It was 1985, and if it didn’t happen in the Big East, it didn’t matter to college basketball. Patrick Ewing played for Georgetown, Chris Mullin led St. John’s and Ed Pinckney made a miracle for Villanova as three Big East teams went to the Final Four. That still hasn’t happened again.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim witnessed every dribble that season, as he’s done every season since the Big East’s inception in 1979.

He’s the only coach who’s spent every season of the Big East’s existence on the sidelines. And Boeheim thinks this year, the Big East is as good as it’s ever been. He’s preached it all season to anyone who would listen.

And he might be right.

One thing’s for sure – starting today, when West Virginia and Providence tip off at 2 p.m. to start the Big East men’s basketball tournament, the race is on to decide the champion of the best conference in the nation.

Forget the Atlantic Coast Conference (Hey, that sounds like the TNT-version of what Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese might say!). The Big Ten? Big XII? Pac-10? Nope, nope and nope. The Big East, without question, has been the greatest conference in college basketball this season.

That’s saying a lot considering no team in the Big East ranks higher than No. 7 Boston College. Funny thing about the Big East is it’s not greatness that makes it great. Rather, depth and consistency made the conference the best place to watch college hoops this season, and it will make Madison Square Garden the hottest ticket in the country this weekend.

There’s really not an easy game in the Big East, save St. John’s and maybe Seton Hall and Rutgers. Even the Scarlet Knights, who finished 11th, are scary at home, no matter what their record is. Depending on how Georgetown and West Virginia fare in the tournament, eight teams could make the NCAA Tournament from the Big East, which would be a record.

Five teams dot the Top 25, three of which – Boston College, SU, and UConn – have a legitimate chance at the Final Four.

Sure, the ACC may pack more might with its best teams, but it’s more top-heavy than Dolly Parton. The ACC has three teams ranked in the top 5 and none from 5-25. The Big East has more good teams, more good players, and more intrigue. It’s got it all.

It’s got the coaches.

There’s the old – Boeheim and Jim Calhoun are future Hall of Famers, both arguably in the primes of their careers.

And there’s the new – hotshots Jamie Dixon at Pittsburgh and Jay Wright at Villanova, one of the coolest customers around. That’s without mentioning Al Skinner, the favorite to win NCAA Coach of the Year. Not exactly Dick Butkus and Reggie Theus we’re talking about here.

It’s got the players. And a lot of them.

The quality of the Big East’s stars is matched only by their depth. Chris Taft, one of the better big men in the country, made (ITALICS) honorable mention (ITALICS) All-Big East. Check some of the players who made the All-Big East second team – Josh Boone, Charlie Villanueva, Carl Krauser.

Those aren’t second-tier type players. I’d have no problem taking those three guys against any other conference’s best trio in a 3-on-3 game. Well, maybe those three guys and the points.

Yes, this is a Golden Age of Big East basketball. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Big East needed a season like this to restore its proud image. Saying the Big East has taken some hits in the past couple of years is like saying Zack Morris’ cell phone was kind of big.

(Intermission: Yup – that’s two classic NBC Saturday morning references in the same column! That reminds me: Did you ever notice how A.C. Slater played like six sports at Bayside? Last I checked, they don’t let you wrestle and play basketball in the same season. OK, back to the column. We were talking about the Big East’s off-the-field issues.)

The trouble started when the ACC moved in and stole Miami and Virginia Tech two summers ago, then snagged Boston College later that winter. The ACC’s outmaneuvering the Big East was about as sleazy as it gets in college sports, but it left a lot of egg on the Big East’s face.

The Big East became a running joke this fall, sending Pittsburgh – probably about the 50th best team in the country – as its Bowl Championship Series representative. The league sealed its punch-line status when it finished with more champions than non-champions. When the Syracuse football team can be called the champion of anything, you know something’s gone wrong.

Any luster the Big East lost this football season has been restored on the court this winter. Basketball has been bailing football out for a few years now, having captured the past two national titles in basketball.

But this season has been best for Big East basketball. It can match any conference in the country in any category – coaching, star power, depth, you name it.

The scary part is, next year was supposed to be the year for the Big East, not this one. The conference may be losing a little more than it bargained for when the Eagles fly south to the ACC, but they’ll be easy to miss when Louisville, Cincinnati and Marquette move in.

The Big East could make up nearly one-sixth of the NCAA Tournament field next season. Barring any major collapses, it will be the best conference in the history of college basketball.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. This year’s isn’t bad, either, so you’d be wise to enjoy it. Start a personal Spring Break today, grab a bag of chips and glue yourself to the TV for the next couple of days. It’s going to be fun.

Adam Kilgore is a staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Thursday – except today! E-mail him at adkilgor@syr.edu

Published on March 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm