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Best League in the Land? The Big East Puts In a Bid
By Camille Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 11, 2005; Page D01

Boston College Coach Al Skinner was asked late last month if he was keeping an eye on what was going on in the ACC, the league widely promoted as the best in the country, as well as the future home of the Eagles. He laughed; after all, he has enough to worry about in the Big East.

"This league is a handful," he said.

Indeed it is. The ACC was touted at the start of the season as not just the top conference in the country, but possibly the best in recent years. But when the NCAA tournament field is unveiled March 13, it could be the Big East -- and not the ACC -- that winds up with the most bids of any conference, which would validate what its coaches have been saying ever since league play began, that the Big East is the best and deepest in the country.

"There's no question in my mind that this is the most balanced we've ever been," said Jim Boeheim, whose Syracuse team is one of seven Big East teams that can make strong claims for tournament berths. "I cannot recall any season, any time we were this good, top to bottom."

The ACC is the top league in the country, according to the Ratings Percentage Index, which measures a school's strength and is one of the factors used by the NCAA tournament selection committee; the Big East is rated third. But several Big East coaches have (somewhat gleefully) pointed out that Miami and Virginia Tech -- once considered to be the weakest programs in the Big East -- are middle-of-the-pack teams in their first season in the ACC.

The Big East is 6-1 in games against the ACC, though one of the better matchups will take place on Sunday when No. 19 Connecticut (minus leading scorer Rashad Anderson, who has an infection in his leg) hosts No. 2 North Carolina. The Big East has five teams in the top 25, compared with three for the ACC.

"Do we have a team that can win a national championship? Yeah," Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. "I discount Connecticut out of everything I say, but I think Syracuse can get to the Final Four, Pittsburgh can get to the Final Four, and Boston College has gotten through the season every which way, and there's no reason why they can't continue to do that. Then there are the dangerous teams: Villanova and Notre Dame can shoot their way into the Final Four. I think we have some incredibly dangerous teams."

Connecticut and Syracuse, winners of the past two national championships, were expected to be good, as was Pittsburgh, which finished atop the regular season standings the past three years. The strength of the conference comes from the teams that weren't expected to do much.

Skinner's Eagles, who were picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches' poll, are in first place with a 9-1 record and are the conference's highest ranked team (fourth). Villanova, which was tabbed to finish seventh, has the Big East's most impressive nonconference win, an 83-62 dismantling of then-undefeated Kansas on Jan. 22. And then there is Georgetown, which was picked to finish 11th but is currently tied for third (7-3).

"Forget about the teams at the top," Skinner said. "The teams that supposedly are on the bottom of this league are very, very good. That's the strength of the league. It's not the teams at the top, but the teams at the bottom."

Rutgers, St. John's and Providence sit at the bottom of the standings with a combined league record of 4-25. But Rutgers opened its season with wins at Charlotte and against St. Mary's (Calif.), two teams that should end up in the tournament. St. John's has beaten No. 18 Pittsburgh and North Carolina State. Providence has lost its nine conference games by an average margin of 6.7 points, and its only victory since the start of January was a 21-point thrashing of Virginia on Feb. 2. The Friars also have forward Ryan Gomes, who leads the Big East in scoring (21.1) and is second in rebounding (8.7).

"He's as good a player in our league, and he's on an 0-9 team," Calhoun said. "He's a great player and they have pretty good players around him, so that tells you how good our league is."

The Big East has sent seven teams to the tournament only once before (1991). If several major conferences -- such as the Pac-10, SEC, and even the ACC -- receive fewer tournament invitations than expected, the Big East could benefit along with the mid-major schools.

"There are a lot of bids out there to steal, but the Big East is not a league that is going to suffer," said Jerry Palm, whose Web site http://www.collegerpi.com simulates the RPI. "Every other conference has two or three sure bets, and everybody else is in a pile. The Big East has seven teams -- Boston College and Syracuse should be very high, and the other five seeds are pretty solid."

There is no magic number of wins that ensures an at-large bid, but a 10-6 conference mark is usually a good barometer. In the 14 seasons that the Big East has used a 16-game conference schedule, 53 of the 55 teams that have finished with at least 10 wins have made the tournament. The two exceptions: Boston College and Seton Hall finished 10-6 but out of the tournament in 2002-03, a season in which the Big East received only three at-large bids.

A team with a 9-7 conference mark is in a more precarious position. In the past three seasons, four teams have won nine Big East games, and only one of them -- St. John's in 2001-02 -- was invited to the tournament. Georgetown and Syracuse (2001-02) and Notre Dame (2003-04) missed out.

Georgetown has put itself in a good position to earn its first NCAA tournament bid since 2001, according to Palm. The Hoyas' RPI is 35, which is better than that of Notre Dame (39) and Pittsburgh (51), and their strength of schedule is rated 38th. Georgetown also boasts road wins over Pittsburgh, Villanova and Davidson, all of which are top 100 RPI teams.

"There are a lot of teams on the fence that don't have two good road wins," Palm said. "That will serve [the Hoyas] well at selection time. They also won at Davidson, which might not seem so big, but they're running away with the Southern Conference [16-7, 12-0]. And how many times do you see a major conference team go to a Davidson and play?"

The top seven teams will combine for 14 games over the final three weeks of the season. Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey looks at the Irish's remaining games against Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Connecticut as "more opportunities to add to the [NCAA tournament] résumé."

"We all have about three weeks to go," Calhoun said. "And I think it'll be some of the most exciting weeks in Big East history