Cincinnati Pregame Links 1/22/2011

The Big East season is nearing its midpoint and some things are starting to sort themselves out. Teams like No. 3 Syracuse, No. 5 Pittsburgh, No. 7 Villanova, No. 8 Connecticut and No. 19 Louisville are virtual locks to make the NCAA Tournament. Cellar-dwellers DePaul, South Florida and Providence are the longest of longshots.

Then there is the middle, a pack where St. John's (11-6, 4-3) and its opponent in Saturday's 4 p.m. contest at Carnesecca Arena, No. 25 Cincinnati (16-3, 3-3), reside.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2011/01/21/2011-01-21_st_johns_basketball_faces_no_25_cincinnati_as_they_try_to_break_away_from_middle.html#ixzz1BmCBlSIL

Justin Burrell, whose pride and passion is seen in sweat every time he takes the court, stood in front of the St. John's locker room Wednesday night, gazing forlornly at the KFC Yum! Center court, where Louisville had just blasted the Red Storm 88-63.

Burrell was lamenting an opportunity lost.

"We definitely needed this game to get to the upper echelon," he said.

Certainly a win at Louisville would have served notice St. John's (11-6 overall, 4-3 in the Big East) isn't merely a Big East competitor this season, but a contender.

Louisville, along with Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Villanova were the preseason favorites to garner NCAA Tournament berths.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/college/basketball/losing_cin_i4pm3oknzLSbWy4fY8RK1O#ixzz1BmCRshIE

The Cincinnati Bearcats, explosive out of the season’s gate with 15 straight wins against mostly mediocre competition, come to town for the first of two matchups against the Red Storm. Saturday’s matchup against the Bearcats is the first Big East game in Carnesecca Arena since the hard-fought overtime loss to Marquette. Usually, Carnesecca is a strong homecourt advantage, with the student section as rowdy as they can be in the small gym. The Red Storm need that advantage this season.  The team needs to sweep their on-campus contests; all of the opponents that will come to Carnesecca are eminently beatable.

Of course, last year the Bearcats got to enjoy Madison Square Garden, because they had New York schoolboy star Lance Stephenson of Lincoln High in Brooklyn, who chose the Bearcats after a long, drawn-out decision process. That game was a dog. The two evenly-matched teams battled the whole game long to see who could miss the most shots.  In the end the Bearcats “prevailed”, going 0-12 from beyond the arc and enjoying 6 turnovers from Stephenson in his homecoming, a 52-50 loss that was won through heroic efforts by Dwight Hardy.

http://johnnyjungle.com/2010-2011/the-other-surprise-team/

For the St. John's Red Storm (11-6, 4-3 Big East), getting a bid to the NCAA Tournament is going to be a tenuous high-wire act. There's no realistic reason to believe that this team can smash through the Big East Tournament for an automatic bid. And with the early season Losses That Shall Not Be Named, the margin for error is razor thin.

Blowout losses to strong programs like Louisville won't help the Johnnies' perception. In fact, losses have exposed serious weakness in the team - the unforced turnover. Steve Lavin addressed this in today's pregame press conference:

http://www.rumbleinthegarden.com/2011/1/21/1948842/game-17-vs-cincinnati-bearcats

Triple article Friday comes to a close with a St John's preview. Tomorrow at 4 on ESPN3 at least, the Bearcats put their 16-3, 3-3 record on the line against the 11-6 St John's Red Storm. A season ago, the Bearcats suffered a horrible loss at St John's, when the Bearcats self destructed and did pretty much everything to give the game away. When I say pretty much, UC actually threw an inbound pass to St John's for a lay up that gave them the lead. Bad times. It was such bad times that it inspired me to do the top 25 losses list, where that game ranked at #10. This year, let's hope the Bearcats don't suffer the same fate.

http://bearcatsblog.com/2011-articles/january/cvstjp12111.html

The run through Villanova, Syracuse and Notre Dame is over and the University of Cincinnati Bearcats came up empty each time, which wasn’t unexpected given the fact that all three are Top 25 teams that rarely lose at home.

But the next three games are more important to the Bearcats’ NCAA Tournament hopes, beginning with today’s 4 p.m. game at St. John’s (11-6 overall, 4-3 in the Big East).

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110121/SPT0101/301210066/1062/SPT/UC-back-to-the-grind

Here are three things to watch in Saturday afternoon's game between St. John's (11-6, 4-3 in Big East) and Cincinnati (16-3, 3-3) at Carnesecca Arena.

Tip-off is at 4 p.m., and the game is available on ESPN3.com (local blackout rules apply). The game will also air locally on SNY.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/colleges/post/_/id/1421/w2w4-st-johns-vs-cincinnati