Saying Goodbye To The Big East Tournament As We Know It

The Big East is playings its final conference tournament as the conference we grew up knowing. (wikipedia.com)

For years, the Big East Tournament has been a great appetizer to the NCAA Tournament a week later. Regularly holding the title as one of the most competitive and best conferences in college basketball, the Big East has for years put on a show in the world's best basketball arena: Madison Square Garden.

The Big East Tournament as we know it will come to an end Saturday with the final championship game with a stacked lineup of contenders. The new Big East will still have solid teams, yet is an interesting group, but it won't be the same.

One of the reasons that the Big East is so popular is the great matchups that form long before the title game. Starting as early as the quarterfinal rounds, nationally ranked teams and conference rivals have to begin the brutal march to Saturday, with no cakewalks thrown in. Take this year for example, as No. 1-seed Georgetown has to face a 22-win Cincinnati team in the quarterfinals today, while No. 19 Syracuse and No. 17 Pittsburgh and No. 24 Notre Dame and No. 12 Marquette face off later in the day. By having so many talented teams playing each other in the early rounds really makes the title game wide open. Any of the teams just mentioned, not even including No. 2-seed Louisville, could win the Big East Tournament this year.

The conference tournament that gave us so many great moments (those Georgetown games in the 1980s, Kemba Walker's amazing tournament performance in 2011 to lead UCONN to the title and the Syracuse/UCONN six-overtime thriller in 2009 just to name a few) has one more chance to wow the country with great matchups and memorable performances. Let's hope the tournament give fans a high note or two to end the era on, because an underdog in the championship game, an overtime thriller or a few buzzer-beaters is what we've grown to expect from the Big East Tournament, and it would be a fitting way to say goodbye.

The motivation to win should be even higher in this final year. Whenever dealing with the breakup of a group (relationship, business, AC/DC cover band) you always want to be the one to walk out on top. There is a mountain of pride and bragging rights awaiting Saturday and the tournament's winner, who can always say it was the Big East champion in the final year of the "old" Big East. For those teams leaving for the ACC, this would be a great way to go out and a trophy to hold over the heads of those left behind. For a member of the Catholic 7, it proves your new conference will have legitimate contenders. Every team has a reason to win, and with the stakes this high, the competition should be fierce.

In the age of conference realignment, we should be used to change. Nearly every fan base in the country has been affected by it over the past three or four years. While change is natural, it is disappointing to have to say goodbye to some of the most thrilling and hyped moments of the sport, and the Big East Tournament was definitely one of those.

Adidas Reveals Questionable Uniform Choices

Adidas' latest uniform design for its college basketball teams has not gotten great results so far. (darrenrovell's twitter account)

Adidas unveiled its new uniforms for a few of its college basketball-sponsored programs, which are Louisvile, UCLA, Baylor, Notre Dame, Kansas and Cincinnati. So far, the response has not been good. For Louisville, UCLA and Baylor, those are not undershirts you are seeing on the arms of the players, but rather the uniforms were actually designed with sleeves.

ESPN Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted out a picture of the uniforms and then tweeted this after receiving negative reviews from fans:

The colleges have final say in whether the uniforms will actually make an appearance in a game, so it will be interesting to see how many schools jump on board with the Adidas design. The other talking point with the picture circling through the Internet and social media is how much the shorts resemble those of the brand Zubaz.

Let us know your reaction to the uniforms by leaving a comment in the comment section.

Friday Roundtable: Who Will Leave The Big East Next?

With conference alignment in full swing, we predict who will leave the Big East next. (businessinsider.com)

BDD's Friday Roundtable is a weekly discussion among three of our writers on a trending NBA or college basketball topic.

This week's question: Conference realignment continues putting schools on the move, and the Big East has been hurt the most by the changes. Who will be the next team to leave the Big East?

Shawn Deegan:
The mad dash of conference realignment is picking up once again and the Big East is the focal point for the NCAA. The conference’s schools are leaving left and right, and the next one to jump from the sinking ship will be the Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati’s basketball team is currently sitting at 9-0 this season. The Bearcats also had a solid year in football this season at 9-3 and 5-2 in conference play. They have historically been a good program with an undefeated year in football in 2009-2010, and a run to the Sweet 16 last March. This is a quality program that will not be given any recognition for any accomplishments it may attain, because it resides in a conference without any prestigious schools left. Cincinnati is going to need to move as well if it wants to gain national accolades once again.

Kyle Davis: 
I agree Cincinnati probably has the most momentum and attractive teams at the moment that another conference would want, but I'm going to say UConn is the next to leave. UConn wanted out of the Big East when Syracuse and Pittsburgh jumped ship, but got left behind. Still, UConn probably has the biggest brand of the remaining Big East schools and has a lot of recent basketball and some football success. And even though the Connecticut market isn't huge, the school is still close to NYC and other metropolitan cities. With UConn's former conference opponents Syracuse and Pitt in the ACC, I could see the ACC bringing in the Huskies and one other school to round out the conference. UConn has said it wants to be in the ACC, and I think eventually their wish will come true.

Alex Skov:  
Georgetown foiled my original answer by deciding yesterday that it will leave the conference along with the six other Catholic institutions. You just couldn't wait a couple more days, could you, Hoyas?

Cincinnati and UConn certainly are the front runners to find better perches before their current Big East peers -- although South Florida will probably be on their heels, given the Bulls' basketball and football competitiveness earlier in the 2000s that has declined in recent years, which makes them a perfect target for a mid-major conference.

Of the leading schools, though, I think Cincinnati will abandon ship before UConn. Football drives conference realignment and the Bearcats' gridiron resume is much stronger than the on-again-off-again flirtation with success that can be found in Storrs. The sad reality is that a strong basketball program is just consolation, although the Bearcats will compete for a mid- to high conference finish no matter where they end up. Cincinnati also has the edge in geographical location -- a laughable notion at this point, considering the Big East's present alignment and Maryland's foray into the Big Ten -- because it sits nearer the middle of the country. Conferences that have been reticent to expand far beyond current borders, like the Big 12 (save West Virginia), will recognize this appeal. So will the Atlantic 10, a surging hoops-only league that would give a school like Cincinnati the chance to immediately contend for a conference title while shopping its football program elsewhere.


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Do You Have a Minute? Longest Games in Basketball History

Barret Browning wonders if anything else is on. (FoxSportsMidwest.com)

Professional baseball is a subject rarely broached on these pages, but the Pittsburgh Pirates' 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night is something to note. The nine-run game lasted 19 innings.

For those unaccustomed to baseball, the standard game ends after nine innings. By more than doubling the length of an average contest, the Pirates-Cardinals held the field for six hours and seven minutes (or 367 minutes, since big numbers are flashier), recording the longest MLB game this season.

Due to shot clocks and timed segments, no basketball game will ever break the six-hour mark, but several multiple-overtime thrillers comprise the list of longest games in basketball history.

John Mantas (saratogian.com)

Game:  Skidmore defeats Southern Vermont, 128-123
Duration:  Seven Overtimes (75 minutes)
Date:  November 23, 2010

With the game deadlocked at 59 after two halves, each team scored more points in extra time (69 and 64, respectively) than they did in regulation. The Skidmore Thoroughbreds hit tying buzzer-beaters to end four different overtimes before clinching the longest game in NCAA Division III history.

There were a combined 145 missed field goal attempts — nearly two per minute played. Only 142 people were on-hand to see the back-and-forth action as John Mantas, a 5'11" guard, led Skidmore in scoring with 27 points.

Doug Schloemer (via The Dagger)

Game:  Cincinnati defeats Bradley, 75-73
Duration: Seven Overtimes
Date:  December 21, 1981

This seasonal showdown is the only seven-overtime match ever played in NCAA Division I. With the Bearcats' starting forwards having fouled out, Bradley didn't consider bench player Doug Schloemer to be a threat. They overplayed their hand and left him open, going with the odds that the Cincinnati reserve wouldn't hit a 15-footer with one second left. Except Schloemer did. Bearcat guard Bobby Austin and Bradley center Donald Reese logged a Divison I-record 73 minutes, and seven others were on the court for at least an hour. Jeff Eisenberg detailed it with grace earlier this summer at The Dagger.

Probably a hoop from BHS vs. Yankton. (via meeshypants)

Game:  Black Hills State defeats Yankton, 80-79
Duration:  Seven Overtimes
Date:  February 18, 1956

It's a good sign there isn't much out there about NCAA Division II's longest game when all the information you can find about it comes from articles about the other two games previously mentioned. An excerpt from the book "South Dakota Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff" mislabels it as an NAIA contest, but does offer some information about the game:

 "Both squads hogged the ball in the five-minute overtimes, hoping to sink shots at the buzzer. The home team [Black Hills State] won on a free throw after time expired in the seventh overtime."

That's most of what is out there about the BHS Yellowjackets' 3+ hour ordeal with the now-nonexistent Yankton College Greyhounds. Another misstep of the book: citing the advent of the three-point line and rules prohibiting stalling as reasons, "that it's unlikely a game will ever run so long again."

(logodesignlove.com)

Game:  Indianapolis Olympians defeat Rochester Royals, 75-73
Duration:  Six Overtimes
Date:  January 6, 1951

The NBA's longest game clocked in at 78 minutes and predated the shot clock era. The Internet generation would have nothing to do with this snail's pace contest, in which both teams combined for 23 shots over the course of six overtimes — that's an average of 3.83 shots for every five-minute long extra period.


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