Spring Break
March Madness begins today
AP
Issue date: 3/19/09 Section: Sports
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Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut helped the league that was created decades ago for hoops, then nearly obliterated because of football, become the first conference to earn three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.
North Carolina, the regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference champion, was the other top seed in the bracket released Sunday.
"It speaks volumes for what it means to win the Big East," said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose Cardinals are the tournament's overall top seed and will play in the Midwest Regional.
The coup of placing three teams on the top line comes 24 years after the Big East became the first league to get three teams in the Final Four - Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's.
So much has changed since then.
So much has stayed the same.
The Cardinals (28-5), winners of the regular-season and conference championships in the nation's top-ranked conference, are one of the newest members of the Big East. They were brought into the fold after Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech bolted for a better situation on the football field in the ACC.
But they don't play football in March.
Counting No. 3 seeds Syracuse and Villanova, the Big East has five of the top 12 teams in the bracket.
"It just gives you an idea, if theoretically half the top teams in America are coming out of one conference, how difficult it was for anybody," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said.
Louisville will open against Morehead State, who defeated Alabama State 58-43 in the play-in game Tuesday night.
The rest of the tournament starts today.
The Final Four is scheduled for Ford Field in Detroit on April 4 and 6. Last year, all four No. 1 teams made it to the Final Four. But Pitt (East), Carolina (South) and UConn (West) all know its called March Madness for a reason - things rarely go to form.
So, time to break out the brackets, sharpen some pencils and pay into an office pool (or two).
Maybe do some bellyaching here and there.
Among the aggrieved: Duke and Memphis, both overlooked in the quest for top seeding, settling for No. 2 seeds despite winning their conference tournaments. Memphis is often downgraded for playing in the less-than-stellar Conference USA, but John Calipari's team proved people wrong last year, making it to the national title game.
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