Big East looks for calm time
TOM NOIE
Tribune Staff Writer
Two springs ago, a nervous group of college basketball coaches concerned about their league super-sizing to an unheard-of 16 schools convened at a Florida golf resort.
Those fears were calmed the following March when the league sent 10 schools to postseason play.
Last spring, that same group of head coaches again gathered near Jacksonville, Fla., uneasy about playing an 18-game league schedule. Again, those jitters disappeared last March when the Big East sent eight teams to the NCAA tournament for only the second time in league history.
When the conference coaches convene again Monday at the annual Big East meetings, they may actually have time to enjoy a round or two of golf at the TPC Sawgrass course rather than pepper commissioner Mike Tranghese with concerns over getting their share of teams into March Madness.
Sixteen teams works. So does 18 league games.
"Our commissioner has the strongest argument to keep the 18-game league schedule," Irish coach Mike Brey said. "It's real simple -- we got eight teams in and who knows, the way the league looks next year, we could get nine or 10."
Preseason practice still is four-plus months away, but various polls have as many as four Big East teams, including Notre Dame, ranked in the top 10. The league also could return 28 of the 36 players who earned all-conference honors.
"Has there ever been a league that returns more juice than what ours does next year?" wondered Brey. "It's incredible."
Brey expects a relatively peaceful two days in Florida, a far cry from the 2005 gathering when many wondered if the Big East would survive the defections of three schools (Boston College, Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech) to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
"I don't know if we have any other hot-button issues on our agenda," he said. "One of those is already done and that's all 16 teams going to New York."
For the first time since the league expanded to 16, every team will participate in the conference tournament in 2009. That will make for a long week in Manhattan for some teams, but it's something every coach wanted.
"It was the right thing to do," Brey said. "I will guarantee one thing for next year -- we will qualify for New York. I'm really out on a limb on that one."
This article appeared in the South Bend Tribune on Sunday, May 18, 2008.