Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
Conference Basketball Championship
The 2008 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament trophy
Sport	College basketball
Conference	Big East Conference
Number of teams	16 (starting in 2009)
Format	Single-elimination tournament
Current stadium	Madison Square Garden
Current location	New York, New York
Played	1980–present
Last contest	2011 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
Current champion	Connecticut Huskies
Most championships	Connecticut Huskies, Georgetown Hoyas (7)
Official website	BigEast.org Men's Basketball
Host stadiums
Madison Square Garden (1983–present) Hartford Civic Center (1982) Carrier Dome (1981) Providence Civic Center (1980)
Host locations
New York, New York (1983–present) Hartford, Connecticut (1982) Syracuse, New York (1981) Providence, Rhode Island (1980)

The Big East Men's Basketball Tournament is the conference championship tournament in men's basketball for the Big East Conference. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Since 1983, the tournament has been held in Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York. As such, the tournament is the longest running conference tournament at any one site in all of college basketball.

In 2011, Connecticut, led by Kemba Walker, became the first and only team in the Big East Tournament to ever win 5 games in a row in 5 days to win the championship.

The 2009 tournament featured a six-overtime game in the quarterfinals between the Connecticut Huskies and the Syracuse Orange, in which Syracuse prevailed, 127–117. The game, the second longest in NCAA history, started on the evening of March 12 and ended nearly four hours later in the early morning of March 13.

Seeding

The sixteen members of the Big East are seeded in the tournament based on their conference records. Non-conference games are ignored. Ties are broken using an elaborate set of tiebreaker rules, with the first two tiebreakers being head-to-head record and common record against the next best conference team.

Prior to the 2009 tournament, only the top 12 teams in the conference competed. In 2009, the tournament expanded to include all 16 of the conference's teams. The teams seeded #9 through #16 play first-round games, teams seeded #5 through #8 receive a bye to the second round, and the top four teams receive a double-bye to the quarter finals.

History

Jeff Green of the Georgetown Hoyas attempts to pass during the 2007 Big East Championship game against the Pitt Panthers.

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up	MVP	Venue
1980	Georgetown	87–81	Syracuse	Craig Shelton, GU	Providence Civic Center (Providence, RI)
1981	Syracuse	83–80*	Villanova	Leo Rautins, SU	Carrier Dome (Syracuse, NY)
1982	Georgetown	72–54	Villanova	Eric Floyd, GU	Hartford Civic Center (Hartford, CT)
1983	St. John's	85–77	Boston College	Chris Mullin, SJU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1984	Georgetown	82–71*	Syracuse	Patrick Ewing, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1985	Georgetown	92–80	St. John's	Patrick Ewing, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1986	St. John's	70–69	Syracuse	Dwayne Washington, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1987	Georgetown	69–59	Syracuse	Reggie Williams, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1988	Syracuse	85–68	Villanova	Sherman Douglas, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1989	Georgetown	88–79	Syracuse	Charles Smith, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1990	Connecticut	78–75	Syracuse	Chris Smith, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1991	Seton Hall	74–62	Georgetown	Oliver Taylor, SH	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1992	Syracuse	56–54	Georgetown	Alonzo Mourning, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1993	Seton Hall	103–70	Syracuse	Terry Dehere, SH	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1994	Providence	74–64	Georgetown	Michael Smith, PC	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1995	Villanova	94–78	Connecticut	Kerry Kittles, VU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1996	Connecticut	75–74	Georgetown	Victor Page, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1997	Boston College	70–58	Villanova	Scoonie Penn, BC	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1998	Connecticut	69–64	Syracuse	Khalid El-Amin, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
1999	Connecticut	82–63	St. John's	Kevin Freeman, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2000	St. John's	80–70	Connecticut	Bootsy Thornton, SJU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2001	Boston College	79–57	Pittsburgh	Troy Bell, BC	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2002	Connecticut	74–65*	Pittsburgh	Caron Butler, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2003	Pittsburgh	74–56	Connecticut	Julius Page, Pitt	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2004	Connecticut	61–58	Pittsburgh	Ben Gordon, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2005	Syracuse	68–59	West Virginia	Hakim Warrick, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2006	Syracuse	65–61	Pittsburgh	Gerry McNamara, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2007	Georgetown	65–42	Pittsburgh	Jeff Green, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2008	Pittsburgh	74–65	Georgetown	Sam Young, Pitt	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2009	Louisville	76–66	Syracuse	Jonny Flynn, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2010	West Virginia	60–58	Georgetown	Da'Sean Butler, West Virginia	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2011	Connecticut	69–66	Louisville	Kemba Walker, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)
2012					Madison Square Garden (New York, NY)

Performance by school

Team	Winners	Winning Years	Notes
Boston College	2	1997, 2001	7
Cincinnati	0		8
Connecticut	7	1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2011
DePaul	0		8
Georgetown	7	1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2007
Louisville	1	2009	8
Marquette	0		8
Miami	0		3,6
Notre Dame	0		4
Pittsburgh	2	2003, 2008	2
Providence	1	1994
Rutgers	0		4
St. John's	3	1983, 1986, 2000
Seton Hall	2	1991, 1993
South Florida	0		8
Syracuse	5	1981, 1988, 1992, 2005, 2006
West Virginia	1	2010	4
Villanova	1	1995	1
Virginia Tech	0		5,6

Notes:
¹ Villanova joined the Big East prior to the 1981 season
² Pittsburgh joined the Big East prior to the 1982 season
³ Miami joined the Big East before the 1991 season
⁴ Notre Dame, Rutgers and West Virginia joined the Big East prior to the 1996 season
⁵ Virginia Tech joined the Big East prior to the 2001 season
⁶ Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East following the 2004 season
⁷ Boston College left the Big East following the 2005 season
⁸ Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida joined the Big East before the 2006 season

Television coverage

Main article: Big East Tournament Finals broadcasters

The Big East conference is the only conference to have every game broadcast nationwide on the ESPN family of networks with every game from the second round forward broadcast on ESPN. 2011 marked the first year the tournament was broadcast in 3D on ESPN3D.