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.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Robin Smith, the batter who shone for England in a period when it was beaten regularly in Test cricket, has died. He was 62. Smith’s family said in a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he died unexpectedly at his home in Perth, Australia, on Monday. No cause was given. He played 62 Tests for England from 1988 to 1996, scoring 4,236 runs at an average of 43.67 with nine centuries. His signature shot was the square cut. Smith also played in 71 one-day internationals and was part of England’s squad who reached the 1992 ICC World Cup final. His unbeaten
SSC Napoli on Sunday joined AC Milan at the top of Serie A after winning 1-0 at title rivals AS Roma, as Inter kept pace with the leading pair by beating Pisa SC 2-0. David Neres stroked home the only goal of a feisty game in the 36th minute at the Stadio Olimpico, ending a blistering counterattack with a calm finish which put Napoli on 28 points. Napoli are behind Milan on goal-difference, and just one point ahead of both Roma and Inter in a tight scudetto battle in which Antonio Conte’s team are to host Juventus at the weekend. “To come to
RSS