Thursday, January 4, 2006
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CBB
Pittsburgh-Syracuse
Press Notes
Pitt enters the contest ranked No. 10 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches polls. Syracuse begins conference play unranked. Pitt is 2-1 in road games this season after claiming victories at Buffalo and Auburn and dropping a contest to Wisconsin. The Panthers are 9-0 at home on the season. Pitt opens Big East play with a 12-2 record. It concluded its December slate with a 77-51 Saturday victory over Florida A&M. Pitt concluded a difficult three-game stretch against No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 15 Oklahoma State and Dayton. Pitt dropped consecutive contests to Wisconsin and Oklahoma State and defeated Dayton by 30 points. The combined record of those three Panthers opponents was 33-4. The 30-point win over Dayton marked Pitt’s largest margin of victory since it defeated Penn State 91-54 on Dec. 10, 2005. It marked Pitt’s largest victory of the year. With its back-to-back games against Wisconsin and Oklahoma State, Pitt played two consecutive games against nationally ranked non-conference opponents.
Pitt and Syracuse meet for the 95th time in series history. Syracuse owns a 61-33 advantage in the series which began in 1914. The Panthers have claimed eight of the series’ last 11 meetings. Pitt has won two of the last three matchups between the two schools at the Carrier Dome. Pitt is 10-33 all-time vs. the Orange in games played in Syracuse.
Associated Press
The 10th-ranked Panthers (12-2) were selected by the Big East coaches to win the conference in the league’s preseason poll, and they enter conference play as a confident team. Their only two losses came at then-No. 7 Wisconsin and in double overtime to then-No. 15 Oklahoma State at Oklahoma City. The Panthers won their first four Big East games last season, and finished the year tied for fourth in conference with a 10-6 record. They have not won the conference title since going 10-6 in 2003-04. Pitt defeated Syracuse 80-67 on Jan. 23 last season, but lost 65-61 to the Orange in the Big East championship game. The Panthers have won eight of the last 11 meetings with Syracuse (11-3), including three of their last four visits to the Carrier Dome. The Orange were picked to finish third in the Big East this season after tying for ninth place with a 7-9 record last year. They have won their last seven conference home openers, and are 10-2 at the Carrier Dome this season.
Santa Barbara-Long Beach State
Press Notes
UC Santa Barbara enters the week with an overall record of 10-3 and a Big West Conference record of 2-0. The Gauchos, winners of six of their last seven overall, swept a pair of games to open league play last weekend. On Thursday, Dec. 28, UCSB struggled past UC Riverside, 73-65, and then on Saturday, Dec. 30, in an early-season showdown between the teams with the two best non-conference records, the Gauchos defeated Cal State Fullerton, 84-76. The consecutive wins came on the heels of a Dec. 22 loss at the University of San Diego which ended UCSB’s second four-game winning streak of the season.
Marquette-Providence
Projo.com
Four of Marquette’s first six conference games will come away from Milwaukee, a stretch that starts tonight when the Golden Eagles tip off against Providence College (7:30 p.m.). Crean will also take his team to Connecticut, Louisville and Pittsburgh, three of the toughest locales in the conference. The two home games out of the gate come against Syracuse and nationally ranked West Virginia. They’re 13-2, own a nonleague win over Duke and sit at No. 15 in the national polls this week. The status of Marquette’s other two sophomore stars isn’t as clear. While competing in a rebounding drill on Monday, Wesly Matthews and Jerel McNeal banged heads so severely that both players were rushed to the hospital for observation. Neither practiced on Tuesday and their status is “day-to-day” according to Crean. With Marquette possibly without a starter or two and PC likely to be missing Curry, both teams could be less than full strength. But the Friars say with or without Curry, they know they have to take care of business at home. Last year, the Friars managed two road conference wins (at Rutgers and DePaul) so the value of protecting your home court is paramount.
Bradley-Wichita State
Wichita Eagle
Bradley leads the series 67-52. WSU has won six of the past eight meetings, including two of three last season. BU has not won in Wichita since an 86-77 win at the Kansas Coliseum in 2003. G Jeremy Crouch, who leads BU with an average of 16.4 points and shoots 49.5 percent from three-point range will not play. Crouch sprained his right knee in Saturday’s win over Evansville.
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