Big East Tournament Live-Blog Session 2

Welcome to Session 2 of BIAH's Live-Blog of the Big East Tournament. Session 1 went well as we saw two upsets, including the DePaul Blue Demons picking up their first Big East win on the season.

The games will hopefully be a bit more interesting tonight, as Notre Dame takes on Rutgers at 7:00, followed by Seton Hall going head to head with South Florida. Scoring should not be an issue tonight, as Jeremy Hazell of Seton Hall and Luke Harangody of Notre Dame are the league top two scorers.

Since CoverItLive is not working on my phone in the Garden, we are doing the Live-Blog the "old-school" (circa 2008) way. In the effort of saving space and load times on the main page of BIAH, follow the jump to keep up with us as we enjoy the circus that is the Big East Tournament!

- 68-50 with a minute left. SHU will play Syracuse tomorrow. That's it for tonight. Thanks to everyone for checking in, and I will see you here tomorrow.

- It is empty here right now. Can't be more than 1,000 people left. I would bet that there are more players, coaches, band/cheerleaders, and press than fans.

- 3:39 left, and SHU has taken a 60-49 lead. Hazell has 23 for the Pirates, but no one else has really done anything on either team.

- SHU has now opened a 58-46 lead with seven minutes left.

- Seriously, this shaking is really weird. It is like I am sitting on a flimsy floor and someone is sitting next to me shaking their leg ... hard. But nobody is. Back to the game, SHU has a 53-45 lead with 8:23 left.

- Hazell just hit another three. He now has 23 points to lead the Pirates. They are currently on a 14-2 run.

- So the luxury box I am in is shaking. Nothing violent, but a solid vibration. It is really weird. If I stop blogging, just pray the I survived collapse.

- Hazell has scored SHU's last six as the Pirates have taken a 48-41 lead. He has 20 on the game.

- This is the best game of the day. USF and SHU are going back and forth right now. It is 39-39 as we speak.

- USF ended the half on a 15-4 run (or 15-2 if Garcia's basket at the end of the half is waved off. It looked good) and has taken a 32-30 lead into the break. Hazell has 11 at the break to lead USF.

- USF has come back to tie the game at 27-27. Hazell is back in the game and at the line. He hit 1-2.

- Under 4 timeout and SHU is up 27-22.

- It isn't close. USF has easily the hottest cheerleaders of the day. But I guess that is to be expected. They had this one girl come out with the baton (I think she is called a majorette) and she was amazing. For a solid minute, she spun it around her neck and on her shoulders while dancing. It was incredible.

- Under 8 timeout and SHU is up 25-17. USF is really blowing a chance to make a comeback with the Pirate's leading scorer Hazell out with fouls.

- It is pathetic how many people came from Seton Hall. They are in New Jersey. The NJ Transit Rail line pulls into the same building that MSG is in. Literally. How do they have less fans than USF and a band and cheerleading team that is dwarfed by USF. I mean, USF brought their JV cheerleaders that are sitting 20 rows back. Shame on you Seton Hall.

- Hazell just picked up his second foul. But the Pirates have taken a 20-10 lead after back-to-back buckets by Eugene Harvey.

- Dominique Jones finishes a lay-up and draws the foul, cutting the Pirate lead to 16-10 with a foul shot coming after the under 12 timeout. Neither of these teams play much defense, which is good because that means this won't be a drag last ND-RU was.

- 13:30 left and it is 16-8 SHU.

- SHU reels off 8 straight to take a 16-6 lead. Hazell has 8. I wanna see 50.

- First TV timeout, and SHU is up 8-6 on USF. Hazell had five early point.

- And Hazell starts out the game with a three. He isn't a great percentage shooter, but he can get hoy and rip off four or five in a row. Dominique Jones answers with a three of his own.

- So I am all over MSG tonight. Right now I am sitting in a luxury box, and I get a chance to see Seton Hall's potent scorer Jeremy Hazell.

- 30 seconds left, and after a scramble that left Rosario on the ground in the photographers. He is ok, but RU isn't. This one is over, 61-50, and ND advances to face West Virginia.

- 55-48. 1 minute left.

- Under 4 timeout and ND is up 53-44. It is amazing how uninteresting this game has been. Everyone I was excited to see live has disappointed - K-Mac has 11, Harangody has been buried on the bench for a while (I think Brey is saving him for the rest of the week), and Rosario has 9 points. The most impressive performance has come from Hamady N'Diaye, who has a double-double and some impressive blocks.

- This is now the second time that I have seen Rosario play live, and he is not that impressive to me. He is not all that strong, he struggles finishing in traffic, and I have yet to see an impressive shooting performance out of him. He doesn't seem like much of a defender either. Mickey D's all-american or not, I don't think he would get much burn at a better basketball school.

- ND comes out of the timeout and get a K-Mac three and a lay-up following a miss by Nash. 53-42. RU is in trouble with 5 min left.

- We're at the under 8 timeout, and RU trails 48-42. This is the ND we've grown accustomed to this year. Allowing everything on the defensive end, but scoring enough on the offensive end to make up for it.

- Beautiful pick and roll between Farmer and N'Diaye results in an and-1 lay-up by the big fella. He misses, but RU gets it back down to 7. And a fast break lay-in by Chandler cuts it to 5. If RU wants to finish this comeback, they need to keep getting to the rim while making sure ND doesn't get open threes.

- ND's run is now 10-0 after a three-point play by Tory Jackson.

- Tory Jackson takes a board and goes coast-to-coast, opening up a 40-32 lead and giving ND 7-0 run. ND isn't playing the same defense this half as RU has scored 13 points in 7 minutes aftwer just 19 in the first half total.

- A three by RU now cuts the lead to 33-32. Truck Bryant of West Virginis spent the whole first half mingling with the Seton Hall team ... Right in front of Bob Huggins. Wonder how that goes over with the Huggy Bear.

- Rutgers is on a 10-3 run to open up the half. Rosario just hit a 15 footer to cut it to 31-29. This crowd is becoming strongly in favor of RU.

- Harangody and Echinique just got into it a bit. Ech (as he shall now and forever be referred to as) grabbed a loose ball in the paint and went up in the lane, Harangody hacked him pretty hard and Ech's follow through caught him in the face. Ech started jawing at him, and the two had to be separated.

A Ryan Ayers three has opened up a 31-23 lead after RU scored the first four of the half.

- EMail question from Big Cat: do the Irish still have a chance of making a trip to the dance?

Yes, any time you are playing in a conference tournament, there is a chance you can get to the dance if you win your league. In terms of being an at-large, the Irish have a lot of work to do. As I mentioned earlier, they are 73 in the RPI, which is a very high number for a team trying to get a bid. But if they make it to the semis, beating WVU and Pitt along the way, you may have to take a look at them. That would give them two more top 25 wins, and a second win over a #1 seed. That is a lot of ifs, however. All you can really say is just keep winning.
- For this game I am sitting in the seats behind the basket at the end of the floor with ND's bench, and the list of famous faces sitting near me is pretty astounding: Bob Huggins, Billy Hahn, Alex Ruoff, Chris Mullin, Danny Ainge, the entire teams of South Florida and Seton Hall, Luke Harangody's mom.

- a reletively uneventful 1st half as ND heads into the break up 28-19. Neither team is shooting well right now (33% for ND, 26% for RU) and as I said before the difference right now is the defensive work of ND. They are switching up between man and a 2-3 zone, and they have done a great job slowing down the Scarlett Knight's dynamic frosh Rosario.

- Echinique finally scores in the paint to break a long scoreless drought. 26-19 with under 20 seconds left.

- Ryan Ayers knocks down a three on the break, and ND takes an eight point lead. Believe it or not, it is the Irish's defense that is making the difference right now. ND is sitting back in a zone, and the only guy on RU that can create his own shot is Rosario. Keep him out of the paint, and the Scarlett Knights are in trouble.

- N'Diaye grabs an o-board and gets fouled on the put back. Hits both. Harangody responds with back-to-back buckets to make it 22-17 and then takes a charge.

- After a jumer by Griffin cuts the Irish lead to three, N'Diaye, the second best shot blocker in the Big East threw a Ryan Ayers floater into the stands.

- K-Mac is heating up. Another three for the NYC native.

- Hamady NDiaye is prettÝ tough in the paint as he gets his second straight bucket, but Zeller responds wioth a three to tie it up at 13 with 8:24 left on the clock.

- K-Mac gets on the board with a three, his first points of the game.

- We are here, and with 11 minutes to go in the first half, Notre Dame hasd fallen behind Rutgers 9-6. Neither team has been ab le to get anything going offensively, as both teams are shooting a frigid 27%.