Big East Tournament 2011
Before filling out the March Madness brackets, the conference tournaments have to get underway. There may not be any conference in college basketball that is as talented as the Big East. When championship week gets underway, the Big East tournament will take center stage.
1 – The Big East has the potential to send 11 teams to the NCAA tournament, and many of those teams have a chance to win the national championship.
2 – The Big East tournament will provide plenty of excitement and close games.
3 – The Big East is up for grabs this year, and any team could surprise and go deep into the tournament.
4 – West Virginia won the tournament a year ago, but it was interesting to note that the team they played was Georgetown, who was an eight seed in the tournament. In fact, the finals did not include the top two seeds in the tournament, which is a sign of how competitive this tournament has become.
Before predicting a winner, it is important to review the teams in the field.
- Big East Tournament.
There’s such a gap between the top 11 teams in the Big East and the bottom five that you can’t say USF got a ‘good’ matchup in the first round of the conference tournament. But drawing 10th-seeded Villanova isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to the Bulls.
Nova has been reeling the past couple of weeks – even though they’re in no danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, they’ve lost their last four games and six out of eight. Their only two wins in the past month were by three at Seton Hall, and by two at DePaul thanks to a cold-blooded 3-pointer by Corey Fisher that extended the game to overtime. Oh by the way, Fisher had an MRI on his knee the other day. Even Jay Wright start seizing up a little bit, potentially giving away a game to Syracuse by not using any of his timeouts in the last 30 seconds as his team mucked up two possessions that could have tied or given the Wildcats the lead.
This is a banged-up, ice-cold Villanova team that may look at the challenge of trying to win five games in five days and say: “Oh the hell with this, let’s get ready for the real tournament.” And the Bulls had them on the ropes back in January, when Villanova was playing a lot better than they are now, before every damn shot they took started going in. So this isn’t impossible. At least that’s what I tell myself to try and buy into the idea of the Bulls making it to Wednesday at MSG.
Mar 6, 2011. Pitt has clinched the Big East regular-season title and will be the top seed in the Big East Tournament, which begins on Tuesday, and West Virginia is the sixth seed in the tournament and has a first-round bye. Here’s the full schedule for the tournament:
Tuesday, March 8:
9. Connecticut vs. 16. DePaul, 12:00 PM.
12. Seton Hall vs. 13 Rutgers, 2:00 PM.
10. Villanova vs. 15. South Florida, 7:00 PM.
11. Marquette vs. 14. Providence, 9:00 PM.
Wednesday, March 9:
Connecticut/DePaul vs. 8. Georgetown, 12:00 PM.
Seton Hall/Rutgers vs. 5. St. John’s, 2:00 PM.
Villanova/South Florida vs. 7. Cincinnati, 7:00 PM.
Marquette/Providence vs. 6. West Virginia, 9:00 PM.
Thursday, March 10:
Connecticut/DePaul/Georgetown vs. 1. Pitt, 12:00 PM.
Seton Hall/Rutgers/St. Johns vs. 4. Syracuse, 2:00 PM.
Villanova/South Florida/Cincinnati vs. 2. Notre Dame, 7:00 PM.
Marquette/Providence/West Virginia vs. 3. Louisville, 9:00 PM.
Friday, March 11:
Winner of Pitt game vs. winner of Syracuse game, 7:00 PM.
Winner of Notre Dame game vs. winner of Louisville game, 9:00 PM.
Saturday, March 12:
Big East championship, 9:00 PM.
Pitt gets two rounds of byes, whereas West Virginia gets one. Once they start playing, though, nothing will be easy. West Virginia will have to play the Marquette/Providence winner. Providence isn’t good, and WVU beat them by 30 points earlier this season, but the Friars do have wins against Louisville and Villanova. Marquette, meanwhile, beat Notre Dame, Syracuse and UConn.