The 2012 Big East Tournament kicks off on March 6th, 2012 with the bottom 8 ranked teams from the regular season squaring off in the first round of the tourney at Madison Square Garden. The second round will see the #5 through 8 seeds taking on the winners of the first round games and on March 8th the top 4 seeds will enter play in the quarterfinals. The winner of the 2012 Big East Championship game scheduled for March 10th will earn the conference’s automatic bid to the 2012 March Madness field.
Big East Basketball Tournament History
Before the 2009 Big East Basketball Tournament, only the top 12 teams competed in the conference tournament. Now, the lower 8 ranked teams compete in first round games. Those seeded #5 through #8 get a first round bye. Teams seeded #1-4 get a two round bye. Most talk of going back to the old style of the Big East tournament has died down after UCONN entered the 2011 Big East Tournament as a #9 seed and ended up winning the tourney championship followed by the 2011 NCAA Tourney.
Big East League Changes
The Big East has seen a number of teams join the conference over the past 20+ years. These include:
1981 – Villanova
1982 – Pittsburgh
Jim Calhoun, head coach of the UCONN men's basketball team.
1991 – Miami
1996 – Notre Dame, Rutgers, West Virginia
2001 – Virginia Tech
2004 – Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC
2005 – Boston College left for the ACC
2006 – DePaul, Cincinnati, Marquette, and South Florida joined the Big East
Big East Basketball Tournament Champions (Past 16 Years)
Year Champion Score Runner-Up MVP
1996 Connecticut 75–74 Georgetown Victor Page, GU
1997 Boston College 70–58 Villanova Scoonie Penn, BC
1998 Connecticut 69–64 Syracuse Khalid El-Amin, UConn
1999 Connecticut 82–63 St. John’s Kevin Freeman, UConn
2000 St. John’s 80–70 Connecticut Bootsy Thornton, SJU
2001 Boston College 79–57 Pittsburgh Troy Bell, BC
2002 Connecticut 74–65 Pittsburgh Caron Butler, UConn
2003 Pittsburgh 74–56 Connecticut Julius Page, Pitt
2004 Connecticut 61–58 Pittsburgh Ben Gordon, UConn
2005 Syracuse 68–59 West Virginia Hakim Warrick, SU
2006 Syracuse 65–61 Pittsburgh Gerry McNamara, SU
2007 Georgetown 65–42 Pittsburgh Jeff Green, GU
2008 Pittsburgh 74–65 Georgetown Sam Young, Pitt
2009 Louisville 76–66 Syracuse Jonny Flynn, SU
2010 West Virginia 60–58 Georgetown Da’Sean Butler, West Virginia
2011 Connecticut 69–66 Louisville Kemba Walker, UConn
Big East Basketball Tournament Television Schedule?
The Big East traditionally has been one of the strongest college basketball conferences from top to bottom. As a result, it is the only conference that has all tournament games broadcast nationally on the ESPN network. 2011 was the first year that the tournament was also broadcast in 3D on ESPN3D. The games are scheduled to be shown on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU for the 2012 Big East tournament.
2012 Big East Basketball Tournament Schedule
Last Updated: March 10th, 2012
2012 Big East Tournament Schedule– First Round
Date: March 6th, 2012
#16 DePaul 67 vs #9 UCONN 81 12:00 PM ESPN2
#13 Pitt 73 vs #12 St. John’s 59 2:00 PM ESPN2
#10 Seton Hall 79 vs #15 Providence 47 7:00 PM ESPN U
#11 Rutgers 49 vs #14 Villanova 70 9:00 PM ESPNU
2012 Big East Tournament Schedule– Second Round
Date: March 7th, 2012
#9 Connecticut 71, #8 West Virginia (OT)
#5 Georgetown 64, #13 Pittsburgh 52
#7 Louisville 61 #10 Seton Hall 55
#6 USF 56, #14 Villanova 47
2012 Big East Tournament Schedule – Quarterfinals
Date: March 8th, 2012
#1 Syracuse 58, #9 Connecticut 55
#4 Cincinnati 72, #5 Georgetown 70 (2OT)
#7 Louisville 84, #2 Marquette 71
#3 Notre Dame 57, #6 USF 53
2012 Big East Tournament Schedule – Semifinals
Date: March 9th, 2012
#1 Syracuse 68 vs. #4 Cincinnati 71, 7:00 p.m. (ESPN)
#7 Louisville 84 vs. #3 Notre Dame 71, 9:00 p.m. (ESPN)
2012 Big East Tournament Schedule – Championship
Date: March 10th, 2012
Time: 9:00 PM ESPN
#4 Cincy 44 vs #7 Louisville 50
