Men’s Basketball: Big East exceeding expectations early

Heading into this season, college basketball experts were expecting the Big East to have a down… Heading into this season, college basketball experts were expecting the Big East to have a down year in men’s basketball.

With only four teams in the preseason Top 25 and teams like Connecticut and West Virginia not expected to do very well, many experts were proclaiming either the Big Ten or ACC as the new best conference in college basketball.

But with just over a month of the season gone, the results and statistics suggest that the Big East is as strong as ever.

Four Big East teams remain undefeated — Syracuse, Connecticut, Louisville and Cincinnati — and DePaul is the only team in the league with a losing record.

There are now seven Big East teams in the Top 25 of the AP poll, including four — Pitt, Connecticut, Syracuse and Georgetown — in the Top 10 as of Sunday.

After Saturday, the conference’s 16 teams had a combined record of 115-30 and a respectable 7-7 record against Top 25 opposition, with Top 10 teams Michigan State, Kentucky and Missouri all suffering losses against Big East teams.

Even the lesser teams in the conference begin each season believing their team can finish the season by earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament or NIT, meaning there are no easy games in the Big East.

“In our conference it’s always going to be a battle,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said earlier this year at Big East media day. “We’re the best conference because we have the best teams.”

“We know we’ve got the toughest league in the country, the best league in the country,” Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine said.

Big East teams boast a 21-12 total record against teams from the other five power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 10, SEC), with no conference having a winning record against Big East teams.

Journalists aren’t the only people surprised by the success the league has had early in the season.

“I think the Big East is a lot better than people thought, including myself,” Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. “I’m still not sure that we’re not the strongest conference in basketball.”

One of the main reasons the stats once again validate the Big East as one of the best conferences in the nation might be the pride each team carries in representing the conference during nonconference matchups.

“We want to show the country that the Big East is still the best basketball conference,” Pitt senior Gilbert Brown said prior to the Tennessee matchup. “Making a statement is really important to us to show what type of level [the Big East] brings.”

“We’re representing the Big East. We still say it’s the best conference in the nation so we want to go out there and show that and defend our conference,” Pitt senior Gary McGhee said.

The Big East also boasts arguably the nation’s best player right now in Connecticut’s Kemba Walker. The junior guard is averaging just over 28 points per game and is the main reason that the Huskies are the No. 6 team in the country right now.

With the majority of nonconference play coming to an end after New Year’s Day, the debate over what is the best conference in the nation will experience a  hiatus until the NCAA Tournament rolls around in March.

But for now, there is no doubt the Big East has proved it deserves to be in any conversation about the best conference in college basketball.