Scrolling through the channels late night while at home recently, I came across a 30 for 30, which nine times out of ten I will watch regardless of what else is on. This time happened to be the episode that focused on The Big East, called A Requiem for Big East which premiered in 2014 and was directed by Ezra Edelman, a well-known producer of sports documentaries and series’ such as Real Sports with Bryant Gumble as well as 30 for 30. (Fun fact, Gus Fring from Breaking Bad was the narrator of this episode according to IMdB.) For those of you who haven’t seen it, this episode focused on how the conference began, and how quickly it rose to become the top conference in all of college basketball. It highlighted the players, coaches and rivalries that made the conference so great, while also providing insight to the key people behind the conference and of course showing some of the many unforgettable moments that took place throughout its history. However, the ending kind of seemed like a goodbye to the conference, after all this was made right after the Big East reshaped to an entirely basketball conference after several programs had all relocated to other conferences with more of a football presence. It was at that moment that I thought to myself they may have spoken too soon that the Big East was never going to be what it used to be, and I think recently the conference has proven that theory to be wrong as well.
Once I started thinking, I checked Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket, which had the Big East getting 6/10 teams in the Tournament, with Marquette still in the hunt, that’s the highest percentage of any conference in college basketball besides the Big 12 who had 7/10 and The ACC which also had 60%. SEC had 57% of its teams in, while the Pac 12 had 33% and the Big Ten (in an off year) had just 29%. Last year The Big East also had the highest percentage of tournament bids at 70% and of course the National Champion Villanova in 2016. Consistently over the last three years, 70% of the conference has been filled with great teams, this year, however, the bottom three teams have all showed promise as well. Georgetown and first year head coach, Patrick Ewing, boasts a 15-10 record which includes wins over Butler and Seton Hall, as well as taking Xavier to overtime and taking Providence down to the wire, both of which were on the road. Then you take a look at DePaul who beat Providence by 17 on the road, a Friars team who has taken down both Xavier and Villanova this year. And finally St. John’s who was winless in the conference before their current four game win streak including wins over national powerhouse Duke and Villanova. Showing that there are no cake walks in this conference, and every night is going to be a battle.
Led by great coaching and recruiting, the Big East is continuing to grow and develop itself as a top conference in the nation that is strong from top to bottom. It may not have the big names that it used to have, but the teams that did leave have not been as prominent as they have in years past. UCONN has been struggling mightily since winning the National Title in 2014, Syracuse made the final four the following year but is not the program that they used to be and Pittsburg hasn’t been a big name since leaving the Big East, to name a few.
Although many may have thought college basketball would never be the same once the "Old Big East" was disbanded in 2013, this new conference is showing that they have amazing talent, coaching and toughness, much like the old conference had. I still think this new group has a lot more to show us and a lot of potential to be fulfilled.
