Raptors Rapture’s Big East Tournament Live Diary

Early dismissal from school+Illegal Feed of the Big East Tournament= Raptors Rapture’s First Ever Big East Tournament Live Blog. Enjoy!

1:30  Well for any of you looking for a justification for this live blog, you won’t really find a good one. Let’s just blame Kemba Walker and my lack of ambition. Also the Big East Tournament is like, the greatest thing ever, especially with a bracket so deep that nearly every team has a case to make the tournament.

Also Uconn really impressed me with their win over Pitt, Kemba’s shot was sick and will be talked for about two hours before something tops it, but Uconn definitely showed they can hang against a Final Four contender with that win.

1:35  St John’s continue their Cinderella season against Syracuse in the next Quarterfinal game. I actually like St. John’s chances even with a rested ‘Cuse squad, seeing as this is in their home arena and the fact that the Orange have been extremely erratic this year.

1:38  P.S. to any Rutgers fans who potentially are reading this, I feel your pain.

1:40  Sidebar: Watching television off another person’s television on your computer is really hard to wrap my head around. Canadian Cable does this to me, I am sounding like Chris Bosh right now. I should stop.

1:43  Just realized if I lose this feed this will go from a mediocre idea to an absolutely brutal one.

1:45  Oklahoma State loses to Kansas with one of the worst executed final possessions I have seen in awhile.

1:48  Text from friend “What is your lame a** even doing”? He isn’t going to get an answer

1:49  Well executed alley-oop from Syracuse makes it a 10-5 Orange lead. St. John’s looks tired which is not good for my prediction.

1:52  St. John’s has started out 1-6 from the field, can you say tired?

1:54  St. John’s has caught fire and this feed looks like NBA Live 95 in fast forward. I blame TSN.

1:59  I don’t see why St. John’s isn’t always a contender. They play at MSG, that alone should draw enough players to field a competitive team every year. I hope this is the start of a revival at that school.

2:01  Dwight Hardy with the nice bank in, he is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

2:03  Big three ties the game up at 20’s I love this tournament.

2:04  Great timeout by Jim Boeheim, if he didn’t insist on playing zone every year I would probably say he is arguably the best active coach in college basketball.

2:07   This game is on “ESPN America” I would not want to know what regular ESPN is like overseas. I predict it would be like “The Ocho” off of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.

2:09  Syracuse doesn’t really have a white guard who can only shoot this year, this is kind of a bummer to me. They should have let Gerry MacNamara play for the Orange forever just for our enjoyment.

2:12  I love the fact that the NCAA doesn’t have a restricted area, I also love the fact that besides for Duke, no one really flops. It just makes the game more physical.

2:16  The block/charge call is the hardest thing to officiate in basketball, but I definitely thought that was a push-off.

2:18  St. John’s is fouling jump shooters left and right in this half, you can’t be bailing out jump shooters that will come back to bite you eventually.

2:20  In the one game Canadian television is actually showing, East Carolina is taking top seed UAB into OT at the Conference USA Tournament.

2:22  Incredible hustle by Burrell on that press, flying right into the scorers table.

2:26  Justin Brownlee with 11 points, another reason to love St. John’s as a sleeper team in the tournament: They are deep and have balanced scoring.

2:28  This feed has no sound definitely is ruining my buzz new feed at halftime hopefully.

2:29  Halftime: St John’s 37 Syracuse 32

Sloppy half in my opinion from both teams, but St. John’s is doing a great job of forcing turnovers and getting buckets in transition, which is a key to beating a team that plays zone. Syracuse also needs to cut down on their turnovers if they want to advance.

2:35  This halftime is brought to you by ramen noodles and Gatorade.

2:44  East Carolina with the upset at the Conference USA tournament. Neat.

2:48  ESPN playing up that whole “Mecca of Basketball” angle, I don’t mind it

2:53  Syracuse ties it up quickly this game is going to be interesting down the stretch.

2:55  If Syracuse ever recruited a great big man to play the middle of that zone, they probably would have a few more titles under their belt right now.

2:56  *Searching up Syracuse Big Men*

2:59  Rony Seikaly, Derrick Coleman, Etan Thomas, and Hakim Warrick was all I could come up with since 1980. Yeah….. just throwing it out there.

3:01  Dwight Hardy has finally cracked double digits.

3:04  With Pitt out this is Notre Dame’s tournament to win, but the winner of this game probably is the next best contender.

3:13  Transition and zone turnovers have been the theme of this game. Who is going to stop one of the other?

3:15  And, Jim Boeheim is yelling what a shock.

3:16  For the sarcasm challenged he actually in fact yells a lot.

3:19  ESPN America is making me laugh, these commercials are terrible.

3:21  Justin Brownlee is having a hell of a game, clutch two to tie it up.

3:24  Burrell with his 4th foul, that is going to cause some problems for St.John’s

3:27  Typical balanced scoring game for St. John’s, but I am surprised Hardy hasn’t provided more of a spark.

3:29  Huge dunk and the foul to put ‘Cuse up three, that could be your turning point right there.

3:31  HORRIBLE turnover by Syracuse there goes that momentum.

3:32 And Burrell with the offensive board to draw the foul, Syracuse is imploding right now.

3:36  A bucket and a timeout gives Syracuse a chance to calm down. Someone is oging to have to put this game into their hands.

3:39  This product placement makes me want Reese products.

3:41  Syracuse four point lead with 1:04 left. Stops are needed, this is going to go down to the wire.

3:44 Ballgame. Syracuse will advance to play Uconn.

Notre Dame Cincinnati later tonight see you then.