Coming off a season in which seven of its teams made the NCAA Tournament, the Big East was headed for a letdown, right? Well, no. The ACC has been turned on its head. The SEC is mediocre (except for Kentucky). The Pac 10 stinks and the Big Ten is … um … “scrappy.” Add it all up and it’s another big year for the Big East, which, in contrast to its fellow power conferences, is as strong as ever. Here are three reasons why:
Contrasting styles among contenders » Six Big East teams are in this week’s AP Top 20. And all are there for different reasons. Villanova has great veteran guards — led by Herndon’s Scottie Reynolds, who is playing out of his mind. Syracuse has filled its patented 2-3 zone with long, athletic players and is benefiting from Wesley Johnson‘s monster year. UConn plays fast and finishes with human sledgehammer Stanley Robinson. West Virginia features three big men inside who combine for 42 points and 22 boards a game. Georgetown counters with double-double machine Greg Monroe and sniper Austin Freeman. And Pitt, in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, has the conference’s breakout performer in Ashton Gibbs.
Which means everybody owns somebody else » The deepest conference in college basketball, much like the SEC in football, beats itself up (mainly because of those contrasting styles). Syracuse has lost one game this season — to Pitt, which lost to Georgetown, which lost to Marquette, which lost to West Virginia, which lost to Notre Dame, which lost to Connecticut, which lost to Cincinnati, which earlier this month lost back-to-back games at Seton Hall and St. John’s … who are a combined 5-9 in conference play.
Which means they’ll be battle-tested » It really doesn’t matter if you lose games in November, or January, or even early March. The real question is this: Can you win six straight in the NCAA Tournament? And there’s no better litmus test than the Big East schedule, which hammers teams from start to finish. Kentucky and Kansas are the two best teams in the country, but they won’t be tested as much as their current Big East peers — Syracuse, Villanova, WVU — who will benefit from their versatile, talented conference opponents for a simple reason: they won’t be surprised by anything when the Big Dance begins.
