-
Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff Writer
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Only three Big East teams made this year’s NCAA tournament. After UConn‘s dominating 75-58 performance against Northwestern on Sunday at Barclays Center to cap their opening weekend, all three are into the Sweet 16.
Marquette beat Colorado 81-77 earlier Sunday, and Creighton outlasted Oregon 86-73 in double overtime Saturday to make it a perfect 6-0 so far for the conference.
It only further validates UConn coach Dan Hurley’s belief that the Big East deserved to have more teams in the tournament.
“Obviously the mistake was made,” Hurley said after the defending national champs won their eighth straight tournament game by double digits. “It sucks.”
The NCAA tournament selection committee left out the next tier of Big East teams — Seton Hall, St. John’s and Providence. All three reached the 20-win plateau.
Instead, the committee selected two teams from the Mountain West and one each from the ACC and Big 12. The Mountain West sent six teams total.
Hurley and the rest of the Big East coaches, who have their own group chat, seem to have noticed. The Mountain West is 3-5 so far in the tournament. The Big 12 is 3-3.
Meanwhile, the Big East is the first conference to send at least three teams to the NCAA tournament and have none lose a game prior to the Sweet 16 since the SEC in 2014. Prior to that, it hadn’t happened since the Big East in 2003.
“Just the quality of the league; look what we’ve done in nonconference games,” Hurley said in defense of the Big East on Sunday. “I don’t know what our record is the last two years, nonconference [multi-team events], NCAA tournament, and Seton Hall beat us by 15. You know, we’ve won eight straight in this tournament, all by significant margins, and they were good enough to beat us and they were good enough to beat Marquette.
“And there should have been five or six Big East teams in this tournament. You’ve seen how other leagues that got the bids that our league deserved has underperformed.”
Big East commissioner Val Ackerman told reporters prior to UConn’s win Sunday that the conference is still trying to figure out what went wrong with the selection committee.
“We have to abide by the committee’s process,” she said, according to college basketball broadcaster John Fanta. “Are we working behind the scenes to try to better understand what the committee is looking for? Yes, that is happening. But I don’t think screaming at the top of my lungs is going to get us more teams.”
For now, the thought process seems to be that the Big East teams having success in the tournament can only help moving forward. So they seem unified in rooting for each other’s success.
Hurley said in his postgame news conference that the Big East coaches are offering their staunch support.
“Me, [Marquette coach Shaka Smart] and [Creighton coach Doug McDermott], we’ve got a group chat going, and the other coaches in our league, I saw [Providence coach] Kim [English] and [Seton Hall coach] Shaheen [Holloway], you know, with the full league group chat that we have got with the coaches. I know everyone is fired up to see us continue to push and rep the league at a high level,” Hurley said. “I know Val is excited, too.”
UConn remains a heavy favorite to repeat as national champ.