St Joseph's

2008 Maui Invitation Bracket Announced

Press Release — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:43:20 -0700

MAUI, Hawaii, Aug. 5, 2008 – The EA SPORTS Maui Invitational today announced the official bracket for the 2008 edition of the nation’s premier early-season college basketball tournament. Marking its milestone 25^th year, the eight-team competition will return to Maui’s ocean-front Lahaina Civic Center Nov.24-26.

Battling this year for the coveted Wayne Duke Championship Trophy, will be North Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas, Indiana, Oregon, Saint Joseph’s, Alabama and host Chaminade. Six of the seven Division I teams in the 2008 lineup participated in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, highlighted by North Carolina’s Final Four appearance and Texas’ run to the Elite Eight. The field also includes three former national champions – North Carolina, Indiana and Oregon – with 10 NCAA titles between them.

The ESPN networks will combine once again to offer live television coverage of all 12 tournament games. In addition, ESPN360.com will provide live simulcasts of the games televised on ESPN and ESPN2.

“Throughout its history the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational has become synonymous with the kickoff of the college basketball season,” said Tournament Chairman Dave Gavitt. “We look forward to commemorating the tournament’s 25^th year with another impressive field vying for Maui glory. Fans from across the nation can look forward to a memorable experience, on and off the court.”

First-round action tips off Thanksgiving week on Monday, Nov. 24, with Game One featuring Atlantic 10 team and Maui newcomer, Saint Joseph’s, led by coach Phil Martelli, against 2008 Elite Eight participant and three-time Maui team, Texas, under head coach Rick Barnes. The winner of this game will take on the winner of Game Two, pitting in-state rivals for battle as five-time national champion and 2002 Maui champ, Indiana, guided by new coach Tom Crean, will face head coach Mike Brey and Notre Dame, a growing BIG EAST force returning for a second appearance at the Lahaina Civic Center. Four-time national champion and two-time Maui titleholder, North Carolina, will hit the hardwood in Game Three, as Hall of Famer Roy Williams pilots his highly touted Tar Heels in a contest with 2008 PacWest Conference champion and tournament host Chaminade, which pulled off an upset over Princeton in Maui last year. The winner of that game will square off with the winner of Game Four, which pairs two teams making their Maui debut: head coach Ernie Kent will call the shots when former national champion and 2007 Pac-10 Conference titleholder, Oregon, plays against the Crimson Tide of Alabama, a Mark Gottfried-led team looking to make its mark in paradise.

The semifinals will take place Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN, with the winners advancing to the championship game Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 10 p.m. Eastern (also on ESPN).

Poll: What Will be Friday's Big Upset?

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:43:23 -0700

Poll: Which Double-Digit Seed Will Advance the Farthest?

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:53:52 -0700

2008 NCAA Tournament Capsule: St. Joseph's

Joel Welser — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:37:41 -0700

St. Joseph’s Hawks

Atlantic 10 (21-12, 9-7)

Big Wins: 2/4 Villanova (77-55), 3/6 Xavier (71-66), 3/14 vs Xavier (61-53)

Bad Losses: 12/4 Holy Cross (66-71), 2/18 La Salle (89-90), 2/28 Saint Louis (55-64)

Last NCAA Appearance: 2004, Elite Eight loss to Oklahoma State

Coach: Phil Martelli (6-4 in 4 NCAA appearances)

Probable Starters:

Tasheed Carr, Junior, Guard, 10.9 ppg, 5.6 apg, 4.1 rpg

Darrin Govens, Sophomore, Guard, 9.7 ppg, 2.4 apg

Pat Calathes, Senior, Guard, 17.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.3 bpg

Rob Ferguson, Senior, Forward, 11.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.2 bpg

Ahmad Nivins, Junior, Forward, 14.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.2 bpg

Key Roleplayers:

D.J. Rivera, Sophomore, Guard, 4.4 ppg, 1.6 rpg

Garrett Williamson, Sophomore, Guard, 5.4 ppg, 2.7 apg

Why They Can Surprise:

As a team, St. Joseph’s shoots almost 40 percent from three-point land. Pat Calathes, a 6-10 wing, hits over two per game, as does guard Darrin Govens. Unlike Govens, Calathes does a lot more than shoot three’s. Calathes will use his height to create some major mismatches. He has the speed of a guard, but is not opposed to using his height to his advantage around the basket.

The last superb long range shooter on the team is 6-8 power forward Rob Ferguson. He has the best three-point shooting percentage on the team at nearly 44 percent. With Calathes and Ferguson hoisting up three’s, the Hawks have a couple big guys who can hit the three with consistency and that is big trouble for the opposing defense. St. Joe’s does not just shoot well from three, but they shoot well from everywhere, including the charity stripe.

Why They Can Disappoint:

Logically speaking, if your small forward is 6-10, you would think rebounding would not be a problem. But it is and it is not Calathes fault. He grabs a team high 7.5 boards per contest. Ferguson does decent enough for a guy who spends a lot of time on the perimeter and fellow starting forward Ahmad Nivins grabs a respectable 5.9 rebounds per game. The problem is the lack of depth up front. There are practically no other options and Ferguson and Nivins play about 33 minutes per game. Barring foul trouble, Ferguson and Nivins will probably play even more minutes in March. And they better grab more boards. Interestingly, Calathes, Nivins and Ferguson all average 1.2 or 1.3 blocks per game. Despite all the tall bodies around the basket on the defensive end, the Hawks opponents shoot a decent 43.6 percent from the floor and Coach Phil Martelli would definitely like to see that number go down a bit.

Who To Watch:

Point guard Tasheed Carr fits into a lot of categories. He can hit the three-point shot, although at a much lower percentage than some of his teammates. He can also help out on the glass and averages over four rebounds per game. The transfer from Iowa State is also a solid defender, but of course it is his ball handling and passing ability that is most valuable to the team. Carr dishes out 5.6 assists per game and has a solid 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. Carr is one of four players who average double figures in the scoring column and even when somebody is not scoring, somebody else will be and that is difficult to stop. Then it is just a question of St. Joe’s stopping the other team.

By the Numbers:

Scoring Offense: 74.0 (80^th in nation, 6^th in conference)

Scoring Defense: 67.7 (144, 7)

Field-Goal Percentage: 47.9 (25, 2)

Field-Goal Defense: 43.6 (157, 10)

Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 7.4 (97, 7)

Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: 39.1 (22, 3)

Free-Throw Percentage: 72.1 (75, 6)

Rebound Margin: 0.2 (176, 7)

Assists Per Game: 14.9 (74, 5)

Turnovers Per Game: 12.8 (51, 3)

- All 2008 Tournament Capsules

- More 2008 NCAA Tournament Coverage & Brackets

- Sign up for CHN's Free NCAA Bracket Challenge.. win a Wii, Guitar Hero, and other prizes!

Game Predictions: SJU/Temple, UCLA/Stanford

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:55:30 -0700

Saint Joseph's (21-11) vs Temple (20-12)

6:00 PM

Many think that St. Joe's locked up a tourney bid by beating Xavier yesterday.. but I'm not so sure. If Temple wins, the committee may be reluctant to give the A10 a third bid, especially in light of the WCC already getting 3 teams in. Either way, this should be an extremely close and competitive game. Both of their previous meetings were decided by a single point.. and there's no reason not to expect a hard-fought, neck and neck game throughout. This is a must watch game.. but unfortunately most won't see it.

Prediction: Saint Joseph's

#11 Stanford (26-6) at #2 UCLA (30-3)

6:00 PM CBS

Some have the perception that conference tournaments don't matter for Top 25 teams, but extreme effort and a high level of play can be expected in the Pac-10 title game. Stanford is still bitter about their controversial OT loss to the Bruins just 10 days back.. and is hungry to exact revenge. Considering UCLA is the #2 team in the country and the game is in LA, its a testament to the respect Stanford has that they're only 3 point underdogs. The Brook Lopez/Kevin Love matchup is as good as you'll find in college basketball.

Prediction: UCLA

Boise State (24-8) vs New Mexico State (21-13)

9:00 PM ESPN2

Its certainly been a disappointing year for the WAC.. no serious at-large contenders and an eventual champion that might be seeded below the likes of Austin Peay, Cornell, Belmont, etc. New Mexico State has been playing good ball of late though, winners in 10 of 11, and they get to host the Championship game. Due to the home-court advantage, the Lobos are heavy 7 point favorites. Based on how other non-neutral final games have gone (American over Colgate, USD over Gonzaga, etc), its a no-brainer to go with the home team here.

Prediction: New Mexico State

Other Big Games:

UNLV vs BYU - The MWC Title game (BYU)

Akron vs Kent State - The MAC Title Game.. can Akron steal a bid? (Kent State)

Pittsburgh vs Georgetown - Can G'Town be stopped? No (Georgetown)

Previous Game of the Night (Predictions, 97-56)

March 13th - Ohio State vs Michigan State (2-1)

March 12th - Arizona State at USC (2-1)

March 12th - Syracuse vs Villanova (2-1)

March 11th - IUPUI at Oral Roberts (3-0)

March 10th - Gonzaga at San Diego (1-2)

March 9th - Florida at Kentucky (1-2)

March 8th - UNC at Duke (2-1)

March 5th - Tennessee at Florida (2-1)

March 4th - UNLV at New Mexico (3-0)

March 3rd - Texas Tech at Kansas (3-0)

March 2nd - Clemson at Maryland (1-2)

Friday Night Championship Week & Bracketology Update

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:24:10 -0700

A Friday night update on all things Championship Week with an eye on the bracket.. - Miami, the Ohio version, almost caused havoc by knocking Kent State out of the MAC tournament. But the Golden Flashes managed to pull of a 49-47 win, ensuring that at least for another day the MAC is a one bid league. - I've said this many times.. but its too bad Dominic James has never learned how to hit a jump shot. The Golden Eagles made a nice comeback to make a game of it against Pitt, but ultimately Marquette couldn't hit shots. Outside of Jerel McNeal, the rest of the team shot a dismal 25% (12 of 48) - SFA was supposed to be the class of the Southland, but their solid season came to a close tonight. The Demons of Northwestern State came back from a big halftime deficit to advance to the conference finals. SFA came into today with an RPI of 57 and will hope to do some damage in the NIT. - Speaking of damage (never a good segue..), the SEC semifinal matchup between Georgia & Kentucky has been postponed. Unless a team plays twice tomorrow, I'm not sure what's going to happen there. - One guy who wouldn't mind doing some damage to Kentucky is Tubby Smith. His Gophers upset Indiana in the Big Ten quarters and now face fellow surprise Illinois tomorrow afternoon. You have to figure Minnesota is the favorite to advance to the finals.. and there's no reason not to think they'd give Wisconsin or MSU a game. Taking Minnesota to the Big Dance would be an amazing accomplishment for the first-year coach. (It would also be an embarrassment to a league that most likely wont get a team past the Sweet Sixteen). - I'm usually a big ACC proponent, but man has that league's tournament been boring. - Tulsa's good run continued, beating UTEP in OT a day after knocking off UAB in OT as well. In their last 12 games, Tulsa is 10-2, only losing to Memphis and UAB. The Golden Hurricane (seems like a lot of Golden nicknames in action today) face Memphis tomorrow.. and though they won't win, it might be closer than you'd expect. - A day after scoring 0 points, Roy Hibbert came through with his best statistical game of the season.. 25 points and 13 boards against West Virginia. On the flip side, Joe Alexander's tear came to an abrupt end with just 12 points on 5-16 shooting. - Congrats to Saint Joseph's for being a rare bubble team that actually won some games down the stretch. Beating Xavier (rather easily too) should probably lock up a Tournament bid. But then again, if Temple won the title tomorrow.. the committee might shy away from giving the A10 3 bids. - American worked their way into the tournament, beating Colgate in a hard fought game. I thought the Raiders played every bit as well, but home court was the deciding factor here. - If anybody suggests to me that Va Tech should be in the NCAA Tournament, I'll slap them in the face. If they beat UNC tomorrow.. then that's a different story. But as of now, this is still the same team to me that struggled to put away Liberty at home..

Team of the Moment: St. Joseph's

Raphielle Johnson — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:45:05 -0700

St. Joseph's 21-11 (9-7 Atlantic 10) Computer numbers (as of Thursday courtesy of kenpom.com): RPI 50, SOS 62 Result today: Beat Xavier 61-53 in an Atlantic 10 semifinal. Dayton had their shot at knocking off the conference champion Musketeers and bolstering their at-large resume but couldn't take advantage of the opportunity. The Hawks, led by Pat Calathes' 24 points and eight rebounds, took care of business and in the process may have punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. St. Joe's had three players reach double figures tonight, but the more impressive stat is their holding the Muskies to 36.5% from the field and 1-14 from behind the arc. They're in pretty good shape right now, but the best thing to do would be to leave no doubt and win tomorrow night's final. It's starting to look more likely that the Big 5's streak of having an NCAA Tournament team for each of the last 31 years will live another year. On the clock: Charlotte and Temple. Another thing that St. Joseph's beating Xavier may have done is give the Atlantic 10 a shot at three bids. The winner of this semifinal, due to tip off in a matter of minutes, plays for the automatic bid tomorrow. Xavier, St. Joseph's and maybe one of these two? You never know.

Today's Poll: Which Mid-Major Has the Best Shot of Making the Dance?

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:35:23 -0700

Thursday's Mid-day Championship Week Update

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:25:56 -0700

A little mid-afternoon update on a busy Championship Week Thursday.

How do you spell done?

How do you spell done? U-A-B. The Blazers killed their slim tourney hopes by bowing out early in the CUSA tournament. Their resume doesn't really matter at this point as Mike Davis and co. will be a 3 or 4 seed in the NIT. Tulsa, quietly winners of 9 of 11, has a good chance to make it to the CUSA finals as they face Houston or UTEP next.

Break out the deoderant

Villanova will be sweating it out on Selection Sunday. After mercifully ending Syracuse's season, the Wildcats never really had a chance against Georgetown. The Hoyas looked fresh and focused, and are primed to make a Big East title run. Villanova meanwhile pretty much has to sit back and hope other bubble teams bow out as well.

Enough about OJ

Don't get me wrong, OJ Mayo's a great talent. But despite the fact the announcers talked about him for 40 straight minutes (over and over and over), he's not the second coming. He's just a really good talent that also has a lot of flaws.. particularly a tendency to make careless turnovers, take poor shots, and an ugly somewhat flawed release (which can be fixed). Anyways, he's good and was the difference in USC's win over Arizona State.

ASU trailed most of the game and could never mount that one big charge in the 2nd half. Now the Sun Devils just have to pray that they've done enough to impress the voters.. but unfortunately they probably haven't. 5-10 in your last 15 games simply won't cut it.. neither will a non-conference SOS of 304. Villanova, noted above for example, should get in instead.

Wacky A-10

St. Joseph's was somehow the 5 seed to Richmond's 4.. despite being a far superior team. Just one of the consequences of the league's highly lopsided schedule. The Hawks easily blew by the Spiders, and still have an outside chance of reaching the Dance. They match up well with Xavier, and a win in the semis would be their 5th Top 50 victory of the season. Xavier knocked out Dayton, whose bubble hopes have also burst. The Flyers had many chances to make a game of it down the stretch, but lack a true go-to player on offense. Brian Roberts is a nice player.. but he can't break down a defense and take over a game. They'll be a tough out in the NIT.

Locked and Loaded

West Virginia (especially) and Miami (most likely) locked up NCAA Tournament bids with wins today. Miami's win was a ho-hummer against disappointing NC State.. but a 22-9 record and a Top 30 RPI look good to me. WVU was probably in already as well, but now they're looking at a possible 7 seed after beating UCONN.

NYC area preview for Wednesday

Raphielle Johnson — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:54:15 -0700

Fordham, Sacred Heart and Seton Hall on tap With the MAAC Tournament now complete and many of the other area teams either finished for the season or waiting for Sunday to find out whether or not they’ll be playing postseason basketball (Rider), three teams in the area still have games to play in Wednesday. Fordham and Seton Hall begin play in the Atlantic 10 and Big East tournaments, respectively, while the Pioneers of Sacred Heart host Mount St. Mary’s in the Northeast Conference title game. Here’s a preview of each game, along with my picks (the games will be listed in chronological order based on their start time). Atlantic 10 Tournament First Round #12 Fordham vs. #5 St. Joseph’s (Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ) Wednesday 2:30 PM, CSTV Category (conf. rank) Fordham St. Joseph’s Points per game 64.9 (11th) 74.3 (6th) PPG allowed 66.7 (5th) 68.6 (8th) Field goal % 42.3 (11th) 47.6 (2nd) FG % defense 45.1 (13th) 43.8 (10th) 3 PT % 32.5 (13th) 39.1 (3rd) 3 PT % defense 34.5 (6th) 37.9 (14th) Rebound margin - 2.7 (13th) - 0.2 (7th) Turnover margin + 0.32 (8th) + 1.72 (4th) Category Fordham St. Joseph’s Points per game Bryant Dunston (15.5) Pat Calathes (17.8) Rebounds per game Dunston (10.0) Calathes (7.7) Assists per game Marcus Stout (2.9) Tasheed Carr (5.8) FG percentage Dunston (52.5) Calathes (44.6) 3 PT percentage Stout (35.3) Rob Ferguson (42.2) Assist/Turnover ratio Kevin Anderson (2.1) Carr (2.09) Regular season meeting: St. Joseph’s 70-55 (February 2nd at St. Joseph’s). Make no mistake about it: this season has been a serious disappointment for the Rams and anyone who would have thought that a team returning five senior starters would be able to make some waves in conference play. But things don’t always work out as planned, meaning that this bunch barely squeaked into the Atlantic 10 Tournament to face an opponent that should have no problem getting up for this game. The Hawks are in desperate need of wins in order to strengthen their case for the NCAA Tournament, and with this game and a quarterfinal against Richmond, St. Joe’s could very well find themselves in a semifinal opposite league champ Xavier if things go according to plan. Pat Calathes has been the jack-of-all-trades guy for Phil Martelli this season, leading the Hawks in both scoring and rebounding. Even though he stands at 6-10, Calathes possesses the guard skills that you’d normally associate with players standing six inches shorter. The man who runs the show is Tasheed Carr, who led the team in assists per game and ranks behind only UMass’ Chris Lowe with 5.8 assists per game (rounded up from 5.76). The most entertaining individual matchup between the two teams could be between senior big men Bryant Dunston and Amhad Nivins. Nivins has been the anchor in the middle for the Hawks over the past couple of seasons, and St. Joe’s also has Rob Ferguson coming off the bench to contribute as well. Six players (five of whom average double figures in scoring) see the majority of the minutes, with Darrin Govens and Garrett Williamson rounding out the rotation. As for Fordham, the offense has basically boiled down to two components: Dunston and Marcus Stout. Dunston is once again averaging a double-double, earning Second-Team All-Conference and All-Defensive honors as a result. Stout is just behind him with his average of 15.2 points per contest, and also leads the team in assists per game. The other Ram averaging double figures is sophomore guard Brenton Butler, who has reached double digits in scoring in each the Rams’ last five games. Kevin Anderson, Mike Moore, Michael Binns and Herb Tanner also see playing time, but none of those four have proven to be serious offensive threats. St. Joe’s clearly has the advantage on that end of the floor, and if the Rams don’t control the tempo they could be in serious trouble. Both teams are middle of the pack clubs when it comes to defense, and they both do a decent job of taking care of the basketball. But to be frank, the Hawks have more talent. Fordham will give them a run, especially with five seniors possibly playing their last game, but sometimes you get the feeling that a team’s better off simply ending their season right now instead of delaying the inevitable. I like St. Joe’s in this one. Northeast Conference Tournament final #4 Mount St. Mary’s @ #3 Sacred Heart Wednesday 7 PM, ESPN2 Category (league rank) Mount St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Points per game 69.1 (8th) 72.4 (3rd) PPG allowed 66.9 (1st) 71.6 (7th) Field goal % 44.7 (4th) 44.6 (5th) FG % defense 41.9 (2nd) 44.6 (t-5th) 3 PT % 37.0 (3rd) 34.9 (6th) 3 PT % defense 32.7 (4th) 34.1 (6th) Rebound margin - 1.3 (8th) - 4.1 (9th) Turnover margin + 0.65 (4th) + 2.42 (1st) Category Mount St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Points per game Chris Vann (14.7) Brice Brooks (12.6) Rebounds per game Markus Mitchell (5.9) Drew Shubik (5.8) Assists per game Jeremy Goode (5.6) Shubik (5.6) FG percentage Sam Atupem (51.7) Ryon Howard (52.0) 3 PT percentage Vann (39.4) Ryan Litke (38.0) Assist/Turnover ratio Goode (1.62) Shubik (1.54) Regular season meetings: Sacred Heart 67-59 (January 19th at The Mount). Tournament Results: Mount St. Mary’s beat #5 Quinnipiac (80-70) and #1 Robert Morris (83-65). Sacred Heart defeated #6 Central Connecticut State (84-71) and #2 Wagner (55-49). On paper the Mountaineers have the clear advantage when it comes to defense. But the Pioneers are coming off of their best defensive effort of the season, one in which they held Wagner to forty-nine points and thirty percent shooting from the field. Dave Bike’s team is a balanced group led in scoring by Brice Brooks, but anyone from Corey Hassan to Drew Shubik to Ryan Litke to Ryon Howard can victimize the opponent on any given night. After getting off to a slow start to the season, the Pioneers were in the thick of the NEC race until about a week left in the season. The only negative that came out of Sunday’s win at Wager were the fifteen turnovers committed by Sacred Heart, a surprising number given the fact that they led the NEC in turnover margin this season. But they were still able to overcome a rough shooting night (Hassan went 1-10 from the field on his own) to make it to Wednesday’s final. Another piece of good news for Pioneer followers: only twice has the road team won the conference title game this decade. Monmouth was the winner on each occasion as they knocked off FDU in 2006 and St. Francis (NY) in 2001. As for the Mountaineers, they’ll show up with one of the conference’s best defenses. The Mount gave up the fewest points per game this season and finished second in field goal percentage defense. On offense, this is a team that prefers to play a half-court style and won’t shoot themselves in the foot. Point guard Jeremy Goode leads the way, distributing the ball to players such as leading scorer Chris Vann and Will Holland while not being afraid to put up some shots himself (Goode is second on the team in scoring). Both teams tend to rebound by committee, but neither has been particularly dominant in that area, ranking near the bottom of the NEC in rebound margin. While this is a tricky game to pick, I like Sacred Heart and Dave Bike to make their first appearance in the Division I tournament (remember, this school as a Division II title to its credit). Big East Tournament First Round #12 Seton Hall vs. #5 Marquette Wednesday 9:30 PM, ESPN Category Seton Hall Marquette Points per game 77.4 (4th) 76.2 (5th) PPG allowed 77.6 (16th) 64.0 (4th) Field goal % 42.5 (13th) 45.3 (8th) FG % defense 45.1 (15th) 41.2 (5th) 3 PT % 34.2 (10th) 35.9 (4th) 3 PT % defense 37.5 (15th) 29.3 (2nd) Rebound margin - 3.7 (16th) + 1.3 (11th) Turnover margin + 3.55 (3rd) + 4.17 (2nd) Category Seton Hall Marquette Points per game Brian Laing (19.0) Jerel McNeal (13.6) Rebounds per game John Garcia (7.1) Lazar Hayward (6.4) Assists per game Eugene Harvey (4.81) Dominic James (4.33) FG percentage Garcia (61.7) Ousmane Barro (55.1) 3 PT percentage Jamar Nutter (38.8) Maurice Acker (41.2) Assist/Turnover ratio Harvey (1.3) James (1.88) Regular season meetings: Marquette won both meetings, 61-56 (January 8th at Marquette) and 89-64 (February 12th at Seton Hall). For all the talk about Tom Crean’s guards (and rightfully so), the major difference between the Pirates hanging around in the first meeting and getting blown out of their own gym a month later could be the play of Lazar Hayward. In the five-point win in Milwaukee, Hayward only had seven points and six rebounds. In the return meeting, Lazar went for twenty-three points and nine rebounds as the Hall had no answer for the sophomore forward. Another key to this one could be the matchup between Ousmane Barro and John Garcia. I predicted the same heading into the second meeting, only to have Hayward play one of his best games of the season. The Pirates give up nearly forty rebounds per game, something that isn’t shocking considering their style of play and lack of size. But if they want to have any shot at hanging around in this one, they’re going to need to hold their own on the glass if not win the category. The leading scorer for Seton Hall has been Brian Laing, recently named to the conference’s first team. Other options include point guard Eugene Harvey and guards Jamar Nutter and Jeremy Hazell (named to the All-Rookie Team). A trio of big men occupies the pivot in Bobby Gonzalez’s “small ball” system, with John Garcia coming on of late. As for Marquette, the Golden Eagles can boast a triumvirate of second-team All-Conference players in Hayward, McNeal and James. But they’ve also got some depth, with roles players such as David Cubillan, Dan Fitzgerald and Maurice Acker also able to burn an unsuspecting opponent. And you can’t forget about the third guard in Marquette’s three-guard attack, Wesley Matthews. Matthews may be Coach Crean’s best perimeter defender, but all of the guards do a solid job of containing their opponent. While Seton Hall’s pressing style can give them a chance in this one, something has been missing from this group on the defensive end of the floor ever since Paul Gause tore his ACL a few weeks ago. There’s no longer a ball-hawking defender who can force teams to throw the ball away and rush things on offense, leading to better shot opportunities for the Pirates. And without Gause the lack of size becomes even more apparent. I like Marquette to win this one.