Brutal Big East heads college hoops storylines

Ken Davis

The greatest accomplishment in Big East Conference history seems to be a matter of personal opinion and based on age.

Those old enough to remember 1985 are inclined to summon the ghosts of Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Ed Pinckney and reflect on the only Final Four that featured three teams — Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s — from the same conference. If your memory is shorter, you might dwell on the fact the Big East has earned a record eight bids to the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three seasons.

And for those who haven’t forgotten the summer of 2003 — when conference realignment and an attack from the Atlantic Coast Conference threatened to divide the Big East — top billing might be the simple fact that the powerful basketball league still exists. Holding it all together was pretty impressive; credit goes to commissioner Mike Tranghese.

But those who dwell in the Big East say emphatically that the best is yet to come. Sound the alarms throughout college basketball, because the Big East plans to dominate like never before during the 2008-09 season.

“I think when we reorganized and expanded we had a vision of what the basketball portion of this conference could be,” Tranghese said, “but I don’t think in our wildest dreams it would get to where it is now.”

Where exactly is that?

“I think it’s the toughest, deepest conference in the history of college basketball,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “That’s because of the size (16 teams) and the returning players. When you have 11 teams — on paper — that look like they could be among the top 30 teams, that’s stronger than I’ve ever seen in any conference.”

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The preseason polls certainly support those statements. Seven Big East teams find themselves represented in both the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today rankings. As summer progressed and word of Hasheem Thabeet’s improvement spread, the UConn Huskies became the popular choice as the No. 2 team in the nation behind the consensus No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels.

But Louisville, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Marquette are all expected to play deep into the NCAA Tournament. All five of those top Big East teams have the potential to reach the Final Four. Georgetown and Villanova have also received Top 25 support, with Syracuse not far behind.

Don’t be surprised if the Big East breaks its own record and sends nine (maybe 10) teams to the NCAA Tournament. That’s great news for the conference overall, but makes life extraordinarily difficult for teams in the Big East’s second tier.

Keno Davis was the national coach of the year last season at Drake and has inherited a talented team at Providence. His fellow coaches greeted him by voting the Friars No. 10 in the Big East preseason poll. Somehow Davis remains optimistic.

“In this league, it wouldn’t surprise me for a team that was at the very bottom to put things together and make a great run,” Davis said. “It’s that deep of a conference.”

With a wild conference battle ahead, we nominate Big East dominance as the top story line in college basketball this season. Here’s a quick look at some of the others:

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