The Big East conference tournament beginning today may be a display of might and excess unlike anything ever seen in college basketball. There are terrific teams, very good teams, dangerous teams -- everything but bad teams. Notre Dame, seeded last in the 12-team field, won 15 games this season, has won five of its last seven and took Connecticut into overtime before losing.
"I think all 12 teams in this tournament are capable of playing in the NCAA tournament and doing well in the NCAA tournament," coach Jim Calhoun of top-seeded UConn said. "That is incredibly rare."
Most believed that when the Big East became a 16-team league this season with the addition of Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, South Florida and Cincinnati, it would become the toughest and deepest conference in the nation. The Big East has managed to surpass most expectations.
Connecticut is No. 1 in the nation and Villanova is No. 2. Behind them are several good teams, as many as eight still in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid. With so much depth, the Big East is expected to receive a record number of bids to the NCAA tournament.
The Big East is among a handful of conferences that have received seven bids to the NCAA tournament, having done so in 1991. But no league has ever received more. That record is expected to fall when the tournament field is announced on Sunday night.
"I think we're going to be deserving of nine bids," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "I firmly believe that. And maybe something magical can happen in New York City and we will pull off a 10th bid. I'm dreaming big dreams for our league.
"There has been a buzz about this league since the preseason. Usually when you have that kind of buzz and hype, it doesn't live up to it. We exceeded it. So I think we should be rewarded with the right amount of bids."
Brey is not alone with his optimism. Commissioner Mike Tranghese refused to predict how many bids the conference would get, but expressed confidence that the NCAA tournament selection committee was prepared to accept a record number of Big East teams.
"I think they will take the 34 best at-large teams in the country," Tranghese said. "Our coaches are nervous about that. I am absolutely convinced that no one will get left out because of quotas. The committee looks at who you played, who you beat, good road wins, how you played at the end of the year. That's been the formula for the longest time, and it's not going to change."
Connecticut, Villanova, West Virginia, Marquette, Georgetown and Pittsburgh seem assured of NCAA tournament bids. Seventh-seeded Seton Hall can all but wrap up an invitation with a win today over 10th-seeded Rutgers.
Cincinnati and Syracuse, which also meet in the opening round, are considered bubble teams. Whichever team wins today would make a solid case for the NCAA selection committee.
Rutgers, Louisville and Notre Dame would most likely need to win the conference tournament for the automatic NCAA bid. Otherwise, they are destined for the National Invitation Tournament.
For Villanova and Connecticut, the goal is to win the Big East tournament or at least do well enough to lock up a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament.
The last time the Big East had two top-seeded teams in the NCAA tournament was 1985, when Georgetown and St. John's had two of the top slots. It was Villanova, however, that came out of the Big East that year to win the national championship.
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