South Florida, St. John's Move On To Second Round In Big East Tournament Early Action

The Big East Tournament is only two games old and already things have been shaken up.

Nine-seed South Florida did its job, dispatching with 16-seed DePaul 58-49. The Blue Demons didn’t go down without a fight, getting within six points early in the 2nd half, but USF put the brakes on the comeback and cruised to victory. Dominique Jones scored 20 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Bulls, who win their first-ever Big East Tournament game. Their reward…a noon tip-off with the 8-seed Georgetown Hoyas tomorrow.

In the second game of the day, however, the mighty (or formerly mighty) took a tumble. The UConn Huskies needed to make a serious run in order to get any consideration whatsoever for the NCAA Tournament, and even then it would be a crapshoot. Instead, they laid an egg to cap their worst season in a long time. 13-seed St. John’s blew out the 12-seed Huskies 73-51, who will now head home after one game in the BET for the fifth-consecutive year. Sean Evans led the Red Storm with 19 points.

The Huskies are now 17-15, their worst record since 1987. They’re not even a lock to get invited to the N.I.T. St. John’s may have just swiped that spot from them.

Keep an eye on The UConn Blog for post-game thoughts on the Huskies’ latest loss and Casual Hoya for a preview on tomorrow’s Georgetown showdown with South Florida.