Big East Conference Notebook
Showtime
The luminary lights of New York City shine on basketball’s bright young stars. New Yorkers get a chance at an early sneak peak at many of the big-time future hoopers in college and beyond. Lamar Odom, Kenny Anderson, Lenny Cooke, now Lance Stephenson. Once upon a time it was Daryll Hill.
Hill, a four-year captain at Bayside’s Cardozo high school, was to be the next big thing, and when he committed to St. John’s the program seemed to be in very good shape. Things would soon take a turn for the worse, though, and Hill has gone through some trying times. However, through coaching changes, the Pittsburgh scandal and Abe Keita fiasco, injuries and other obstacles, “Showtime” has distanced himself from all of it and has remained one of the humanitarians while others have been disciplined, even expelled and lives were scarred. Through arguably the most trying time in St. John’s history, Hill was one of the better guys.
The Winner Within (Berkley Trade) by Pat Riley is listed as Hill’s favorite book. If he could have dinner with three people he’d like it to be with Mark Jackson, Jesus, and David Stern.
It was so sad to find out Hill will miss the rest of his senior year after withstanding all he could on the court with knee problems. Hill battled one of the toughest groups of league point guards in the history of the Big East and should eventually be remembered as one of the Johnnies’ all-timers.
Even without Hill, the Storm (6-8, 15-12) is on the verge of the 2007 Big East Tournament. “You have to go through some good stuff and bad stuff,” said head coach Norm Roberts following the Storm’s 60-55 victory over the Scarlet Knights. “There’s a lot of goals we’re trying to get to. This is one of them.”
The home wins over Rutgers (3-10, 10-16) and South Florida (3-10, 12-15) have allowed St. John’s to be on the cusp, which is very important for Norm Roberts, now in his third season.
Lucky Number Seven
Seven seems to be the absolute number to get into Madison Square Garden. Six wins will probably do it, but with three three-win schools left and three contests for each, you never know if someone will run the table. Rutgers, USF and Seton Hall (3-10, 12-14) each have three conference wins. The Hall, with a glimmer of hope heading into the final stretch, mailed it in by losing eight of their last nine. Cincinnati (1-11, 10-16) will join the others to be left out.
On another note for the Pirates, 6’7″ senior Mani Messi has left the team for undisclosed reasons, joining Grant Billmeier (injury) and Joey Cameron (transferred) among frontcourt personnel losses.
Golden Cheese
With a big win Monday night over Villanova (6-7, 18-9), Marquette snapped a three-game losing skid and after winning 8 straight, skepticism began to creep into the minds. But the Golden Eagles (9-5, 22-7) have gotten back on track with the convincing victory over the Wildcats. If the tournament began tomorrow, the Eagles would be the No. 4 seed with a bye playing the winner of Notre Dame/Connecticut on Thursday afternoon.
Both the Huskies (5-7, 16-10) and West Virginia (8-6, 20-7) had big non-conference opportunities for the league last weekend, facing the ACC’s Georgia Tech and the Pac-10’s UCLA Bruins. The Mountaineers took out No. 2 UCLA, 70-65. Connecticut had no open window versus the Yellow Jackets in an ugly game, falling 65-52. Unless a 2006 Syracuse-type run takes place in the tourney, Connecticut will miss the NCAA tournament for just the second time in nine seasons.
What a Caracter
After a seesaw 2006-07 season for 6’8″ freshman Derrick Caracter, the New Jersey native is starting to get it. He has averaged 12 points per game and a team-best 57.7 percent from the floor. In addition, he has dropped a ton of weight and is now on his way to being in tip-top shape. Caracter has only played in 10 games for the Cardinals this season, but is an integral part of why the ‘Ville is having much recent success.
Another reason for the success is junior Juan Palacios, who is 40 points shy of becoming the 58th player in Louisville history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. The Cardinalswould move ahead of the University of North Carolina all-time for the most players in school history to reach that milestone.
Caracter, Palacios and the emergence of a healthy David Padgett have all proved to be essential in combining to lead Louisville (9-4, 19-8). With star freshman guard Edgar Sosa and sophomore Andre McGee, Rick Pitino has once again done a brilliant job dealing with obstacles and so forth.
