One of my earliest sports memories is from when I was seven years old. My dad got tickets to the championship game of the 1990 Big East Tournament from his boss, so we hopped on the train to watch UConn-Syracuse. The game was played on the afternoon of Selection Sunday then, and we were up in the nosebleed seats in The Garden, the ones that were that ugly purple color until the renovations. I was rooting for Syracuse, but UConn won the game (and its first Big East championship). I've been a Huskies fan ever since.
Fast forward four years. My sister is a freshman at Providence, and the Friars pull off an upset of UConn in the semifinals. We go as a family to the title game and sit in the Providence student section, about 15 rows from the court. After Providence wins (its only Big East title before the realignment), we join in the celebration with the rest of the students.
The Big East has always been my favorite conference, and the Big East Tournament has always been my favorite. I haven't attended it in person since 1994, but I always get excited around Big East Tournament time. There's just something about it that feels right. From The Garden to the tradition to the rivalries to the classic games, it has always been the perfect conference tournament in my eyes.
There's no denying that the Big East Tournament, like the conference itself, isn't what it once was. We can thank Boston College, Syracuse and all the others for that. It definitely didn't feel right to watch a Syracuse-Pitt conference tournament game this afternoon that was played somewhere other than Madison Square Garden. It's still tough to wrap my head around the fact that those two schools are in the ACC now.
I can't help but miss those days. It's just not the same with Syracuse and UConn and Notre Dame and, to a lesser extent, Louisville, missing. After the Big East expanded to 16 teams, they had four games a day for three straight days before the semifinals on Friday night and that Saturday night championship game.
No offense to Creighton, Butler and Xavier, but they're not the first names you think of when you think of the Big East. You think of the six-overtime game between UConn and Syracuse. You think of that epic 1996 tournament, which might've been the best conference tournament in any conference in history. You think of Gerry McNamara and Kemba Walker single-handedly winning championships (and in Kemba's case, single-handedly winning the NCAA title, too). But, most of all, you think of Madison Square Garden.
When the Big East and American split into two conferences, there were two things the Big East wanted to keep. The name and The Garden. They got to keep both. And they should've. Because a Big East Tournament without Syracuse and Boston College is bad enough. But seeing Georgetown play Villanova somewhere else, while East Carolina faced Central Florida at The Garden would've been something different entirely. The Big East belongs at Madison Square Garden. The tournament being played somewhere else seems wrong on so many levels. And as bad as it is that UConn isn't part of the fun anymore, that's better than the alternative.
So, even though we're in year three since the conference was gutted and split in two, this "new" Big East has still taken some getting used to. But, you know what? It's still the Big East. And it's still the Big East Tournament. And it's still special. And I still get amped up for it. How could I not? Conference tournament time is one of the best weeks of the year.
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