Tonight’s matchup between the 12th ranked Georgetown Hoyas (18-4, 8-3 Big East) and the #2 ranked Syracuse Orange (23-1, 10-1 Big East) has many subplots and storylines, not to mention an importance in the upcoming seedings as March Madness looms.
This has been one of the better rivalries in college basketball over the last three decades. To get a thorough understanding of the importance of this game, keep in mind that tonight, the biggest rivalry in all of college hoops – Duke vs. North Carolina – is being played as well. The biggest reason to pull up a chair and watch this heated-but-respectful game between the Hoyas and Cuse is that it may very well be the last time we see these two teams going at it from their current respective conferences.
Since acting members of the Big East, Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced in September that their respective universities would be joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), fans in the Big East have wondered what would happen to the rivalries that had built this dominant basketball conference. Would games such as Syracuse against fellow New Yorker St. Johns University be gone forever? These games at the Carrier Dome in upstate New York or even in New York City’s Madison Square Garden were big-time games for recruiting purposes. The games with Georgetown help to solidify the conference on the east coast from the already established ACC.
Overall, the games with Georgetown could quite possibly be a death knell for Syracuse’s heavy recruiting from the DC/Maryland corridor as well. Syracuse has always had one or two great players on their roster from this region and, unless they pick up a home and home team with new ACC conference counterpart Maryland (the ACC has scheduled Maryland’s home and home team to Pittsburgh as this is being written), the pipeline into Georgetown territory will be cut off.
Tonight’s game also signals the end of an error because, as both of the Big East’s premiere basketball powers square off, the league benefits from this boost in talent and rankings. These are two really young teams who – for the foreseeable future – will be highly ranked. Georgetown has nine underclassmen on their current roster plus another two who are out for health reasons. With a great recruiting class coming in, and only two seniors graduating, they will be back in the thick of things next year. The same can be said for the Orange as their current rosters consist of eight underclassman. Both schools’ 2012 recruiting classes are generally regarded to be top #20 classes.
The dream match-ups of years gone by with great players such as Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Eric “Sleepy” Floyd, Allen Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo, Reggie Williams, Charles Smith, Dwayne “The Pearl” Washington, Rony Seikaly, Derrick Coleman, Carmelo Anthony, Sherman Douglas and Lawrence Moten – just to name a few – will now be a thing of the past.
It is still quite possible that both teams could play next year at Georgetown’s home venue of The Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. if the ACC does not have the court’s blessings on the conference change (both Syracuse and Pittsburgh must clear legal hurdles that the Big East has placed in front of them for a 27 month exit).
Regardless, it is only fitting that the match-up that helped kick-start the Big East is also one of the conference’s last and most eagerly awaited games. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to see this game up-close and personal as a student of Georgetown (Post Baccalaureate Pre-Med Program ’95-’97… don’t ask). One can easily feel the intensity in the stands.
Watch tonight and enjoy hard-nose basketball at its best… Big East Style!