DavidBoone2inchesTaller
03-09-2017, 11:36 PM
I find myself enjoying the Big East Conference and especially the tournament more than ever. The reason for me is the common bond between all of the teams and the togetherness of the conference; a basketball-centric conference that is flourishing in the Super Conference era defined by football. The camaraderie among the coaches and the programs of the Big East is very special right now and it hearkens back to the very early days of the Conference; when it was completely unified starting in 1979. For this, we have Mike Tranghese to thank; well him and the disingenuousness of Boston College and the greediness of Syracuse and its cronies. For, it was a knee jerk remedy proposed by Tranghese that became the genesis of a Big East Conference revival.
This is why I love this conference. It has a camaraderie and single-minded purpose among its programs. Jay Wright said it best recently when he said the togetherness feels like the old Big East. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
I never liked being in a conference with a program like Syracuse anyway. Yes, some prestige came with it, but I've never trusted that program. Plus, its fans absolutely suck and its coach thinks he's God's gift to coaching when really he's more like a thug that heads the Mafioso. I wish some of the other old Big East programs could have stayed, but not at the expense of having to put up with the annual football drama. In the end, after all of the shakeout, things couldn't have ended up better for Marquette. For the first time since its independent days and after 4 years in the revived Big East Conference Marquette feels like it has a permanent home in the world of college basketball. It never felt that way in the Midwest Collegiate Conference; Marquette was too big and at the time it took what it could get. It never felt that way in the Great Midwest Conference; because six teams seemed too small. It never felt that way in Conference USA because that felt like a national conglomerate of big-time basketball schools mismatched with small-time ones. Certainly, it never felt like that in original Big East Conference where annual football drama threatened its basketball life and legacy since the early 1990's until it was revived and reestablished.
This is why I love this conference. Marquette finally has a permanent home. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
When Mike Tranghese first came up with the idea of inviting Marquette, DePaul, Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida in 2005 he did it with the purpose of keeping the original Big East Conference together; an immediate knee-jerk response to the bolting of Boston College that saved both football and basketball. It worked, for a while. But Tranghese, no doubt, foresaw Boston College as the linchpin that would shake-up college conferences nationwide.
At that time, he knew that more than likely the future demise of the original Big East Conference would someday be traced back to the Boston College exodus. An exodus that had occurred after they had just recommitted, giving their word to Tranghese and the original Big East Conference that they were there to stay. But words and handshakes weren't the same as they were in 1979.
Tranghese truly believed there was nothing more he could do about it. It was just a matter of time before the Big East Conference ceased to exist. It crushed him and it crushed him to know that the legacy of his mentor, conference founder and visionary Dave Gavitt, would forever vanish.
But for the interim, Tranghese believed he temporarily saved the Big East Conference by adding the 5 teams mentioned. It proved to be a short-term masterstroke as the Big East Conference became the greatest basketball conference with the greatest collection of programs that college basketball had ever seen.
Little did Tranghese know at the time, this quick and likely short-term decision would be the key in ultimately preserving the long-term viability of the basketball-centric conference. That's because two of those five teams, Marquette and DePaul, would prove to share a similar basketball vision with that of five other original Big East basketball-centric schools: Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Georgetown, and Villanova (joined in 1980). Those schools and its fans loved the Big East as much as Tranghese. It began to look like 1979 again, with a bunch of teams that didn't belong there, but no one knew it yet, and not the teams you are thinking!
This is why I love this conference. The love and respect each program has for being part of this basketball-centric conference. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
When the aftershock of the Boston College exodus finally came back around again in 2012, the Big East was rocked with the departures of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, and ultimately Louisville in 2012, many thought it was dead. Turns outs, it wasn't. That aftershock is exactly what the Big East Conference needed. It got the fodder out.
Most of this is common knowledge among college basketball fans. However, what is not commonly understood by most is that Tranghese's quick and likely short-term decision ultimately became the long-term solution for the Big East because the five remaining original basketball-centric schools: Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Georgetown, and Villanova found immediate allies with like minded basketball-only agendas in Marquette and DePaul. That's right, the revival of the Big East Conference as a basketball powerhouse started the moment that Marquette and DePaul joined.
So in 2012 when the final split occurred, the Big East had seven teams still committed to one another. Coincidentally, the Big East formed in 1979 with seven like-minded basketball schools. The newly revived Big East Conference was completed once the legalities with former members were finalized when Xavier, Butler, and Creighton, like-minded basketball schools also joined the conference and brought the total to ten total teams.
Is the Big East Conference exactly what it once was? No, the teams are slightly different. But the camaraderie is there like it once was and so is the success. It is quite simply the most elite basketball-centric conference in the entire country and one of the best, if not the best, basketball conference period. In that way, it feels exactly the same as it always has.
During the reborn Big East Conference's first season of 2013-14, it received 4 bids to the NCAA Tournament. During the 2014-15 season it received six, and in 2015-16 season it received five bids and Villanova won the national title. This season the conference has a chance to get an amazing seven NCAA Tournament bids. In addition, the Big East Conference Championship Tournament remains the premiere conference tournament in the country and continues to be held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Don't believe me? Well the ACC Tournament is also being held in New York City at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. So far the Big East is crushing the ACC in terms of attendance. While the Big East Tournament has been packed on both days with about 15,000 and 18,000 fans respectively on its two nights. So far the ACC and the other conferences have been lucky to hit 10,000 at the most. In addition, as I watch each conference tournament on television, the Big East is the only conference that does not have bare seats that show up on the television screen. How embarrassing must that be for the other conferences?
This is why I love this conference. It's winner is a legitimate national title contender and its conference tournament championship matters like no other. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
Marquette Basketball could not find itself in a better situation it terms of a conference. I only wish it would have joined it back in 1979 when the Big East Conference first began. Regardless, Marquette has found its destiny; as a member of the most elite basketball-centric conference in college basketball history. Thanks goes to Mike Tranghese's brilliance. But the Big East's revival was also due to Boston College's disingenouosness and the greed of Syracuse and others. The Big East is better without them and their actions, right and wrong, preserved a conference's legacy and gave it a future and the restoration began with Marquette and DePaul. Integral to its legacy.
This is why I love this conference. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
This is why I love this conference. It has a camaraderie and single-minded purpose among its programs. Jay Wright said it best recently when he said the togetherness feels like the old Big East. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
I never liked being in a conference with a program like Syracuse anyway. Yes, some prestige came with it, but I've never trusted that program. Plus, its fans absolutely suck and its coach thinks he's God's gift to coaching when really he's more like a thug that heads the Mafioso. I wish some of the other old Big East programs could have stayed, but not at the expense of having to put up with the annual football drama. In the end, after all of the shakeout, things couldn't have ended up better for Marquette. For the first time since its independent days and after 4 years in the revived Big East Conference Marquette feels like it has a permanent home in the world of college basketball. It never felt that way in the Midwest Collegiate Conference; Marquette was too big and at the time it took what it could get. It never felt that way in the Great Midwest Conference; because six teams seemed too small. It never felt that way in Conference USA because that felt like a national conglomerate of big-time basketball schools mismatched with small-time ones. Certainly, it never felt like that in original Big East Conference where annual football drama threatened its basketball life and legacy since the early 1990's until it was revived and reestablished.
This is why I love this conference. Marquette finally has a permanent home. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
When Mike Tranghese first came up with the idea of inviting Marquette, DePaul, Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida in 2005 he did it with the purpose of keeping the original Big East Conference together; an immediate knee-jerk response to the bolting of Boston College that saved both football and basketball. It worked, for a while. But Tranghese, no doubt, foresaw Boston College as the linchpin that would shake-up college conferences nationwide.
At that time, he knew that more than likely the future demise of the original Big East Conference would someday be traced back to the Boston College exodus. An exodus that had occurred after they had just recommitted, giving their word to Tranghese and the original Big East Conference that they were there to stay. But words and handshakes weren't the same as they were in 1979.
Tranghese truly believed there was nothing more he could do about it. It was just a matter of time before the Big East Conference ceased to exist. It crushed him and it crushed him to know that the legacy of his mentor, conference founder and visionary Dave Gavitt, would forever vanish.
But for the interim, Tranghese believed he temporarily saved the Big East Conference by adding the 5 teams mentioned. It proved to be a short-term masterstroke as the Big East Conference became the greatest basketball conference with the greatest collection of programs that college basketball had ever seen.
Little did Tranghese know at the time, this quick and likely short-term decision would be the key in ultimately preserving the long-term viability of the basketball-centric conference. That's because two of those five teams, Marquette and DePaul, would prove to share a similar basketball vision with that of five other original Big East basketball-centric schools: Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Georgetown, and Villanova (joined in 1980). Those schools and its fans loved the Big East as much as Tranghese. It began to look like 1979 again, with a bunch of teams that didn't belong there, but no one knew it yet, and not the teams you are thinking!
This is why I love this conference. The love and respect each program has for being part of this basketball-centric conference. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
When the aftershock of the Boston College exodus finally came back around again in 2012, the Big East was rocked with the departures of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, and ultimately Louisville in 2012, many thought it was dead. Turns outs, it wasn't. That aftershock is exactly what the Big East Conference needed. It got the fodder out.
Most of this is common knowledge among college basketball fans. However, what is not commonly understood by most is that Tranghese's quick and likely short-term decision ultimately became the long-term solution for the Big East because the five remaining original basketball-centric schools: Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Georgetown, and Villanova found immediate allies with like minded basketball-only agendas in Marquette and DePaul. That's right, the revival of the Big East Conference as a basketball powerhouse started the moment that Marquette and DePaul joined.
So in 2012 when the final split occurred, the Big East had seven teams still committed to one another. Coincidentally, the Big East formed in 1979 with seven like-minded basketball schools. The newly revived Big East Conference was completed once the legalities with former members were finalized when Xavier, Butler, and Creighton, like-minded basketball schools also joined the conference and brought the total to ten total teams.
Is the Big East Conference exactly what it once was? No, the teams are slightly different. But the camaraderie is there like it once was and so is the success. It is quite simply the most elite basketball-centric conference in the entire country and one of the best, if not the best, basketball conference period. In that way, it feels exactly the same as it always has.
During the reborn Big East Conference's first season of 2013-14, it received 4 bids to the NCAA Tournament. During the 2014-15 season it received six, and in 2015-16 season it received five bids and Villanova won the national title. This season the conference has a chance to get an amazing seven NCAA Tournament bids. In addition, the Big East Conference Championship Tournament remains the premiere conference tournament in the country and continues to be held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Don't believe me? Well the ACC Tournament is also being held in New York City at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. So far the Big East is crushing the ACC in terms of attendance. While the Big East Tournament has been packed on both days with about 15,000 and 18,000 fans respectively on its two nights. So far the ACC and the other conferences have been lucky to hit 10,000 at the most. In addition, as I watch each conference tournament on television, the Big East is the only conference that does not have bare seats that show up on the television screen. How embarrassing must that be for the other conferences?
This is why I love this conference. It's winner is a legitimate national title contender and its conference tournament championship matters like no other. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.
Marquette Basketball could not find itself in a better situation it terms of a conference. I only wish it would have joined it back in 1979 when the Big East Conference first began. Regardless, Marquette has found its destiny; as a member of the most elite basketball-centric conference in college basketball history. Thanks goes to Mike Tranghese's brilliance. But the Big East's revival was also due to Boston College's disingenouosness and the greed of Syracuse and others. The Big East is better without them and their actions, right and wrong, preserved a conference's legacy and gave it a future and the restoration began with Marquette and DePaul. Integral to its legacy.
This is why I love this conference. This is why I love the Big East Tournament.