Big East: College Basketball's Version of SEC Football

The Big East might not be much of a football conference, but its 16 basketball schools dominate the hardwood. Just like the SEC dominates the BCS.

Fact: Joe Lunardi's most recent Bracketology predictions have 11 Big East teams in the tournament, with Pitt as a No. 1 seed and both UConn and Villanova as No. 2 seeds.

Fact: 7 Big East teams are currently ranked in the Top 25.  Another 2 are receiving votes after just dropping out.  That's over half the conference.

Fact: The Big East's 7 ranked teams have a combined 82-6 non-conference record.

Fact: The Big East is the toughest conference in the country.  Just ask  Providence College basketball fans (they do exist -- Facebook claims there are 3,742 of them).  Their Friars just took down Villanova by 15 at home.  Even better, Seton Hall beat Syracuse by 22 points in the Carrier Dome in what was the Orange's third-biggest home loss in the Jim Boeheim Era.  Possibly most impressive was Notre Dame overcoming a 5-point halftime deficit to beat Pitt in Pittsburgh, where the Panthers had won 51 of their past 52 games.

Fact: UConn's Kemba Walker is still atop the National Player of the Year poll.

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TCU accepts invitation from the Big East

Breaking news from Brett McMurphy of Fanhouse: TCU will join the Big East in 2012.

The Horned Frogs, formerly of the Mountain West Conference, will officially join the Big East on July 1, 2012 and begin play in the 2012-13 school year.

This move will certainly help the Big East shed its current "Big Least" reputation in football.  While it has long been a basketball powerhouse, sometimes sending 9 of its 16 teams to the NCAA tournament in March, the Big East has lost its swagger since Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Miami (FL) defected to the ACC in 2003.  The additions of Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida never made up for that loss on the gridiron.

This season, TCU is 11-0 and ranked No. 3 in the BCS, which guarantees it a BCS bowl game.  Even better, the current four-year evaluation period for the BCS concludes in December 2011, so TCU's past BCS rankings – three consecutive top 11 BCS rankings, including this year – will transfer to the Big East since it joined the league before the 2012-13 school year.  And it's clear that the move will benefit TCU's television revenues (their current contract expires at the end of the 2013 season) as well as those of the Big East.


The remaining question is who else will join the Big East's football ranks.  On the basketball side, the conference is now up to 17 teams, so that door is pretty firmly shut.  But there are only 9 football schools now.  The Big East has also extended an offer to Villanova, a 30-year basketball member of the conference.  The Wildcats, who presently play in the Conference Formerly Known as Division 1-AA, are expected to accept or refuse that offer by the end of the 2010-11 school year.  If they turn it down, UCF looks to be next in line.  Either way, the conference is going to have 10 teams and be much stronger in the 2012 season and beyond.  For fans of UConn and all other Big East schools, this is a watershed moment.

The paradox: 2009-10 UConn men's basketball

I'm not sure what to make of this 2009-10 UConn men's basketball team anymore. Two days ago, on Saturday, they got embarrassed at home by Cincinnati, shooting 34% from the field and losing 60-48, their lowest point total since 2002. In doing so, they completely embarrassed Jim Calhoun, who had just returned after missing 7 games in 3.5 weeks, leading some to believe that the players had simply quit on their coach. Calhoun, in turn, said he was embarrassed by his team's performance and that it was one of the worst games of his entire career.

But today, just two days after the Cincinnati debacle, UConn delivered its first road win of the year by upsetting No. 3 Villanova in Philly. Every aspect of their game improved. The Huskies shot 48% from the field and 80% from the line, far exceeding their season average of 68%. Jerome Dyson neutralized Scottie Reynolds but grew fatigued from his efforts, shooting only 3-14 from the field for a total of 15 points. Kemba Walker picked up the slack, going 6-10 for 29 points (14-16 FT) with 9 boards, 3 assists, and only 2 TO.

Just an aside from Head Coach Emeritus Jimmy Dugan. Stanley...Stanley Robinson! You're still turning the ball over too much. Ten times in this last game. Now, now, now that's something I'd like you to work on...before next season.

Going into today's game, people were down on UConn. The Hartford Courant predicted that the Huskies would have to run the table in the regular season, or dominate (and perhaps even win) the Big East Tournament, just to make the NCAA tournament. It's hard to argue with that. Clearly, UConn dug itself a very deep hole. But today, the Huskies played intensely and with real passion. Their defensive effort was up with 8 blocks, and the team hit its free throws for once. Maybe Calhoun screamed especially loud at them in the locker room, berating them enough that they're scared into playing hard for him again. Who knows.

What I do know is that UConn has 2 tough home games coming up vs. WestVa and Louisville and another battle on the road at Notre Dame. But if the Huskies play those teams like they did against Villanova today, and if Jerome Dyson and Kemba Walker don't get injured, they can still make a run.