March Madness: Double-byes a tricky part of Big East tournament

NEW YORK CITY — Starting last year, the Big East tournament expanded from including the… NEW YORK CITY — Starting last year, the Big East tournament expanded from including the league’s top 12 teams to taking all 16 of them. Because of this, four teams receive double-byes into the quarterfinals.

In both last year’s and this year’s tournaments, of the combined eight teams that received byes in the first two rounds, five lost their first game.

In the 2009 tournament, No. 2 and 3 seeds Pitt and Connecticut were knocked out of the quarterfinals, and last week No. 1, 2 and 4 seeds Syracuse, Pitt and Villanova were upset before winning a game.

While some think perhaps teams that get a double-bye have too much time to rest, making them a bit rusty while their opponents have played at least one game that week, there are a couple of other reasons for the rampant upsets each year in the Big East tournament.

One reason is the conference is just incredibly deep.

And no team has discovered that as much as the Panthers. Last year, as the No. 2 seed, they were handed a 14-point loss by West Virginia in their first game. Last Thursday, Pitt was held to a measly 45 points in a 50-45 loss to Notre Dame, which used a slow, grinding style of play to throw off the Panthers.

The Fighting Irish finished seventh in the conference at 10-8, and earlier in the year had a stretch of consecutive loses to Seton Hall, St. John’s and Louisville.

Just to finish seventh in the Big East, Notre Dame had to win its last four games of the regular season, and was one of the hotter teams in the conference heading into the tournament.

“We won eight of our last nine,” Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon said after the loss to Notre Dame. “They won their last four. Those two teams playing in the quarterfinals; it speaks to our league.”

Also last Thursday, top-seeded Syracuse lost its first game of the tournament with a 91-84 defeat to Georgetown. The Orange lost just three games during the regular season and were ranked No. 1 in the nation at one point. Georgetown finished the regular season 10-8 in conference play and lost four of its last six games.

Villanova also struggled heading into the tournament, going 4-5 to close out the regular season after starting the year 20-1, including 9-0 in Big East play. Before its late problems, Villanova was thought to be in the running for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But last Thursday the Wildcats lost 80-76 to Marquette, which was the No. 5 seed in the tournament.

But it’s not just the depth of the Big East that leads to numerous upsets come tournament time — it’s the history between all the teams.

“That’s what’s great about the tournaments,” Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright said after his team’s loss to Marquette. “We’ve all played each other. We know each other … Our familiarity with each other makes it tough beating any team.”

And it’s that knowledge of each other that makes Big East teams happy when they get to venture out of conference later in the postseason.

“Teams in our league at this stage of the year know how to attack us,” Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim said after the Orange’s loss to Georgetown. “We’re looking forward to get out and play somebody that hasn’t seen us.