The Big “Least” got the last laugh.
The Big East got panned after the NCAA tournament’s first weekend when the likes of Pitt, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Louisville had already been sent home. But that wasn’t its fault.
The conference was dealt a tough situation before the tournament even began because of its 11 teams included and the unlikelihood of its reaching its PASE, Performance Against Seed Expectation.
But Connecticut – a team that finished tied for 9th in the Big East regular-season standings – motsly redeemed the conference with its title run. It doesn’t completely overshadow the league’s shortcomings during the Big Dance, but helps to put them in context.
After all, if a conference’s 9th-place team can win the whole thing, it should reaffirm the NCAA tournament is a crapshoot, right?
Besides, it was a rough tourney for pretty much any league not named the CAA. Final PASE numbers are below.
*Note: Includes wins from First Four games
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- florida727 - Apr 5, 2011 at 11:28 AM
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“Conferences” don’t win titles, teams do. If you really want to twist this accomplishment of UConn’s, you can say they either dogged it all season long to finish NINTH in the league (doubtful), or the rest of the conference choked like dogs based on their reputation, then performance (also unlikely). Bottom line: don’t give Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, etc., credit for something they DIDN’T accomplish. Just give UConn the credit they deserve for one of the most remarkable post-season runs of all-time. ELEVEN wins in 27 days, knowing full well that any slip-up and their season is over. That’s amazing.
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- LPad - Apr 5, 2011 at 1:32 PM
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I agree for the most part. The fact of the matter is that sportswriters, TV analysts, etc. did trash the Big East after the first weekend. But, UConn did prove the conference deserved the 11 bids they got and ended the ridiculous argument that the Big East is overrated because a team didn’t win a title since 2004. An argument that involved ignoring the fact that the Big East has consistently produce several teams that advanced to final four, including WV last year and three teams the year before. The real problem is why the media insists on trashing teams or conferences. Instead of looking deeper and examining what happened and why.
They trashed VCU and then watched them go to the Final Four (I guess the committee got that right). They trashed the Big East (ignoring the Big East’s ridiculous record against the other conferences, that UConn and Marquette knocked out Cincinatti and Syracuse, that Georgetown, St.Johns, and Louisville were hampered by injuries) and then watched a Big East team win the title.
Maybe the media should stop trashing teams and conferences. Seriously, where was the Big Ten, ACC, the Big 12, the PAC 10? Because they weren’t in Houston and the ninth place team in those conferences weren’t good enough to even make the tournament.
