NCAA: Big East Tourney Hits Its Stride

Posted on | March 11, 2009 | No Comments

I hate to say “I told you so” but I did predict that Georgetown might lose to St John’s. And you know what? They did. But that wasn’t even the biggest upset on the first day of the Big East Tournament. The biggest upset was DePaul beating Cincinnati. DePaul didn’t win a regular season Big East game and yesterday they beat a team that was still on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament.

Don’t expect any upsets today. In the early game Providence should roll over DePaul. The next game will see Marquette handle St. John’s fairly easily. West Virginia should squeak by Notre Dame and Syracuse should handle Seton Hall. Now, WVU may have their hands full with Notre Dame. If there is going to be an upset then this would be the game it could happen in.

Tomorrow there will be huge match-ups. Louisville, Pitt, Villanova, and UConn await today’s winners. Louisville will probably play Providence. Then Villanova will take on Marquette. Pitt will most likely play West Virginia. And UConn will probably play Syracuse to wrap things up.

All of tomorrow’s Big East games have the potential to be great games. And the winners of those games will set-up even bigger games that could include 4 of the top 10 teams in the nation.

Meanwhile., Cleveland State beat Butler last night to grab the automatic bid from the Horizon League. Butler will still get in so that means that there will be one less spot for the bubble teams. If Butler had won then Cleveland State wouldn’t have gotten into the tourney. So, the bubble grew a little thinner last night. And teams hoping for a bid need to make sure they win as many games as possible in their conference tourneys. Otherwise, they might just find themselves on the outside looking in.

Related posts:

1. NCAA: Big East is Underrated?
2. NCAA: Bubbles Bursting in the Big East
3. NCAA: About the Big East
4. NCAA: Looking at the East Region
5. NCAA: Conference Tourneys Tip Off

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