by "Truck".

Best player: From a pure scoring, take the shot at the end of the game standpoint, I think you go Mitchell.  From an all-around standpoint, a guy that you want on the court for all 40 minutes to do anything you need him to do, give me Kevin Jones.

Daily Onions Prediction: We are going to hold off on the actual game prediction until Friday, as we want to see how WVU and Purdue fair in their games tomorrow night. Some things that we can guarantee: Coach Huggins will be in his black pull over jacket and black pants, and if the Mountaineers do indeed win, there is a good chance we'll be having a few drinks with Hugs at a local watering hole after the game.

Coming Thursday/Friday: Preview of the main event - Syracuse vs. Pitt, and a guest blogger joins Daily Onions.

The Weekend that Was

Kemba was kept in check for only so long. (AP)

-Kemba Walker reads Daily Onions! Or at least that's what I am telling myself, after he went out and willed UConn to a win on the road at Texas. Using my post last week as bulletin board material, Kemba was 8-27 shooting and he scored 22 points, including this ridiculous shot as the shot clock was expiring at the end of the game. He also hit the game winner in overtime and grabbed 9 rebounds. Big time win for the Huskies, and they get Rutgers and DePaul next.

-Georgetown continues to baffle me. I want to like the Hoyas and possibly pick them as a team to go deep into the tournament, but late game situations have been killing them of late.  Despite having an experienced PG in Chris Wright, the Hoyas turned it over on their final four possessions of the game against West Virginia. For the game, Wright had 5 turnovers and 2 assists...not really what you are looking for from your floor general. G'town drops to 1-3 in the Big East and now has to host Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. On the flip side, huge with a capital U, win for the Mountaineers. Exactly what they needed after dropping two of their first three conference games.

-University of Kentucky fans took out their frustration on the Enes Kanter decision on a New York Times writer, and then watched their team lose on the road to Georgia, 77-70. Hey UK fans, your team might be young and immature, doesn't mean you have to be.

-As predicted on Friday, Villanova knocked Cincinnati from the unbeaten list. Other notable results from the weekend: Penn State knocked off Michigan State, Colorado beat 8th ranked Missouri, Notre Dame beat St. Johns, Kansas needed overtime to win in Ann Arbor, and UCF dropped their first game of the season at Houston.

-Coming tomorrow: Daily Onions starts to breakdown the games that are a part of the upcoming Big E Hoops Weekend.

Three Days, Three Games, Three Alma Maters

 Let the countdown to Big E Hoops Weekend begin.  You may be asking what is this Big E Hoops Weekend Daily Onions speaks of? Pull up a chair, its pretty cool.

Cuse Is In the House, Oh My God

As I’ve mentioned, I went to Syracuse University. Many of my closest friends that I grew up went to West (by god) Virginia University. Another one of my best friends went to Monmouth University.

Somehow, someway, the basketball scheduling gods have aligned and look what they’ve done. 

Saturday, January 15^th – Monmouth University (yep, they have a Division 1 basketball program) at Robert Morris University (in Pittsburgh, basically)

Sunday, January 16^th – Purdue at West Virginia University (in Morgantown)

(Big) Monday, January 17^th – Syracuse at Pittsburgh (in Pittsburgh)

Almost Heaven.

For those of you scoring at home, that’s three college hoops games, in three days, featuring the schools that my closest friends and I attended, all within an hour and a half of each other. 

Home base for the weekend will be the Palace of Brady and Brandi Smith in the Steel City. Final roster for the weekend is still being determined, but it looks like we’ll be going at least 6 deep.

What is this? The Monmouth Logo.

As we approach that epic weekend, Daily Onions will not only take a look at the teams participating in the games, but we’ll also highlight the people making the trip.

And I know you are all wondering….and the answer is yes. Daily Onions will have a running diary of all (well, maybe not all) the weekend’s activities. Stay tuned….just 28 days away.

Daily Onions Note: Check back later today for Daily Onions Christmas List!