Big East/Big Ten Challenge: What This Means for the Big East

With Kevin McNamara’s announcement on Twitter that the Big East and Big Ten conferences have agreed to begin a challenge series in the 2015-16 season, it’s fantastic news for this new version of the Big East. Scheduling strong opponents outside the conference has become critically important for all member schools because of the defections of perennially highly ranked programs like Syracuse and Louisville among others from the in conference schedule. The Big Ten is arguably the 2nd best basketball conference in the country behind only the ACC.

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Providence has been working on scheduling a Big Ten opponent for this upcoming season with Michigan being the one where negotiations seem closest to completion. Marquette plays in-state rival Wisconsin every season. Creighton and Nebraska do that same. Seton Hall and new Big Ten member, Rutgers, will be in year 2 of an 8 year series they agreed to in March 2013. Now all 10 members of the Big East will get to play a Big Ten opponent to start their season. It has been reported that each Big Ten team will play in the Dave Gavitt Tip Off at least 4 times with each Big East member playing in it at least 6 times over the course of the 8 year deal. The fact that this series will be named after the Hall of Famer, Dave Gavitt adds some special connection for Friar fans. It’s great to see that his greatness and legacy continue to carry further than just Friartown.

The games will be played in a 4 day period from Tuesday-Friday during the first week of each season in November. The Big Ten/ACC Challenge, an ESPN creation, will continue. In terms of television for these games, the coverage will be split among ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network with the home team determining which network the game will be aired on.

That takes care of the housekeeping. Now you know the details. But what does this new series mean for the Big East?

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#pcbb Links of the Day 5/5/14

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#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/2/14

Last weekend was a massively important weekend for recruits and coaches alike because it was the only live evaluation period that coaches can attend until the 3 that are in July. For some players, they were the ones that needed to make an impression and get noticed by a coach. For other players, it was more about a coach making an impression and being noticed in the stands by that player. Unfortunately the timing of the end of the season banquet in Providence kept head coach, Ed Cooley off the road last weekend but his assistants were out in full force spread all across the country. To that end, I’ve added a new feature to this site. You can find the link at on the left side of the top menu. It’s called “Where is Ed Cooley and the staff?” and it has a map of the USA with markers to indicate a coach being on the road somewhere. Check it out and give me your feedback. As for where the assistants were during the only live period of April: Andre LaFleur was out in Sacramento for the EYBL Session #1, Bob Simon was in Dallas for the Adidas Gauntlet and Brian Blaney was in Pittsburgh for the Hoop Group Jamfest. Here is a list of events that will be happening this upcoming weekend even. Even though coaches can’t be there, the media and scouting services still can so there will be plenty of updates next Friday. List courtesy of Jeff Borzello at CBSSports.com:

Before I get into last weekend’s AAU action, there is some more immediate recruiting going on for the class of 2014.

  • 2014 PG Larry Austin will visit Xavier this weekend but Providence is strongly in the mix and Austin will take an official visit next weekend to Friartown.

  • Wednesday, 2014 PG Devonte’ Graham cut his list down to 2 schools, Kansas and NC State. On Friday he committed to Kansas.

https://twitter.com/im_dat_kid_dtae/status/461534464498487296

  • On Thursday, 2014 PG Shelton Mitchell got his release from his NLI with Wake Forest. His former lead recruiter was Jeff Battle who is a good friend of Ed Cooley’s I would expect to see PC mentioned with Mitchell.

  • Also on Thursday, it was announced that Kansas PG Naadir Tharpe would be seeking to transfer closer to home because of some medical issues with his daughter.

  • Last Friday Jared Terrell getting his release from his NLI with Oklahoma State became official. The 2014 SG is said to want to be closer to home and the 3 schools expected to be involved were Boston College, Providence and URI. Rumors are that Terrell will visit PC and BC next week and make a decision. My guess is Boston College gets him because of Preston Murphy taking an assistant position with the Eagles on new coach, Jim Christian’s staff.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/2/14

#pcbb Links of the Day 5/2/14

Recruiting News: Scout.com Final Top 100 In Class Of 2014 Released Today

Evan Daniels over at Scout.com released his final ranking for the Class of 2014 today. Similar to the Rivals final list that came out on April 24th Three of the 4 members of Providence’s committed Class of 2014 are in the final top 90 with the lone member not in the top 100 being recent PG commit, Kyron Cartwright. The biggest difference between Rivals and Scout is that they have Jalen Lindsey at 84 while Rivals has him at 69. Chukwu and Bentil are in similar slots on both lists.

To see the entire top 100, click here.

PC Commits:

Continue reading Recruiting News: Scout.com Final Top 100 In Class Of 2014 Released Today

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