I Bleed Blue and White

Villanova doesn’t host Providence until tomorrow night, but the fight for the double-bye in the Big East Tournament starts this evening. Other than LOST, you should keep a close eye on Marquette’s trip to Pittsburgh.

VUHoops has a great outline of all the situations to get the double-bye, but the most simple way is for Marquette to go down to Pitt tonight, and then for Villanova to beat Providence at The Pavilion tomorrow. That would lock up the 4th seed.

#15 Marquette at #4 Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2) – Since Dominic James left early in the loss to UConn, most people have written off the Golden Eagles and believe they will enter a tailspin. They were feisty in a loss to Louisville, however, and now look to try and keep hold on a Top 4 seed heading to Pitt. The Panthers lost to Providence last week as DeJuan Blair struggled with fouls, but rebounded over the weekend to take out Seton Hall.

And if you already have your eye on the NCAA Tournament like I do, keep an eye on this matchup tonight as well.

#5 Oklahoma at #12 Missouri (9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN360) – Mizzou has made an incredible run in the last month, soaring to the top end of the Top 25. They placed themselves in direct competition with Villanvoa for a 3 seed in the dance. They were humiliated at Kansas on Sunday. Oklahoma struggled when Blake Griffin was out before rebounding for a win when he returned. It will be a good matchup between the Griffin brothers and Mizzou’s DeMarre Carroll and Leo Lyons in the frontcourt.

In case you weren’t keeping score, it’s Go Panthers! and Go Sooners! tonight for ‘Nova Nation.

As reported earlier by Jamie, Maalik Wayns went to the doctor this afternoon to check on his knee in hopes of playing in tonight’s Philadelphia Catholic League Final. Wayns is not playing in the game tonight, so it appears that his knee is not yet fully recovered, or he doesn’t want to risk further injury.

The game, between Roman Catholic and Neumann-Goretti, is currently on CN8 for those interested.

…Smart move by Wayns if you ask me…no need to push yourself too hard…although I know how hard it can be to sit yourself out and feel like you are leaving your teammates…but you have the bigger picture to think about…

Just a heads up, the official rosters for the McDonald’s All-American game are going to be announced tonight on ESPNU. An exact time hasn’t been announced, but it should happen between 6 and 6:30 ET. As we reported last week, popular belief is that both Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek are going to be selected for the game. As of right now, it appears that Mouphtaou Yarou and Isaiah Armwood will not, although the door is always open for dropouts and injuries.

Currently, Villanova has 3 players who have received the distinction before in Scottie Reynolds, Corey Stokes, and Taylor King.

…To me Yarou is the one of the biggest snubs there is…he’s having an unbelievable senior year and there aren’t a lot of truly dominant big men in this class to begin with…reminds me of Corey Fisher not getting the invite actually…oh well…

Man, I really hate these long layoffs. I love watching college hoops, don’t get me wrong. I can sit down and watch just about any game, but having not watched ‘Nova since last Friday is starting to get old. Thursday night, please come quickly. As for last night, things didn’t go as we hoped, but you can’t win them all.

Tuesday night recap:

#13 Clemson 93, Maryland 64 – I watched this game and Maryland scrapped with Clemson for most of the 1st half, but Clemson just demolished them after the break. Trevor Booker had 14 and 11, but it felt more like 25 and 22. He was all over the place. Clemson is a dangerous team. They shoot it well and they are fast and athletic. The 2nd half showed just how good Clemson can be, but their performances still vary too much from night to night.

#11 Marquette 79, Seton Hall 67 - This game was close and Seton Hall was actually winning at the half, but they couldn’t stop Marquette in the 2nd half. They did a nice job containing Jerel McNeal, but Wesley Matthews and Lazar Hayward burned them at opportune times. This would have been a nice upset that would have really helped Villanova.

Games to watch for Wednesday:

Providence at #7 Louisville (7:30, ESPN2) – Louisville rebounded nicely from the whooping that Notre Dame handed them last week by blowing out lowly DePaul by 45, but now comes another threat. Providence has now won two in a row and is searching for a quality win. A win at Freedom Hall would almost certainly get the Friars into the NCAA Tournament come Selection Sunday. The Friars will struggle against Louisville’s frontcourt, however, so their best chance is to win a shootout.

Georgia Tech at #8 Wake Forest (7:30) – Georgia Tech is in last place in the ACC with a 1-10 record. It’s an embarrassing season for them, but their lone victory was over the Demon Deacons. Wake is struggling to find consistency and will look to avenge their awful loss to Tech earlier this year. They are in a battle for the 2nd place spot in the ACC, and cannot afford another bad loss.

…Between me and everyone who reads this, I really don’t think that Providence or Georgia Tech have a prayer to win tomorrow…of the two, I think Providence is more likely, and I’ll spend some time watching that game…Louisville’s guards aren’t terribly special and the Friar guards have an advantage there but I don’t see anyone on PC that can match up with Samuels, Clark or Williams…

…As for Tech, they already did the unthinkable once this year…don’t count on it happening twice…

Irving is on 'Nova's radar.

ESPN2 will be broadcasting the Old Spice High School Showcase tonight at 7 p.m. The game features Lincoln High School of Brooklyn, NY and St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth, NJ.

Lincoln features the man-child Lance Stephenson (whose recruitment has been a complete circus if you don’t know about him) while St. Patrick’s features North Carolina-bound Dexter Strickland as well as the super-talented duo of sophomore Michael Gilchrist and junior Kyrie Irving, both who are on Villanova’s radar (especially Irving).

A couple weeks ago I had a story about Irving, indicating his interest in Villanova. St. Pat’s Coach Kevin Boyle has said that Irving has a chance to go down as the greatest guard ever in New Jersey. So, yeah, he’s pretty good. So if you are trying to kill some time before the Villanova game tonight, switch it over to the deuce and have a look.