It is the end of the Big East as we know it.

The conference may not look like its old self next year with the loss of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame due to conference realignment shaking a once-proud Big East. But for one last glorious turn at Madison Square Garden this week, what is still a powerhouse conference will have a sad swan song. The good news is that so many of the Big East’s top programs are expected to go far this week in the tournament, meaning that this last installment of the conference tournament should provide some epic moments.

Three things to watch …

1. It is all about Georgetown

The Hoyas finished the regular season strong, with a dominant home win over Syracuse as part of Georgetown’s 12 wins in 13 games to close out the season. Unanimous All-Big East selection Otto Porter Jr. is leading Georgetown with 16.4 point per game and the sophomore is a dynamic game-changer who also rebounds very well. But without sophomore forward Greg Whittington, who hasn’t played since mid-January after being ruled academically ineligible, the team still struggles to rebound. In a Big East with some strong front courts this could well be their weakness.

2. Providence could make a run

The Friars closed out the season on a strong note, winning seven of their final nine games although they were exposed in their regular season finale loss at UConn. Junior Bryce Cotton is a tremendous talent at guard but the team is perhaps overly reliant on him to pace the offense. In their last two losses, he’s scored a combined 19 points during a season where he led Providence with 19.6 points per game. If he can step up against Cincinnati on Wednesday, then Providence can win a game or two in this tournament. If not, they’re NIT bound.

3. Buzz kills it

Every year, it seems that despite their ranking, pundits and fans overlook Marquette in favor of the big boys. But every year, Buzz Williams’s teams show up. The Golden Eagles have never won the Big East under Williams but this is a balanced team that works well as a unit. They lack a prolific scorer, although Vander Blue can get streaky at times. Junior Cadougan is steady at the point and one of the most underrated players in the Big East. In a year where the only favorite is Georgetown, don’t be surprised if the Golden Eagles makes a deep run.

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.

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Over the past six months, the Big East conference has been all shook up with the defection of West Virginia to the Big 12 following this season and the loss of Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, likely after next year. But if the Big East is going to miss these teams, it isn’t showing it.

Only one of the bunch, Syracuse, was one of the tournament’s final four teams and with Cincinnati’s 71-68 win over the Orange on Friday night, none of the defecting programs will lift the conference tournament championship. And now it is the Bearcats, among other programs, who will be called on to fill the void as the Big East transitions yet again. They started with a signature win.

“Well, it’s a huge win for our program,” Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin said.

“It took us a while to develop toughness, and now that our toughness has caught up to our talent. When we make shots we can beat anybody. But our defense hung us in there last night. You need that all against Syracuse because they are arguably the best team in the country. But it’s a great win for our program. Maybe the guys that vote in the coaches’ poll will give us at least one vote on the also-rans. We didn’t get any last week despite winning eight of our last 10.”

The loss of the three basketball teams, a move precipitated by the schools to upgrade the conference their football programs play in, will hurt the Big East. Since 2001, the Big East tournament has been won seven times by a team that has already left the conference or will surely do so.

After Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left the Big East earlier last decade, it was Cincinnati on the football side who stepped up to help replace those teams. Since 2006, the first year when the aforementioned programs left for the ACC, the Bearcats have won outright or shared the Big East football title three times.

Now in hoops, they look poised to do the same thing.

“I’ve got faith in my team. When our toughness rises to the level of our talent, we’ve got a great team,” Cronin said. “We can beat anybody. We came here to win the tournament, and we’ve got one more tomorrow night at 9 o’clock.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.

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But it wasn’t anything illegal or even illicit. It was a meeting that got the ball rolling for Temple to join the Big East.

Wednesday afternoon’s announcement that Temple will be joining the Big East was set in motion 16 months ago in an early morning breakfast confab between Owls athletic director Bill Bradshaw and conference commissioner John Marinatto. Temple will join the conference in football this season and then in all sports the following year.

“We were really talking about sort of the mutual interest, and John was catching up on a lot of the changes that were going on at Temple University in athletics and academics, the mission, some of the construction,” Bradshaw said of his meeting with Marinatto. 

“He was asking me questions about Temple, he was asking him questions about the conference, particulars; we shared a lot of information. It was a terrific meeting.”

With West Virginia leaving the conference this year as well as Pittsburgh and Syracuse bolting to the ACC as early as next year, the inclusion of Temple in addition to the recent expansion which includes Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State, and Southern Methodist University now gives the oddly named conference a large national footprint. The Big East may have a strong western flavor, but with Temple helping to lock down the strong Philadelphia market, it also has a lot of potential eyeballs for a new television deal.

“As we prepare for the future and our new membership structure, I am proud to say that the Big East Conference has improved its total television household’s footprint by over 20 percent, including 13 of the top 50 markets, spanning four time zones,” Marinatto said.

“We have added the potential for a football championship game as soon as 2013. We moved to a balanced eight-game league schedule in football, and our members represent six of the top-10 football recruiting states in the country.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer for live updates from the Big East tournament.

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In a game that featured seven lead changes and 11 tied scores, UConn got the signature win they needed during a season that head coach Jim Calhoun said has “had its ups and downs.” For the second straight season UConn came into the Big East tournament as the No. 9 seed and, like last year, they’ve solidified their place in March Madness with big wins in New York.

“I’m not going to politick. I’m just telling you that if you look at our record that, well, [critics will say] ‘They have only 20 wins,’ yet we played some people,” Calhoun said.

“We played some people folks.”

The Huskies certainly had a mixed resume before tournament play. An 18-12 record is often good enough in a power conference, but their 8-10 Big East mark included some poor losses. Calhoun is right in that they have “played some people.” UConn is No. 34 in the RPI and they had the third toughest strength of schedule in the nation. Factor in two conference tournament wins and UConn is undoubtedly part of the madness.

Now headed to the quarterfinals of the tournament, UConn is playing with house money at this point. The overtime win not only gives the Huskies a second victory this season over West Virginia, a likely tournament team in their own right, it adds to other impressive wins, such as Harvard and Florida State.

But as big as the win on Wednesday was for the Huskies, don’t say that to Calhoun, who was immediately focused on Thursday afternoon.

“We’re just trying to play tomorrow’s basketball game to take it where it may,” Calhoun said.
“We weren’t thinking about the rest of the stuff nor are we today. We’re thinking about playing one of the best, in my opinion, along with Kentucky — one of the best teams in the country tomorrow.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer for live updates and quotes from the Big East tournament all week.

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In his second game back after back surgery last Monday, a calm and more composed than usual Calhoun spent much of the game seated on the bench, rarely showing his usual fire and emotion. Calhoun defied doctor’s orders this past Saturday to return to the sideline to coach the Huskies to a win over Pittsburgh.

“The pain is a different kind of pain; it’s a muscular pain,” Calhoun said.

“Thank God it’s no longer a nerve pain and I’m not walking with a cane anymore. I couldn’t walk with a cane on the sidelines because the officials might have been hit.”

Under anesthesia for three hours, the surgery removed “bone chips and stuff” from Calhoun’s spine. Chances are the Huskies, the ninth seed in the Big East tournament, need one more win to ensure a ticket to the NCAA tournament.

But Calhoun, oddly retrospective, was focused on the win and not the future as he spoke from the podium after UConn’s big win.

“Someone said I only have two years left on my extension. I don’t know if I can make two more minutes. For them to think [that] — I’m grateful about that — I don’t know if I have two more years in my contract. Now it’s like I’m calling the shot,” Calhoun said.

“Someone better pay me for two more years, that’s what I’m saying. My point is I’m trying to coach this basketball team and that’s my job, but it’s also my love. And that’s why I came back to my basketball team, because I felt I owed them something.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer as he tweets from the Big East tournament all week.

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Syracuse
(30-1, 17-1)

OK, so it’s not exactly going out on a limb to say Syracuse, the No. 2 team in the country, is a top contender to win the Big East tournament.

Fans from central New York always travel well to the Garden and, let’s face it, they have the best team.
But that doesn’t mean they will win. When they won the national title in 2003, they didn’t even make the final — despite having Carmelo Anthony.

Only twice in the last eight years has the top seed won. Syracuse is a contender, but not our pick.

Marquette
(25-6, 14-4)

Metro’s pick to win it all is the team that’s gotten no respect all year.

The Golden Eagles are coming off a romp against Georgetown, and all four conference losses are on the road — including a tough one at the Orange. We like their path to the title game too.

Pretender

South Florida
(19-12, 12-6)

If you have a soft spot in your heart for the scrappy, underdog Bulls, we’re sorry. Their feel-good story is over.

They went into the last weekend of the season with a chance to secure a double-bye in the tournament. Instead, they choked at home against West Virginia in a game that set back basketball a few decades.
They shot 39 percent from the field, including an ugly 2-of-14 from 3. But that’s just one game, right?
Actually their 44-point output was one of 10 times they couldn’t break the 50-point barrier. Syracuse did it, unsurprisingly, zero times.

But even teams in the middle of the pack didn’t have that horrific of an offensive output regularly. Cincinnati did it once; so did Louisville. Seton Hall did it three times.

The Bulls can’t score. They’re tenacious, they’re gutty and they do an incredibly poor job of putting the ball into the basket.

Those aren’t the kind of teams you want to pick in March.

They had a nice run, nabbing the No. 6 seed in the tourney — but they won’t be sticking around long and they don’t deserve a spot in the big dance.

Dark horse

Connecticut
(18-12, 8-10)

You may question whether the Huskies belong as an under-the-radar team coming off a title last year, but they are the No. 9 seed and will have to play the first day.

Sound familiar?

It better, because it’s the same scenario as last season, when they won the Big East tournament and then marched to the national title. They even opened with the same team — DePaul. The second team they’d face is West Virginia, a team they’ve already beaten this year.

Jim Calhoun is back in charge, Shabazz Napier looked great against Pitt, and it shouldn’t surprise you to see another tourney run. 

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In 2006, Rutgers had the chance to win the Big East  conference outright in their final game of the regular season in Morgantown, W.Va. Instead, the Scarlet Knights lost a triple-overtime thriller rather than booking their ticket to a BCS bowl. The Scarlet Knights were sent to Houston for the Texas Bowl. Now as they ready themselves for Saturday, Rutgers can take a step forward in capturing their first-ever conference title with a win over Cincinnati.

Cincinnati is currently atop the Big East with a 3-1 record but a win over the Bearcats would give Rutgers, currently 3-2, the tiebreaker advantage if things came down to a head-to-head tie. While things would still need to break Rutgers’ way, a victory over Cincinnati would be tremendous for the program.

“This is the most balanced, competitive league in the country, and I think that makes it exciting. 
Some people, traditionalists, like a team that runs away and hides,” head coach Greg Schiano said.
“You’re not going to get that in the Big East conference.  For the fans who follow Big East football, you never know. It’s like the NFL; every week is an adventure.”

The Scarlet Knights were badly beaten, 69-38, at Nippert Stadium last year.  While this is a different Rutgers team, including the nation’s 11th best scoring defense, there are still painful lessons from last year’s display.

“We didn’t execute,” Schiano said. “I think emotionally I don’t know where we were.”

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“I think it sucks like everybody else does,” Huggins said during Big East Men’s Basketball Media Day at the New York Athletic Club yesterday. “It’s done in the name of money. It’s all about money. Whatever they want to tell you, it’s all about money.”

Despite Big East Commissioner John Marinatto’s best efforts to shift the focus onto basketball, the overriding topic of the day was conference realignment. The Big East lost two charter programs in September as Syracuse and Pittsburgh applied to and were accepted by the Atlantic Coast Conference. The earliest Syracuse and Pittsburgh can join the ACC is 2014. Marinatto noted both schools drafted and signed the conference’s 27-month exit agreement years ago, and he seems determined to make those programs honor their commitment.

During a conference call Tuesday, Marinatto reported that the remaining Big East school presidents — not Dr. Nancy Cantor (Syracuse) or Mark A. Nordenberg (Pittsburgh) — voted unanimously to double the exit fee to $10 million and to increase the number of football schools from six to 12. Huggins, who favors a 10-team league, is not in favor of expanding the conference. The Big East would have 20 schools that compete in basketball should Marinatto’s vision come to fruition.  

“Why the hell have a league? Why don’t we all go independently? I think there’s a point of [oversaturation],” Huggins said. “Somebody’s going to face first [in the conference] and somebody’s going to face 16th [in the conference], no matter who they are. Everybody takes a job and they say, ‘We’re going to be one of the premier teams in the league.’ Really? Who are you going to pass? You look at our league; who do you pass? It’s going to be hard to pass Connecticut. It’s going to be hard to pass Syracuse. It’s going to be hard to pass Georgetown. When you have all these teams, TV dictates that you play somebody twice. A lot of times, the best team really doesn’t win the regular season and they really should. I understand the other part. I understand how money goes.

“Why don’t we bring 24? Why don’t we bring 24 to Madison Square [Garden]? Why don’t we make it a two week deal? Isn’t that right? Let’s go to 24, bring ‘em all in and let’s have two weeks at the Garden. That’ll be a lot of fun,” said the notoriously shoot-from-the-hip coach sarcastically.  

West Virginia has been linked in media reports to a Big 12 expansion plan along with Louisville. Huggins acknowledged that he would have to modify his recruiting strategy should West Virginia join the Big 12.

Follow Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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“There has been a lot of speculation and anticipation based on the news of the last several weeks,” Marinatto said, an acknowledgement of Pittsburgh and Syracuse announcing they will join the Atlantic Coast Conference after the mandatory 27-month waiting period and rumors that the Big 12 may be interested in poaching Louisville and West Virginia.

“The leadership of our conference is working hard to solidify and, indeed, improve the long-term future of the Big East Conference. There is a glorious past to consider. As we plan for the future, nothing is going to happen to that legacy,” he said.

Marinatto announced in a conference call with reporters Tuesday that the 14 remaining member schools unanimously approved a motion that doubled the exit fee from $5 million to $10 million. He also said that the Big East has an expansion plan that will increase the number of football-playing schools to 12.

With the defections of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC, the Big East only has six football-playing schools. To retain its Automatic Qualifier status with the BCS, a conference must have a minimum of eight programs. Navy, Air Force, SMU, Houston, Central Florida and Boise State have been linked to the Big East expansion. While adding those schools would benefit the Big East as far as retaining its BCS AQ position, there is concern that a 20-team super conference would become too unwieldy for basketball and other sports.

The coaches’ reaction to Marinatto’s proposal was met by skepticism. Bob Huggins sarcastically suggested the Big East “go to 24, bring ‘em all in and let’s have two weeks at the Garden. That’ll be a lot of fun,” while Rick Pitino offered concerns about the practicality of conference expansion as it pertained to the travel of non-revenue sports.

“For football and basketball it’s easy, we fly charter,” Pitino said. “But the track and field person, for the women’s volleyball player, who have to get on connections and the connections are late. They have to miss more school. The number one thing of significance is aligning any league is geographics. That’s what made the Big East run so smoothly. But now, when you’re talking about people flying from the west to the east or the Midwest to east, and vice versa, the athletes aren’t being taken into consideration.”

Jay Wright reiterated Villanova’s desire to join the conference as a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program. Villanova is a member of the Colonial Athletic Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).   

“The bottom line is that Villanova wants to be in the Big East for football. Bottom line. We’ve said it. We’ve worked with the Big East on it. We understand the situation with the Big East right now,” Wright said. “We don’t like that we’re not in but we have to be loyal members and let the football schools do what’s best. They know what’s best.”

Wright acknowledged that the conference would be strengthened if Notre Dame football would join the Big East.

“I can’t speak for Notre Dame, but [it] would be great for the Big East. It would be great for Villanova,” Wright said. “Notre Dame-Villanova at [Lincoln Financial Field]? That’d be awesome. It’d be awesome. Everybody would love that.”

UConn and Syracuse tied for first in the coaches’ preseason poll. Pittsburgh senior guard Ashton Gibbs was named as the preseason player of the year, while UConn center Andre Drummond was picked as the conference’s rookie of the year.

St. John’s was the only school not to send its head coach as Steve Lavin is recuperating from prostate cancer surgery earlier in the month. Assistant coach Mike Dunlap and Special Assistant/Advisor Gene Keady attended in place of Lavin. St. John’s was picked to finish 12th and did not have a player selected to the conference’s first, second or honorable mention teams.

Follow Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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