Big East Basketball Schedule for PC Friars is Released
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
Big East Basketball Schedule for PC Friars is Released
The pre-Big East season games for the Friars have been known for a while, with a series of cupcakes worthy of LaSalle Bakery in November against the likes of Stonehill and Central Connecticut State. There will also be some early season challenges in the Battle 4 Atlantis at Thanksgiving when the Friars face Oklahoma and possibly Arizona—both resume-building opportunities when NCAA tournament consideration takes place in March.
The meat of the schedule—twenty Big East conference games—is now set.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHere’s the schedule:
--The PC vs DePaul game on December 10 will be the first Big East conference game of the year in the conference.
--The St. John’s game at the AMP on December 20, a key home game for the Friars, will not have the benefit of many students, as most of the campus will have left for Christmas break. This will be Rick Pitino’s second year at the helm of the Johnnies and we can expect this team to be a tougher test for the Friars than last year’s Red Storm.
--A New Year’s Eve home game against Marquette at the AMP! That should be fun, but too bad no students around to give the Friars a much-needed lift against Marquette.
--We will see early on how good UConn is when the Friars make the short road trip on Sunday afternoon on January 5th to Storrs to play the Huskies.
--Three out of four of PC’s final games in January are away games, a tough test for the Friars.
--Ed Cooley and Georgetown make a return appearance to the AMP on Saturday, January 25th. Will there be less animosity towards the former Friar coach from the Friar fans with the passage of time? Will Cooley have made any strides in making the Hoyas a competitive team?
--Nice stretch of home games from February 5th to the 15th with three teams coming to the AMP with Creighton and Xavier expected to be tough games.
--The AMP will be rocking with a home game against UConn on Saturday, March 1st.
It’s way too early to take too much stock in pre-season polls, but CBS Sports in early summer projected four Big East teams—UConn, #4; Marquette, #15; Creighton, #19; and Xavier, #24—in the top 25. And CBS Sports has the Friars at #26, a surprise ranking given the roster turnover for PC.
In any case, the Friars will be more challenged in Big East play this year than last. Besides the projected four teams in the top 25, several other Big East teams will likely be improved—St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Georgetown.
Hopefully, all those cupcake teams in November will provide Coach English with an idea of his strongest starting five and his best guys coming off the bench.