Just about every team in the Big East has a star player or two. In Wednesday night’s matchup with Villanova visiting Providence, each team had an inside-outside combo, and while one can debate whether one duo is more talented than the other, let’s just say it’s a wash for the sake of argument. The Wildcats bring two McDonald’s All-Americans off the bench, which gives them an edge, but what made all the difference was what they got from two complementary players, two players that Providence doesn’t have anyone quite like. And Wednesday night was not an aberration in that regard.

Cruising through Jeff Adrien’s bloodstream is an overabundance of adrenaline. That’s a big reason he has evolved into UConn’s leading scorer, and all the while the Huskies have become the leading team in the national polls.

A quick rundown of this weekend’s action from around the nation, a call to break-up the streaking Northwestern Wildcats, and Gonzaga taking care of conference business.

It was three simple words, buried in the middle of a few comments, but they speak volumes. “Penn teams win.” That came from Penn freshman guard Zack Rosen, who has quickly made an impact on the Quakers. It was certainly evident on Friday night, when Rosen helped lead them to a 66-60 win at Harvard to start off Ivy League play with a win.

Wolff swished a 50-footer against as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half. At the time it seemed like more of an anomaly than an impact play, as the Terriers entered the half leading the University of Maryland-Baltimore County by 17 points (39-22). Two overtimes later, Wolff’s heave stood out, as BU needed every single point in their 80-77 win.

Once again, Virginia Tech comes away from a game looking like a team on the verge, but not breaking through to pull off a win. Their 67-66 loss at Boston College is just the latest close loss for a team that’s been a little snake-bitten. Virginia Tech has lost seven games this season. Six of those losses have been by four points or less, with the aberration being their 25-point loss at Duke nearly four weeks ago.

The stage is set for a supreme dogfight between UConn and Providence at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs on Saturday. The No. 2 Huskies have won eight straight following a listless home loss to Georgetown, while the Friars have won four consecutive games at UConn.

Is Lance Stephenson the greatest, or just the latest, of a long line of New York prodigies? His story is made all the more interesting by the many who have come before him.

A year ago, a game like this must have seemed so far away, so unimaginable for Sharaud Curry. It had to be a pipe dream, something he could only imagine happening at a time when his team was struggling without him, when they needed him. It was a game many imagined happening last year, certainly. There was a time when Curry was well on his way to becoming one of the top point guards in the Big East, emerging nicely as a sophomore. With that, there were high hopes for him as a junior and for his team. But they never materialized, the result of a well-chronicled foot injury that forced him to redshirt after playing just nine minutes last season.