Tasser: Pitt, Walker playing well

With its depth and unforgiving schedule, the Big East continually chews up and spits out teams…. With its depth and unforgiving schedule, the Big East continually chews up and spits out teams. This week, both Syracuse and Villanova fell prey to the intense competition at the top of the conference’s food chain — Pitt and Connecticut, respectively. Neither team has time to dwell on its respective loss because the Wildcats travel to Syracuse to take on the Orange tomorrow night. ’Cuse hopes to get leading scorer Kris Joseph ­­— who missed the showdown with Pitt — back from a head injury he suffered last Saturday against Cincinnati, which will only make the game that much more intriguing. I’m calling a Syracuse victory if Joseph plays.

Other games this week include Pitt at DePaul and Marquette at Notre Dame on Saturday, Notre Dame at Pitt on Monday, UConn at Marquette on Tuesday and West Virginia at Louisville on Wednesday.

Stock Up

1. Pittsburgh — The Panthers felled an undefeated team and took sole position atop the Big East standings with a 6-0 conference record — a first in school history. Nasir Robinson played a spectacular game, and Pitt tore apart the Orange’s vaunted defense, running up a 19-0 score to start the game and finishing with almost 15 points above Syracuse’s average points allowed.

2. Kemba Walker — Walker backed up his argument for best player in the country with his performance against Villanova. He actually finished with his worst shooting game of the country, but like all great players found the ball in his hands at the end of the game, when he promptly made a 10-foot floater with 2.5 seconds left to give UConn the victory.

Neutral

1. Syracuse — Yes, the Orange lost their undefeated season and dropped into second place in the Big East with their defeat at the hands of the Panthers. However, Syracuse went into the Oakland Zoo, got down 19 points early and fought back into the game without its leading scorer. That can’t be held against the Orange.

2. West Virginia — The Mountaineers have been consistently inconsistent this year. They won a big nonconference game against No. 8-ranked Purdue only to drop a disappointing one to unranked Marshall two days later.

Stock Down

1. Cincinnati — The Bearcats started red-hot (15-0) and tried desperately to convince people that their string of early victories was the result of good basketball rather than a cupcake early season schedule. Alas, they find themselves losers of three of their past four games.

2. Notre Dame — Notre Dame opened some people’s eyes with its play early this season, but of late it has not looked good. When the team loses, it loses badly. Over the past two weeks it has suffered 22-point losses to Syracuse and Marquette and an 18-point loss to St. John’s — a week after dismantling the Red Storm.

Power Rankings

Pittsburgh Panthers — The Panthers are looking to do something the football team couldn’t — make good on the preseason Big East Championship prediction.

Syracuse Orange — The Orange played defense very unlike themselves on Monday, but you better believe that Coach Jim Boeheim won’t allow his team to make the same mistakes against ’Nova.

Connecticut Huskies — Kemba Walker did what Kemba Walker has consistently done: make big shots. But he didn’t do it alone. Jeremy Lamb scored twice his season average (14 points) and recorded season highs in rebounds (eight) and 3-point field goal percentage (40 percent).

Villanova Wildcats — The Wildcats shouldn’t hang their heads after the loss to UConn. They’re still 16-2 and 4-1 in the conference (1.5 games back) with games against the likes of Syracuse and Pitt left on their schedule.

Louisville Cardinals — The Cards have pretty much won the games they were supposed to win and lost the games they were supposed to lose this year. They have a big matchup against WVU this week and then travel to UConn next Saturday.

West Virginia Mountaineers – The Mountaineers jump onto my list with their big win over No. 8 Purdue – then promptly almost fell back off it with their loss to Marshall. Coach Bob Huggins needs to get his team back to playing at a consistent level if it wants to come anywhere close to repeating last year’s performance.

Marquette Golden Eagles — Marquette lost a heartbreaker Saturday to Louisville but will get many more upset chances with Notre Dame (which it recently beat), UConn, Syracuse and ’Nova in consecutive games.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish — The Irish need to avenge their loss to Marquette to right the ship. Their recent losses overshadow their upsets against two then-No. 9-ranked teams in Georgetown and UConn.