This has been a tough week for the entire Big East. The NCAA tournament committee invited only three of the 11 teams to the dance, a ridiculous act of disrespect that was as surprising as it was offensive.
But even if that was supposed to be some kind of subconscious message that the Big East is not what it used to be, it wasn’t. All three teams made it feel like a genuine threat to reach the Sweet 16, if not more. After all, that’s what we remember about the Big East. They beat each other up for three months and then unleash their anger on the rest of the country. It’s like Dan Hurley was saying this time last year.
“We feel like if we stop playing against Big East schools, we can get by,” he said.
So it really harkens back to 1985, especially if Creighton and Marquette can walk the way UConn seems intended, especially in their respective regions.
Even more important and more relevant:
The Big East Connecticut finally has a team that evokes memories of the great Georgetown teams that defined the league in its early years and youth.
I’ll tell you, there’s been a lot of great teams in the league since then. UConn itself has won multiple titles. Syracuse won once and reached the Final Four multiple times. There were a lot of great teams.
But if you remember Georgetown’s ruling center, you’ll remember that the Hoyas were on a different plane than “great.” they were dominant. They were intimidating. The person who coached them was a person whose personality was a source of eternal conversation and, at times, astonishment. They had passionate fans. and an equally enthusiastic group of fans who cheered them on.
Like Georgetown in 1985, UW is the defending national champion, and that alone will likely generate plenty of detractors. Especially in an event like the NCAA Tournament, where the underdogs are the main characters and the attraction of the main attraction is upended. For two years, the Hoyas relentlessly sent opponent after opponent into the NCAA (they probably would have finished the job in ’85 if they had tied anyone other than fellow Big East rival Villanova in the championship game). .
The joy of running through the UConn bracket last year felt especially nostalgic. They rolled from team to team without breaking a sweat. This year’s efforts have become even more systematic.
In Friday’s tournament opener in Brooklyn, it took Stetson about six minutes to decide that nothing was going to get in his way. They’re great in the frontcourt, backcourt, on the bench, everywhere. It’s like in 1985 when Georgetown became the first team to regularly use 10 or 11 players to win a title.
But for the most part, Dan Hurley now has a coach for the first time with a profile comparable to, if not an exact match for, John Thompson.
Yes, the Big East has paraded countless big-time coaches over the years. But Thompson was unique. At that time, everything he said and did was viewed through a microscope. His every move was interpreted and analyzed. None of these things would have mattered if he hadn’t been excellent at his job, and if his teams hadn’t been up to the standard of excellence over the years.
The same goes for Harley. Hurley was a star from the moment he stepped on the Wagner campus 14 years ago, elevating Rhode Island to a place of rare prominence and fulfilling his greatest wish ever while at Storrs. His teams are really fun to watch and just relentless.
But Hurley, like Thompson before him, is also a lightning rod for opponents. He has the same energetic personality that made Seton such an excellent player in his halls. He never backs down from anything or anyone, which makes him an easy target. Some of them are unfair. Some of that is of his own making.
All of this makes for a basketball experience unlike any other sport. And it’s unlike anything we’ve seen in the Big East since the Hoyas took over, even on nights when they might not win a game. Although they were rare.
Vac’s Blow
It didn’t make any sense to me last Sunday, and I was looking at some of the non-competitive teams (I’m looking at you, Virginia) scattered throughout the first few days of NCAA play, and I realized that the Big East Winning the team now makes even less sense. There’s no excuse for that.
“Masters of the Air” may be nothing like “Band of Brothers,” but it’s closer than I imagined, just nine hours of great television. .
By the way, what’s the best thing about the tournament so far? Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery together again. That’s how it should be.
Finish this sentence: If Yoshinobu Yamamoto had spent the same first innings with the Mets or Yankees as he had with the Dodgers…
hit back vac
steve sax: Who gets paid first, JD Martinez or Bobby Bonilla?
back: Some of the jokes actually write themselves.
Alan Sperber: You compared the OG Anunoby trade to the Dave DeBusscher trade, and your comparison proved to be true. But who would have predicted that OG would run into elbow trouble when Debuscher was a major league pitcher early in his career?
back: Further evidence that pitchers were made of tougher materials back then.
@fagiolo43: Colorado State scored 11 points in the first half. Colorado State and Virginia combined for 85 points in their losses. St. John’s hit 90 against UConn in the Big East Tournament.
@MikeVacc: It was bad enough that the committee did a bad job. But the committee’s subsequent explanation sounded like a clown show and was even worse.
mike sullivan: Johnny doesn’t know their NIT history. The NIT has lost a lot of its luster, but it shows a lack of decency in declaring not to accept invitations.
back: To be painfully honest, I have always loved NIT. However, since it has been moved outside the garden, it feels like a slightly more upscale event than CBI. I have absolutely no objection to leaving unavoidable death.
