Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Pitt players celebrate their 2004 Big East title. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Gray earns first-team Big East honor Pitt players have long talk about recent slide Cook: Dixon deserves to be named Big East coach of year

The Big East Conference tournament begins tomorrow at Madison Square Garden in New York, where some of the best postseason college basketball games have been staged in the past quarter century. This year's event has the potential to trump all previous tournaments.

It has been said of this year's tournament that it might be easier to reach the Final Four than to navigate through the talented Big East field and hoist the trophy Saturday night.

The top two teams in Division I, according to the latest media and coaches' polls, hail from the Big East -- No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 Villanova. Three other teams in the 12-team tournament field are in the top 25.

The first-round games tomorrow are the kind of games seen in the second or third round of the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati plays Syracuse, Georgetown plays Notre Dame, Seton Hall plays Rutgers and Pitt plays Louisville.

Pitt, Georgetown, Cincinnati and Seton Hall are considered locks for the NCAA tournament field. Syracuse and Louisville can play their way in with one or two victories this week.

"It's absolutely incredible," West Virginia coach John Beilein said yesterday. "If you go back two or three years, those first-round games look a like a Sweet 16 group. I looked at the bracket [Sunday] and that's when it finally hit me how strong this league was this season. The teams that are playing just to get to the quarterfinal round ... it's unbelievable."

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun compared this season to the 1996 Big East tournament. In '96, the Big East produced six NBA first-round picks, headlined by Allen Iverson, Ray Allen and Kerry Kittles. Allen and the Huskies beat Iverson and the Hoyas, 75-74, in the Big East championship game.

Syracuse didn't make the Big East title game that year, but the Orange advanced to the NCAA title game a few weeks later.

It could be that type of year again in the Big East.

"I think we had three top-10 teams and five teams in the top 20 that year ..." Calhoun said. "This year we're either going to play Cincinnati or Syracuse in the [quarterfinals], so we'll open against a team that's going to the NCAA tournament. It was almost impossible to imagine this scenario a few years ago. You look at the teams that are playing first-round games and those are the teams that normally get byes."

The depth of the league was demonstrated in the final weekend of the season when previously winless South Florida beat Georgetown. Cincinnati and Seton Hall completed their NCAA resumes by beating West Virginia and Pitt.

"I don't think I've ever used the word grind, but I've found myself using that word a lot to describe this season," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "There was just never a time to relax this season. There was not one second to relax. But that's the sign of a great league."

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has been through six previous Big East tournaments. He said this year's field appears to have the most quality depth.

"It's as tough as it has been, no question," Dixon said. "There's no question the league has gotten tougher the last couple of years. When we first got into the conference seven years ago there was talk that the conference was down a little bit. The conference is on the rise the last couple of years."

Connecticut and Villanova are the favorites to meet in the title game Saturday night, but don't bet on it, Calhoun said. Calhoun said to watch out for some of the teams that are playing tomorrow to challenge the top four seeds for the title.

Only a handful of teams in Big East history have won three games in three days to advance to the championship game. West Virginia did it last season and Pitt did it in 2001. No team has won four games in four days.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't see some different teams in the semifinals than what people are predicting," Calhoun said. "And I wouldn't be surprised to see someone play four games in four days. That's just the way this season has gone."