March 9, 2007
DOWN TO FOUR
Georgetown almost surrendered an overwhelming first-half lead, but eventually held off Villanova for a win. The Irish finally got lucky at the Garden and continued their season-long sweep of Syracuse to advance. It took Louisville two overtime periods, but they managed to stave off an upset-minded group of Mountaineers. Pitt's game versus Marquette was past my bedtime; they won. Capsule recaps of the games can be found at the Big East homepage here
So what's happening tonight in the semifinals? All four top-seeded teams who received a first-round bye in the tournament have advanced to penultimate round on 7th Ave. At 7 p.m. Notre Dame's Irish meet the Georgetown Hoyas. According to The New York Times, ND's Big East Coach of the Year Mike Brey is already looking ahead to Saturday's finals.
It was the Irish’s first victory at the Big East tournament since 2004, and it left Brey giddy about his team’s chances to earn its first appearance in the conference title game.
“I told them in the locker room: ‘It’s our destiny, we’re playing on Saturday night,’ ” Brey said. “It’s destiny, and there’s fate involved here. There’s good karma around this group.”
Brey might want to not look too far past the Hoyas, who thrashed his team mercilessly in early January, 66-48. And that was before Georgetown got its on-court act together.
At 9:30 p.m. Louisville will meet season-long conference leaders Pitt, who only surrendered the regular season title to Georgetown at their schedule's bitter end. The two have only met once this year prior to tonight. Louisville issued the Panthers a 66-53 beatdown in mid-February on Pitt's own home court. Both games should be fun to watch.
Tagged: big east, college basketball, georgetown, louisville, notre dame, pitt, tournamentPosted by Lexiphane at March 9, 2007 4:25 PM
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