From the SelectedWorks of Jack Styczynski

November, 2019

The iB g East at 40 Jack Styczynski

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/jack_styczynski/39/ 28 BASKETBALL TIMES

Special Report

Despite all of the obituaries written and the eulogies given at the time of realignment in 2013 that led to the departure of several football-driven schools, the conference is still alive and kicking after four decades. The Big East at 40

By Jack Styczynski

This past May 29, the Big East quietly marked the postseason tournament will be played at Madison “But it worked.” its 40th anniversary. Not much was written about it, Square Garden with some of the best teams in the With the league reduced to 10 schools, less and more significantly, no corrections were filed for country, some of the best coaches in the country.” seemed to be more – or at least as much. the numerous obituaries published when the league But very few were buying it. “We weren’t the 16-team mega-league that we realigned in 2013. Today, the Big East does get respect, however used to be, but teams took advantage,” Paquette said. Leave that to Basketball Times, not to mention grudgingly. No one shovels dirt on the league anymore, “And the new schools did well right away – Xavier, the contrarian scribe who wrote otherwise six years but the intelligentsia still refers to the “Power Five” Butler, Creighton – they did well right away and that ago. conferences, as if no league without football could helps your credibility.” Perhaps more egregious than anything written have any power. UConn’s forthcoming return suggests Paquette wouldn’t quite go as far as rubbing it in back then was ESPN’s two-hour long “30 for 30” otherwise. It seems fair to say some people should the naysayers’ faces when asked whether they should requiem for the league a year after realignment. While more publicly be eating crow. now be dining on large black birds, but he did smile. it was a superb recounting of Big East history, it also No one has dealt with the folks covering Big “You’re certainly happy when your teams succeed conveyed an unmistakable vibe that the conference East basketball longer than John Paquette, who and for a team to win two national championships in was now dead – minus the first six years of the its football-prioritizing league, that’s pretty good. members. And we have some Sweet As a certain Did you know ... Sixteens and Elite Eights polarizing politician • The Big East has won nine men’s basketball national and those kind of things. might declare, “Wrong.” championships in its 40-year existence, second to the ACC’s 13 The NCAA Tournament Or the trite and true, during that span. The longest “drought” between titles ran from is the yardstick, so we’re “Fake News!” 1985-99. doing OK against the Since all the death • In 1985, the Big East became the first and only league ever to yardstick.” notices and eulogies, have three teams reach the Final Four. Villanova won the title. Conference com- Villanova has won two • In 2011, the Big East became the first and only league to ever missioner Val Ack- national championships have 10 or more teams make the NCAA Tournament, when 11 erman also appeared in men’s basketball, did. Connecticut won the title. pleased when giving the league has placed • Since realignment in 2013, the Big East has placed 53.3 percent what essentially amounts no fewer than four of its teams in the NCAA Tournament, second to the Big 12 to her annual “State of teams in the NCAA during that span. As a 16 (or 15) team league in the eight previous the Big East” address at Tournament each year, seasons, the number was 51.2 percent. media day. and this summer it “We have undergone was announced that tremendous change over Connecticut would the past four decades,” rejoin the conference beginning in 2020, bringing spent four years in sports information at Seton Hall she said, standing a few feet from a 40th anniversary along its four-time national champion men’s program before moving to the league office for the last 30. He logo on the Madison Square Garden hardwood. “The and 11-time national champion women’s program. remembers the prevailing media mentality regarding roads had many twists and turns to say the least, and What realignment actually did was return the realignment. when our schools set sail on this new chapter six years league to the hoop roots that made it successful in the “The Big East was trying to continue to be a ago, I can tell you that nobody knew for sure what first place – jettisoning the almighty pigskin. A March major conference without football, and a lot of people was going to happen, but what a ride it’s been. The 14, 2013 New York Times article titled “A New Big thought that was not a formula for success,” he said conference is in a very good place right now.” East Is a Better Big East” made that exact point. Then- at the league’s recent media day. “The Big East Among the positive developments Ackerman Georgetown coach John Thompson III adamantly wanted to go kind of back to its roots – basketball- mentioned were: record crowds attending the 2019 stated, “I wish you guys would stop writing obits and centric conference – because that’s when they were Big East tournament, which is under contract to start looking to the future. We are looking forward successful, and I think there was some weariness of remain at MSG at least through 2028; all 10 teams and we will have Big East basketball next season and the direction things were going. reaching the postseason this March for the first time BASKETBALL TIMES 29 in league history, with four in the NCAA Tournament, chuckled about his “crystal ball” and immediately Ten; I think it just speaks to the strength of the Big five in the NIT and one in the CBI; a Big Eastall- pointed to the biggest results since. East.” star team winning bronze at this summer’s Pan “Villanova’s two national championships went a Villanova coach Jay Wright echoes Lavin’s Am Games in Peru against pros from seven other long way to raising the realigned Big East brand,” he assessment of the league. countries, the first time a conference represented the said, before continuing with more business-speak. “I think the Big East’s positioning in college USA in international competition this way; and a new “One of the most interesting aspects has been how basketball is just as strong as it’s always been,” he challenge series starting this season with the Big 12, Butler and Xavier and Creighton really helped this said. “We’ve been getting like five, six teams in the adding to the ongoing one with the Big Ten. conference in some years where Georgetown and St. NCAA Tournament. That’s 50, 60 percent of your Of course, she also trumpeted the return of John’s were down. And so like a balanced portfolio – league. That’s what matters. Connecticut, a Big East charter member that spent 34 using another financial analogy – the league has been “If we’re a conference that 50 to 60 percent of years in the league. able to pick each other up.” our teams are getting in the NCAA Tournament every “While we felt going into this season that we Now Lavin calls the Big East “as good as any year, that’s a hell of a conference.” were pretty settled with our 10-school During a media day coaches panel, Wright cited makeup, when you had a chance to the league’s historic 1985 and 2011 seasons (see: “Did take a look at the geography, the shared You Know?”) and its continuing success today. history, the strength of the basketball “The Big East has just continually been brands in men’s and women’s forerunners in college basketball and I think the basketball and of course the track reason is—and it’s what continues now, the addition record of Huskies support in helping of Connecticut speaks to this—is that it’s authentic. build this event here at the Garden, it It is all these cities are basketball cities. We’re urban was really clear there was no better fit areas that love basketball. The schools are basketball for the new Big East than the University schools and that’s never gonna change, and that’s of Connecticut – and so this one-team why I think the Big East is always gonna be the best expansion that will begin next year in conference in college basketball.” 2020 went through with unanimous Wright is a fan of UConn’s return and noted an support of our board.” interesting aspect. After her speech, Ackerman “We’ve watched maybe the last 10 to 15 years a lot insisted the league has no plans to of basketball schools have made football decisions,” expand further. he said. “This is the first where you see one of those “The decision to go to 11 was schools that has always been a basketball school made just that. It was a one-team expansion. a football decision and now they’re saying, ‘OK, There’s no hidden plan to bring in a maybe there’s another path.’ There is another path to 12th or more. It required a fair amount gaining national recognition for your university … of discussion within the league because and this basketball path is it obviously for UConn. the schools were generally actually “As a basketball person, I’ve always had the very satisfied with 10.” greatest respect for UConn. So it’s great to have one As big as the addition is for men’s of the original schools from the Big East and a great basketball, it’s even more significant to national basketball brand back in the Big East.” add the UConn women. Counterbalancing Wright’s sunny disposition “They’re a greatest-of-all-time about Connecticut’s return is Georgetown coach program,” said Ackerman. “Geno Patrick Ewing. (Auriemma) will set every record “It is what it is,” he said multiple times, even after before he’s finished. It’s daunting admitting the addition helps the league. “They’re here competition for our schools, of course, to stay and it’s our job as coaches to recruit and try to and they know that, but there’s a very get the best players we can for our programs. And the positive attitude about it. Schools players – it’s their job to go out and compete and play really do think that they’ll lift up the against whoever’s there.” tide, that it’ll force everybody else to Ewing practically gushes about the state of the step up.” Big East, however. Ackerman said she’s accomplished “The league has done an outstanding job. Last most of what she aimed to when year, the parity was magnificent. Everyone was right becoming commissioner six years ago, there battling with each other every game. Even the which was largely to keep a great thing games that you lost, it could have gone either way.” going. And he doesn’t care whether the Big East is called “That meant staying nationally a “power” conference or not. relevant, staying nationally competitive, “I don’t worry about what other people think. All winning championships in men’s Jalen Brunson helped deliver two NCAA titles to Villanova. I worry about is us. You look at our league, we’ve had basketball most of all, and women’s success – a lot of success – and we continue to have too. I think, thanks to Villanova in large success.” part, we’ve been able to do that, but we’re getting more league in the country when it comes to the quality of Lastly, Ewing isn’t much concerned with than half our league in the tournament every year, so the basketball programs, the coaches, the history and comparing the old and the new. it’s not just one school. It’s everyone contributing to tradition.” “The league has changed, but it’s still the same,” that.” “I’d put it head-to-head against anyone in the he said, particularly noting that all the schools have Shout out to Steve (the coaches speak) country and I think the results bear that out,” he said. great coaches, as the Big East was known for during Next to JT III, nobody has proved more prescient “The empirical evidence is there.” his playing days at Georgetown. “So even though it about the realigned Big East than current Fox Sports As someone who began his coaching career as an was great back when I was playing, there’s a lot of analyst Steve Lavin. When the aforementioned New assistant at Purdue and later worked Big Ten games great players carrying the torch.” York Times article ran, he was still head coach at St. for ESPN, the evidence he presented seemed to pain This season, while watching stars like Marquette’s John’s and said, “I think our league will be branded him a bit. Markus Howard and Seton Hall’s Myles Powell light up more like a boutique winery or a smaller-run business, “As strong as the Big Ten is, they haven’t had the league, you probably won’t dwell on what used to be. but just like smaller firms on Wall Street, they can a national champion since 2000, and we’ve had two Jack Styczynski wrote “A New Big East Is a Better Big deliver big results.” national champions in the past five years,” said Lavin, East” for The New York Times on March 14, 2013. You Reflecting on that 2013 quote recently, Lavin referring to the Big East. “It’s not a knock on the Big can follow or message him on Twitter @hoopsvista.