Big East is living up to its hype
Share with others:
Back in October, Big East coaches said the league would be the deepest and most competitive it had ever been in the 30-year history of the conference. Some, including Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, ventured to call the Big East the best conference in the history of college basketball.
Whether the latter can be quantified at this point is debatable, but no one will argue about the competitiveness of the Big East this season, especially at the top. With eight days remaining in the regular season, five teams can still claim regular-season championship.
"I don't think it's a surprise," Dixon said yesterday after practice. "And I think it's the same teams everyone figured would be there. It's pretty much what people had hoped and expected. People talk about this conference and how good it has been, and it's lived up to it. That's very rare."
Because of Pitt's loss Tuesday at Providence, the Panthers need help if they are to win a sixth regular-season championship. Connecticut (26-2, 14-2) and Louisville (22-5, 13-2) control their own destiny.
The Huskies play host to Notre Dame and travel to Pittsburgh to take on Pitt in the much-anticipated regular-season finale. The Cardinals play host to Marquette and Seton Hall before traveling to West Virginia for its final game.
Pitt (25-3, 12-3) has to win its final three games against Seton Hall, Marquette and Connecticut and hope that Louisville loses one of its final three. That would get Pitt a share of the conference championship.
In the event of a three-way tie among Pitt, Connecticut and Louisville for first place, the Panthers would be the No. 1 seed at the Big East tournament based on the Big East tiebreakers.
Marquette (23-5, 12-3) and Villanova (23-5, 11-4) also have a chance to claim the conference title, but they don't control their own destiny, either.
"It would mean a lot," sophomore center DeJuan Blair said. "That's one of our goals. We might have let it slip away from us on Tuesday. We just have to hope and wish. If we keep winning and some teams lose, we'll have that. We just have to keep playing."
Dixon has won a Big East regular-season and conference tournament championship as Pitt's head coach. In most other conferences, winning the regular-season title is viewed as the bigger accomplishment because it's achieved over a two-month period. But Dixon has discovered that the Big East tournament is held in such high regard by the coaches and schools involved that it is just as big of an accomplishment.
"The Big East tournament is more important than other tournaments nationally," Dixon said. "Before coming here I would have thought the [regular season] was more important. But being in the Big East and realizing the history of it, the conversation is probably equally divided. But either one is great."
Even if the Panthers don't win the regular-season championship they can put themselves in better position for the conference tournament by finishing strong.
Pitt is guaranteed to finish no worse than in fifth place in the conference, but the difference between fourth and fifth is important.
The top four teams get a double bye at the Big East tournament and don't have to play until the third day at Madison Square Garden.
Teams that finish fifth through eighth in the standings get a bye, but have to play on Wednesday, the second day of the tournament.
All 16 teams are participating in the conference tournament this season, so teams placing ninth through 16th must play on the first day of the tournament.
NOTES -- Blair is one of 15 finalists for the 2009 Oscar Robertson Award, a national player of the year honor given by the United States Basketball Writers Association. ... Blair fouled out of a game for the second time this season against Providence. He was asked about the way officials have been calling games, and he said he has noticed a change since Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun complained about Blair's physicality after the Panthers beat the Huskies in Hartford last week. "I think Calhoun got in their heads a little bit," he said. "It will be interesting for the rest of the year. I can't worry about officials. I'll just keep playing." Later, he added, "I have to bring in some cupcakes and cookies or something." ... Dixon said sophomore reserve Gilbert Brown turned an ankle in practice but is expected to play Saturday night when the Panthers travel to play Seton Hall.
First Published February 27, 2009 12:00 am
