Colleges

Big East tournaments to take all teams

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 8, 2007

TAMPA - USF won't have to worry about missing the Big East tournament after this season.

The conference's presidents have voted to expand the league's men's and women's tournaments from 12 to 16 teams starting in 2009, guaranteeing every men's team a trip to Madison Square Garden and the women a place at the Hartford Civic Center.

"I think it's great for our conference," first-year Bulls coach Stan Heath said. "It gives every player an opportunity to play in New York and every team a chance to play for something late in the year. There's so much balance in our league, and not much difference between a lot of the teams in the bottom half of the conference."

USF is the only men's team to miss the league tournament in both of the past two years. The new format has two tiers of byes, giving every team a chance but still rewarding the schools with the best regular-season records.

The league's bottom eight teams play on the first day, with the four winners advancing to face the teams seeded fifth to eighth. Those four winners then face the league's top four seeds, with semifinals and finals to follow.

If last season is any indication, the new opening round may be little more than a formality: The four teams that missed the tournament last season went a combined 2-14 against the four teams they would have faced in the new format.

USF's men were picked to finish 16th and the women ninth in the coaches' preseason poll, so the Bulls still have the challenge of making the conference tournament in March.

"I applaud our presidents for their decision," said Heath, whose team opens Friday at the Sun Dome against Cleveland State.

UCONN HOLDS ON: Jerome Dyson scored 20 to lead the host Huskies to a closer-than-expected 69-65 win over Morgan State in the first round of the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament.

Curtis Kelly added 13 points and nine rebounds, including several key buckets when the game appeared to be slipping away. Jeff Adrien chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Reggie Holmes had 18 points and Jamar Smith had 16 for Morgan State.

UConn led by 16 early in the second half, but a Smith floater in the lane got the Bears within four at 66-62 with 1:25 left.

Marquise Kelly missed a layup on Morgan State's next possession and the Huskies hung on.

UConn plays Buffalo in the second round tonight (9, ESPNU). The Bulls beat Ohio Valley 89-82, helped by an unusual technical foul when Ohio Valley's Jacob Borner entered the game with a different jersey number (25) than the one listed on the roster (23).

UConn opened the second half with a 7-0 run to go up 44-28, but missed several easy opportunities, twice when ally-oop passes went awry and three times on missed dunks.

Morgan State responded with a 14-2 run, capped by 3-pointers from Smith and Holmes.

Two more 3-pointers by Holmes tied it at 52 with just under seven minutes left.

Connecticut hit just four of its first 15 shots and trailed 14-10 eight minutes into the game.

The Huskies trailed 24-19 before switching to a three-guard lineup and going on an 18-4 run to close the half.

UConn is 18-4 in season openers under coach Jim Calhoun and hasn't lost an opening game at Gampel Pavilion since its on-campus home opened in 1990.

In a consolation game in Lexington, Ky., Durrell Nevels had 13 points and a career-high 20 rebounds to lead Central Arkansas past Alabama A&M 69-59.

The Bears shot 38 percent one night after Kentucky kept them to 20 percent.

It was the 10th career double double for Nevels.

York Sims added 13 points for the Bears, and Jabari Deshields led Alabama A&M with 20.

Wis.-Milwaukee: Scoring leader Avery Smith was tossed off the team a day after he was suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules. He will remain on scholarship.

Information from Times wires was used in this report.

[Last modified November 7, 2007, 23:01:05]