Tomorrow marks the beginning of the last Big East tournament before the so-called Catholic 7 — Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, DePaul, Georgetown, St. Johns and Villanova — depart after this season.
The Big East has been at the apex of college basketball for the last 15 years and its conference tournament, with 15 or 16 teams in Madison Square Garden for five grueling days of basketball, is nearly as exciting as the NCAA tournament itself. Over the past decade, the Big East has been known as the best conference in college basketball, producing three NCAA championships in the past 10 years and as numerous NBA stars such as Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Ewing and Dwyane Wade and some of the top coaches in the game today, including Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim and John Thompson III.
The consistency provided by this conference has been remarkable. It has refused to be top-heavy throughout the past decade, earning eight NCAA tournament bids in 2006 and again in 2008 and 11 bids in 2011. The Big East enters Monday with six ranked teams and a three-way tie for first place. If all goes well, at least eight teams will make the NCAA field this season, and a number-one seed may be awarded to the tournament winner.
This year at the Garden, at least five teams have a reasonable chance of taking home the trophy on Saturday afternoon. In the end, it boils down to three squads: the struggling Syracuse Orange, the streaking Georgetown Hoyas and returning champion the Louisville Cardinals.
Syracuse may be the most intriguing team in the field. The Orange have lost four of their past five games, and have yet to beat a ranked team since Feb. 4, when they drubbed Notre Dame at home. But this team has talent — they won against Louisville in January. Many thought that when forward James Southerland returned from academic ineligibility they would finally see this team at full strength. Syracuse is 4-5 since his return.
The Hoyas have won 12 of their past 13 games, are 5-1 against ranked opponents and are coming off a 22-point victory against Syracuse on Saturday. Other than a three-point loss at South Florida, this team has only lost to tournament bound-teams. They are ranked number five in the country for a reason, and their star Otto Porter Jr. could be the number-one pick in the NBA draft this summer.
Louisville has won its last seven games, taking advantage of one of the weaker portions of their schedule. The team is led by Payton Siva and Gorgui Dieng, who had a double-double on Saturday against Notre Dame. This squad has only lost once outside of the Big East, and it was to then number-five ranked Duke. Like Georgetown, all of their losses came against tournament-caliber teams.
Although the Orange have the most to prove this weekend, Georgetown and Louisville have the momentum, and it will come down to which team’s stars will shine. Otto Porter Jr. has been playing at an impressive level as of late, and that should continue as Georgetown cuts down the nets this weekend. The Big East hopes to end where it has been all along — on top.