A League of its Own

The Big East defies expectations with strong pre-conference play

A lthough Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim’s voice can at times be too whiny (just ask the referees) or too harsh (just ask his players after a bad game), it is almost always a voice of reason. So when Boeheim told us way back before Halloween that the Big East Conference was going to be as strong as ever, we should have listened.

“It’s going to be like it is every year in the Big East,” Boeheim said at SU’s media day Oct. 15. “No real changes there.” That’s not how many college basketball experts saw it. The Big East has always been a star-driven league, and many experts saw a conference that had lost a bunch of big stars and was left with too many unproven understudies.

Eleven Big East players were selected in the 2010 NBA draft, including Player of the Year Wes Johnson of Syracuse, Georgetown’s Greg Monroe and University of South Florida’s Dominique Jones, all of whom turned pro early. It was the highest number of Big East players drafted since the NBA went to a tworound format in 1988.

Those star players produced winning teams. The Big East sent a record eight teams to the NCAA Tournament last season for the third time in five years. And of the eight Big East schools that missed the NCAA Tournament, five went to the National Invitation Tournament.

Entering this season, the Big East did not appear to have its usual star power. Sure, Syracuse’s Kris Joseph, Georgetown’s Austin Freeman and Pittsburgh’s Ashton Gibbs were solid players, but could they carry a team to the Final Four? You had to look hard to find a Big East player on a preseason all-American team, and even then it was only Freeman or Gibbs on the second or third team.

But along came an old friend—or enemy, depending on your point of view—to help restore the Big East to its usual luster. The University of Connecticut, which was nowhere to be found in the polls when the season started, won its first 10 games and at one time stood at No. 4 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls. The Huskies, who defeated Michigan State and Kentucky to win the Maui Invitational in late November, joined seven other Big East teams in the Top 25 of the Dec. 27 polls.

Sparking the Huskies’ resurgence was junior point guard Kemba Walker, who was leading Division I in scoring at 26.7 points per game through Jan. 1. “The surprise to this point is Connecticut and what they’ve been able to accomplish in Maui and what Kemba Walker has turned into in terms of superstardom,” said Mike DeCourcy, the college basketball writer for The Sporting News. “I don’t think there’s anybody who follows the sport who didn’t like him, but not many foresaw him eventually becoming the dominant player in college basketball.

“I think Walker in some ways has elevated the whole league,” DeCourcy added. “If he’s able to sustain his performance, that keeps UConn relevant and gives the league a fifth elite team {along with Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Georgetown}.”

When the season started, the Big East had four teams in the Top 25. By Jan. 3, the conference had four teams in the top nine (UConn, No. 4 SU, No. 5 Pitt and No. 7 Villanova). The Big East’s 16 teams had a combined 153-39 record against non-conference foes, including 24-15 against teams from the other five “power” conferences (the Atlantic Coast, Big 10, Big 12, Pacific 10 and Southeastern).

The Big East was 9-9 against Top 25 teams with wins over Top 10 teams Michigan State (by UConn and Syracuse), Kentucky (by UConn) and Missouri (by Georgetown).“I think the Big East is a lot better than people thought, including myself,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “I’m still not sure that we’re not the strongest conference in basketball.”

While Walker has developed into a superstar and Joseph, Freeman and Gibbs have all played well, other players have emerged as bona fide stars. DeCourcy said players like Syracuse’s Rick Jackson, the league’s leading rebounder and a double-double machine, Providence’s Marshon Brooks and Pitt’s Brad Wanamaker have become invaluable members of their teams.

“When you lose a lot of players as we do every year in the Big East, they say the Big East isn’t going to be as good as it was,” SU point guard Scoop Jardine said. “I can go back to when Jonny Flynn and those guys left {after the 2008-2009 season} and they didn’t think the Big East was going to be good last year and it was the best conference in the country again.

“And this year it’s the same way,” Jardine continued. “I mean, we’ve got the best players on the bench. That’s the thing about the Big East: A lot of teams are filled with a lot of great players.”

Great players make great teams, and it looks like the Big East is poised to send at least one and maybe two teams to the Final Four in Houston this April. “I think what we have this year is an opportunity for the league to take advantage of what is a fairly down year in college basketball,” DeCourcy said. “If you’re a rock-solid team like Pitt, or a developing team with a high ceiling like Syracuse, there’s an opportunity out there for you to take advantage of that when we get to March.”

o