Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

The Big East Men's Basketball Tournament is the championship tournament of the Big East Conference in men's basketball. 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. As such, the tournament is the longest running conference tournament at any one site in all of college basketball.

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	10
Format	Single-elimination tournament
Current stadium	Madison Square Garden
Current location	New York City
Played	1980–present
Last contest	2019
Current champion	Creighton Bluejays men's basketball
Most championships	Connecticut Huskies, Georgetown Hoyas (7)
Official website	BigEast.org
Host stadiums
Madison Square Garden (1983–present) Hartford Civic Center (1982) Carrier Dome (1981) Providence Civic Center (1980)
Host locations
New York City (1983–present) Hartford, Connecticut (1982) Syracuse, New York (1981) Providence, Rhode Island (1980)

In 2011, Connecticut, led by Kemba Walker, became the first and only team in the Big East Tournament to ever win five games in five consecutive 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.[1]

Only three players have achieved repeat MVP honors: Georgetown's Patrick Ewing (1984–1985), Louisville's Peyton Siva (2012–2013), and Villanova's Josh Hart (2015,2017).

As part of the deal in which the original Big East split into the "new" Big East and the American Athletic Conference, the "new" Big East retained the rights to the conference tournament. The “new” Big East extended their contract to host the tournament at Madison Square Garden through the 2025 season.

Seeding

In the last four tournaments before the Big East split into two leagues in 2013, all member schools participating in the tournament (16 from 2010 to 2012, and 14 in 2013) were seeded in the tournament based on their conference records. Non-conference games were ignored. Ties were 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.[2] The 2014 tournament, the first held after the split, involved all 10 members of the reconfigured Big East, with similar tiebreakers employed as needed. It is expected that all members will continue to play in future tournaments (barring postseason bans due to NCAA rules violations).

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 played first-round games, teams seeded #5 through #8 received a bye to the second round, and the top four teams receive a double-bye to the quarter finals.[3] The final pre-split Big East tournament, held in 2013, saw only 14 teams compete—West Virginia left the Big East for the Big 12 Conference after the 2011–12 season, and Connecticut was barred from the tournament due to an NCAA postseason ban for academic reasons. In that tournament, the teams seeded #11 through #14 played in the first round, with byes remaining the same as in the 2010–12 period.

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, Rhode Island)
1981	Syracuse	83–80	Villanova	Leo Rautins, SU	Carrier Dome (Syracuse, New York)
1982	Georgetown	72–54	Villanova	Eric Floyd, GU	Hartford Civic Center (Hartford, Connecticut)
1983	St. John's	85–77	Boston College	Chris Mullin, St. John's	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1984	Georgetown	82–71	Syracuse	Patrick Ewing, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1985	Georgetown	92–80	St. John's	Patrick Ewing, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1986	St. John's	70–69	Syracuse	Dwayne Washington, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1987	Georgetown	69–59	Syracuse	Reggie Williams, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1988	Syracuse	85–68	Villanova	Sherman Douglas, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1989	Georgetown	88–79	Syracuse	Charles Smith, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1990	Connecticut	78–75	Syracuse	Chris Smith, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1991	Seton Hall	74–62	Georgetown	Oliver Taylor, SH	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1992	Syracuse	56–54	Georgetown	Alonzo Mourning, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1993	Seton Hall	103–70	Syracuse	Terry Dehere, SH	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1994	Providence	74–64	Georgetown	Michael Smith, PC	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1995	Villanova	94–78	Connecticut	Kerry Kittles, VU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1996	Connecticut	75–74	Georgetown	Victor Page, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1997	Boston College	70–58	Villanova	Scoonie Penn, BC	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1998	Connecticut	69–64	Syracuse	Khalid El-Amin, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
1999	Connecticut	82–63	St. John's	Kevin Freeman, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2000	St. John's	80–70	Connecticut	Bootsy Thornton, SJU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2001	Boston College	79–57	Pittsburgh	Troy Bell, BC	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2002	Connecticut	74–65*	Pittsburgh	Caron Butler, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2003	Pittsburgh	74–56	Connecticut	Julius Page, Pitt	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2004	Connecticut	61–58	Pittsburgh	Ben Gordon, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2005	Syracuse	68–59	West Virginia	Hakim Warrick, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2006	Syracuse	65–61	Pittsburgh	Gerry McNamara, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2007	Georgetown	65–42	Pittsburgh	Jeff Green, GU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2008	Pittsburgh	74–65	Georgetown	Sam Young, Pitt	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2009	Louisville	76–66	Syracuse	Jonny Flynn, SU	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2010	West Virginia	60–58	Georgetown	Da'Sean Butler, West Virginia	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2011	Connecticut	69–66	Louisville	Kemba Walker, UConn	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2012	Louisville	50–44	Cincinnati	Peyton Siva, Louisville	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2013	Louisville	78–61	Syracuse	Peyton Siva, Louisville	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2014	Providence	65–58	Creighton	Bryce Cotton, Providence	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2015	Villanova	69–52	Xavier	Josh Hart, Villanova	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2016	Seton Hall	69–67	Villanova	Isaiah Whitehead, SH	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2017	Villanova	74–60	Creighton	Josh Hart, Villanova	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2018	Villanova	76–66*	Providence	Mikal Bridges, Villanova	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2019	Villanova	74–72	Seton Hall	Phil Booth, Villanova	Madison Square Garden (New York City)
2020	Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic				Madison Square Garden (New York City)

Championships by school

Team	Winners	Winning Years
Georgetown	7	1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2007
Connecticut	7	1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2011
Syracuse	5	1981, 1988, 1992, 2005*, 2006*
Villanova	5	1995, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
St. John's	3	1983, 1986, 2000
Louisville	3	2009, 2012, 2013
Seton Hall	3	1991, 1993, 2016
Boston College	2	1997, 2001
Pittsburgh	2	2003, 2008
Providence	2	1994, 2014
West Virginia	1	2010
Marquette	0
Creighton	0
Xavier	0
DePaul	0
Butler	0

Italics indicate school is no longer a member of the Big East Conference.

Television coverage

See also: List of Big East Men's Basketball Tournament Finals broadcasters

Before the 2013 conference split, the Big East was the only conference to have every tournament 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 ESPN 3D.

Beginning with the 2014 tournament, FS1 is the television home for the Big East tournament.[4]

References

1. Thamel, Pete (March 13, 2009). "Syracuse Left Standing After Marathon Game". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-20. Retrieved 2011-02-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "Big East tournament expands to 16 teams". United Press International. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on 20 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2013-09-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)