The Big East Will Deserve Every NCAAT Bid It Gets
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 12:13PM 
By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
I've made it clear on these pages that I'm not so sure the Big East is the obvious top conference in the country. If you have 16 teams, you'd better have more wins vs. Top 10 and Top 50 RPI squads and so forth.
Still, I don't think it would be a crime if 11 teams from it earned bids to the NCAA Tournament, as many are suggesting.
Right now, these Big East squads should be considered shoe-ins to advance:
- Pittsburgh
- Notre Dame
- Louisville
- St. John's
- Syracuse
- Georgetown
- Cincinnati
- Connecticut
- Villanova
West Virginia and Marquette each have a decent chance to play their way in, and if they do, the Big East will have its precious 11 teams in the tournament.
Only twice has a conference sent eight teams dancing — the Big East in 2006 and again in 2008.
Now if the Big Ten sent 11 teams to the Big Dance, that would be something to complain about. Eleven of 11 would be impressive no doubt.
But sending 11 of your 16 teams (69 percent of them) would be like a 12-team conference getting eight teams (67 percent) in or a 10-team league getting seven (70 percent) in. We get so caught up in whole numbers that we fail to consider percentages, which is what this argument really comes down to.
Regardless, West Virginia (18-10, 9-7) could possibly lose its final two games against Connecticut and Louisville, which would mean the Mountaineers will have closed 3-6. Marquette (18-11, 9-7) finishes with winnable games against Cincinnati and Seton Hall. Victories in both would give the Golden Eagles five straight wins and a 7-3 record in their last 10 games. I think Marquette will take care of its business but I'm not at all convinced about West Virginia. Bob Huggins' boys will have to make some noise at the Big East Tournament to impress the Selection Committee. But that shouldn't be difficult, considering Huggins is always a factor in a conference tournament, and his team won it all at Madison Square Garden last year.
Speaking of the Selection Committee, note that chairman Gene Smith said on television just Sunday what every chairman says every year. He told CBS that the committee doesn't look at a team's conference. It looks at the body of work for each, regardless of its league affiliation.
When the dust settles, look for the Big East to get those 11 bids, and in a widened field of 68, few teams will be able to make a case that they deserved to get in ahead of the last Big East team or two. It's a deep league, and it will deserve all the bids it gets.
Big East
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