![]() Patrick Ewing's move to Georgetown was a defining moment in the conference's history. Players became icons at their respective schools. Now, they were staying home and playing in big arenas like the civic centers of Hartford and Providence, the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Soon players in the Northeast began shunning schools like Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State, and UCLA. That attracted talent to the schools in the Northeast - selling them on the pride of fighting kids they'd been playing at high school tournaments all these years. The more games aired on the network, the more popular both the network and the conference became. The conference was met with skepticism, but quickly proved to be a powerhouse.īig East basketball became priority viewing for sports fans, who watched on thanks to the conference's key partnership with a then-little-known media company located in Bristol, Connecticut: the Entertainment Sports Programming Network - ESPN. Soon after, Villanova (outside Philadelphia) was added and two years on from that, their brothers from across the Keystone State joined up when the University of Pittsburgh was brought in. These days the Big East Tournament is still must-watch basketball for fans across the nation It's proof that this iteration of the Big East's resilience through its dedication to basketball has paid off, and will pay off for years to come. Packed crowds of people skipping work filled the Mecca on Thursday afternoon like no other tournament could. This week, the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden has shown signs of the brilliance of old. ![]() There were troubling signs at the start, but one university's dominance on the national stage, coupled with another school's return has brought the conference back into the national conversation. The Big East has remained a power in the years following its 'Requiem'. The basketball product at schools like Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Boston College, and Pittsburgh have all shown flashes of hope, but never enough to sustain their legacies. ![]() While the old Big East 'died' 10 years ago, the new incarnation of the conference is a beast of its own - and is set for a top-notch final between Marquette and Xavier on Saturday night ![]()
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