Shame on you, Big East

Once upon a time, the Big East Conference Tournament epitomized endurance, testicular fortitude, discipline and leadership. Any team, regardless of their regular season, could seemingly walk into Madison Square Garden and simply out-elbow, out-hustle and out-play everyone else while making a run to the title, and ultimately the Big Dance.

This tournament used to be a 4 day gauntlet of bloodshed and bruises. Point guards hit the floor as often as the roundball did. God, I vividly remember the days of Chevon Troutman from Pitt and Craig Smith of BC engaging in the most legal form of a street fight in the paint, in the quarterfinals no less! Or Boeheim and Calhoun glaring at each other as if their hatred alone could cause the other to combust.

Pitt and the 'Cuse somehow always managed to make it to the end, St. John's always sucked despite the "home court advantage" and MSG was always rockin'. Bitter rivalries were realized amongst players and coaches, schools and cities. There were no easy games, no cake walks. The strong survived, and the weak were not even invited. Every 40 minutes on that court in NYC was an absolute dogfight. And it was glorious.

Now, wipe a tear away from your eyes if you're an alum of a Big East school circa 1990-2000, and enjoy watching DePaul and it's 0 (ZERO!) conference wins take the court this morning. Or perhaps you'll be saving your energy for the sure barnburner between long-time rivals Seton Hall and South Florida later today. While the Lou'villes and Novas and Pitt' and UCONNs of the conference wait patiently for their chance to embarrass a Harangody and waltz to the finals.

That's right...a top 4 seed needs to win exactly 2 games to get a shot at the conference title. But hey, now EVERYONE gets to play, right? Meh. Bloodbath? More like bubblebath. Get your act together, Big East. Or else I'll have to dig up some old Denham Brown highlight reels...