Like I said, the Big East tournament being held in the Big Apple at MSG is some hot historical shit to get involved with. And after the Big East expanded to 16 schools, they kept it at 12 in the tournament, which sucked. There is no reason every team in a conference shouldn't get into their conference tournament, although I understand the reasoning by not wanting your top teams who have earned the right to have an easier path have to play every day as well. (It can be argued though that the easier path you earn is by being bracketed to play lesser teams.) Well, the Big East started using that same staggered format that the West Coast Conference uses, where the lowest half of the conference plays on opening day. Then those four winners play the 5 through 8 seeds, giving the top four teams a bye into the third day's quarterfinal round. It makes it hard as fuck to come from the bottom and win, but it's pretty interesting, and you still have to win three games at least to win the tourney (make it five if you come from the bottom half of the conference). Here are the fourteen guys coming back to MSG this year who have scored the most points in previous Big East tournament shindigs...
#1: Da'Sean Butler (West Virginia forward; 129 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Senior dude made All-Big East 1st Team this year (2nd team last year) and is a loveable monster. Being I don't have any emotional attachment to the Big East really, and have always thought West Virginia the state was more of a southern state than stupid Maryland, and the fact Butler is a hyped ass exciting dude to watch, I will probably pull for them from afar, like by reading the agate results the next day in the newspaper. West Virginia gets double byes into Thursday.
#2: Scottie Reynolds (Villanova guard; 98 previous points in the Big East tournament) - He was one of the best players in the NCAA tournament last year, so barring any tragic injuries, being this is his Senior year that he came back for on purpose even though he could've been a lottery pick, he should take an already good Wildcats team up on his back and fuck some shit up. I just read today how when he was in high school, he stayed in the same school he was in even though everyone told him he should transfer to a high-powered basketball factory, and he actually bolted one game early in the 4th Quarter of a tournament game of some sort because he had Bible study to go to. Bible study.
#3: Lazar Hayward (Marquette forward; 95 previous points in the Big East tournament) - The best name in college basketball is in his senior season, and Marquette will play the winner of Tuesday's UConn/St. John's game, which might mean UConn, hellbent on forcing their way into the NCAA tournament. And a win would just get Scottie Reynolds and Villanova on Thursday afternoon. It all makes Saturday's championship game seem a long fucking way aways.
#4: Jeremy Hazell (Seton Hall guard; 60 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Junior guard made the Big East's all-second team, but Seton Hall has been an afterthought in the Big East for a while now. They play in the opening round against bottom feeder Providence (although I guess if you are the 15th seed in a 16-team tournament, you're not technically a "feeder"), and after that it would be the hot-as-fuck Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and if they get through that, Pittsburgh would await. And all that would only get them into the semifinals. Good luck next year Jeremy Hazell.
#5: Andy Rautins (Syracuse guard; 59 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Andy Rautins is a hot-shooting whiteboy from upstate New York who is helping stroke the engine of a team that's expected to make NCAA title dreams a near reality at least. Rautins' dad actually starred for Syracuse back in the early '80s, so his roots to the Orange go even deeper than the five years he's been on campus as part of their basketball team.
#6: Luke Harangody (Notre Dame forward; 58 previous points in the Big East tournament) - After being 2nd team All-American last year, the big hick from Indiana was expected to carry the Irish to new heights this year, but he got injured earlier this year, missed some time, and now comes off the bench for the Irish, even though he still made All-Big East first team. Notre Dame, as most football schools with potentially good basketball teams tend to do, has a history of underperforming their expectations on the hardwood.
#7: Corey Stokes (Villanova guard; 51 previous points in the Big East tournament) - The junior scoring back court counterpart to Scottie Reynolds, who can be inconsistent at times, and not quite the Bible studying fool that Reynolds is either, as he got a ticket for public urination a couple weeks back.
#8: Devin Ebanks (West Virginia forward; 49 previous points in the Big East tournament) - As a freshman last year, Ebanks contributed heavily to a Mountaineer team that made it to the Big East semifinals, and made the all-tournament team. The single bye team in their part of the Big East bracket (meaning the team most likely, if everything followed seedings, to play WVU) is an inconsistent Louisville team, so it looks good for West Virginia to make the star-studded semis again this year in MSG.
#9: Will Walker (DePaul guard; 48 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Senior star for the worst team in the Big East, and they tip-off the Big East tournament against a much better South Florida team at noon today, which means that by the time you probably read this, they're already on a bus back to Chicago.
#10: Tory Jackson (Notre Dame guard; 48 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Harangody's senior counterpart in the back court, and he's taken strong leadership of this team since Harangody's injury, and they actually seem to be playing better. There's a lot to be said for a solid-minded Senior guard running a team both literally and spiritually this time of year.
#11: Jerry Smith (Louisville guard; 46 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Senior leader on this Cardinals team, who actually missed the better portion of them upsetting Syracuse at home, if you can count winning the last game ever in Freedom Hall an upset, and Louisville, as any Rick Pitino team is, could be dangerous, both in the Big East tourney, and the NCAAs.
#12: Deonta Vaughn (Cincinnati guard; 45 previous points in the Big East tournament) - The best player (a Senior this year) on a low ebb for the Bearcat basketball team, still struggling to come close to that level drunk ass Bob Huggins had them at. The Bearcats will close out today's opening round against Rutgers tonight, and should probably win that one, but with Louisville awaiting the winner tomorrow night, getting much further than that does not look like a good bet.
#13: Samardo Samuels (Louisville forward; 41 previous points in the Big East tournament) - Sophomore star, and the pride of Jamaica, I should just let you know I bought a subscription to US Basket to get info on all these fuckers for this thing, and really the bio/outlook on Samardo Samuels is such an amazing piece of writing that I'm just gonna C&P it here, "A player form Jamaica, who considers as the top 89er of his country. Is been quite a number of years since the last time that Jamaica had such a player as Samardo looks to be. These 5 years in the States changed him totally, he god massive and can play easily the physical game, he has great moves in the paint and can score with more than one ways as he have been working quite hard with his shooting skills and has been improved in the specific sector too. He can become a great player; he will be definitely in the NCAA, next year and probably in a very nice college too, he already agreed to continue his career in Louisville but this could change." Couldn't have said it better myself.
#14: Stanley Robinson (Connecticut forward; 39 previous points in the Big East tournament) - UConn has been all sorts of not normal UConn this year, to the point that cancer-fighting coach Jim Calhoun actually benched Robinson and two other Seniors the last fifteen minutes in their final regular season game. Mind games. Calhoun's trying to pull some Bruce Leroy shit on these kids, to fire them up for one final run for the ol' ball coach, although he'll probably come back.
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