Friday thoughts

Notebook in Friday's JI,

I like the way this is shaping up for the Huskies tomorrow night. They are due for a good clean, crisp game, and despite being overwhelming favorites on the betting line, I don't get the sense the players feel they are overwhelming favorites.

Huskies have a lot to prove on Saturday night.

On another note: I don't want to hear any ACC bashing. After the performance of Rutgers last night at home against North Carolina, the Big East can't talk. Has anyone in the Big East played well this year? Maybe USF, but they did struggle with Central Florida. Conference has played terribly.

I have said this time and time again about Rutgers -- You can't stick your chest out and pound on it and tell everyone within earshot how superior you are and then not deliver. Fresno St and UNC aren't LSU and Florida.

I do think those teams are pretty good, but not top 10 caliber programs.

I know it's a part of their strategy and it's hard to get noticed being humble in NYC, but it leaves you open for day's like today to be open to ridicule. Listening to the WFAN today at 3 p.m., it was savage. That does Rutgers no good.

The Scarlet Knights have some talent and have a lot of potential as a program (Jersey has a ton of football players). I think they are better positioned than UConn to be consistently good because of recruiting territory. But, they aren't there yet. For the last three years they have talked National Championship. How silly is that? Shouldn't you win a Big East championship first?

Over the longhaul they can become a pillar of the Big East because of their location and profile. Rutgers is not there yet--and that's all right -- so it's time to stop talking national program silliness.

It's in Rutgers' best interest to take a lower profile. Get it done on the field and then boast. They have lived for almost three years off that Louisville win. 9-9 since then.