The phrase "March Madness" is most directly connected with the NCAA basketball tournament. However, with the drama brought on by the conference tournaments that run up until Selection Sunday, there is plenty of madness to be had in league play, especially when it comes to the Big East tournament.
The men's Big East tournament is one of the most beloved college basketball conference tournaments, held annually at Madison Square Garden in New York. While the league has undergone radical shifts since it began play in 1979–80, it remains must-watch. The NCAA tournament tends to be where Cinderellas shine, but we've seen some low seeds make incredible runs at The Garden over the years.
The women's Big East tournament has been unsurprisingly dominated by one of the great college basketball programs in history: Gino Auriemma's Connecticut Huskies. There have been some surprises on the women's side as well through the years, however, especially during UConn's years playing in the AAC.
What Is the Lowest Seed to Win the Big East Men's Tournament?
The Big East has gone through numerous iterations, expanding and contracting from a regional basketball-focused league to a football-playing behemoth and back again. As a result, the Big East tournament began as a seven-team event in 1980, ballooned to 16 teams by 2009, and has come back down to 11 teams after conference realignment sent some of the league's football-playing teams to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12, while the basketball-focused schools split from the remaining football schools, which ultimately formed the AAC.
The two lowest seeds to make incredible runs to Big East championships were both No. 9 seeds during the larger iterations of the league, with dominant guards that led them to a pair of the greatest runs in conference history: 2006 Syracuse and 2011 UConn.
How 2006 Syracuse Pulled Off Its Big East Tournament Run
Just a few years removed from their national title in 2003, the Orange looked like they might squander the final year of Gerry McNamara, Carmelo Anthony's sharpshooting sidekick during his freshman year. McNamara led the team at 16 points per game, but shot career lows from the field (.353) and three-point range (.334) as he carried the team on his shoulders to a 19–11 regular season record and 7–9 mark in Big East play. After the subpar season, the Syracuse Post-Standard ran an annual poll of Big East assistant coaches, in which McNamara was voted the most "overrated" player in the league.
That poll served as a launching point for a truly legendary tournament run.
McNamara scored 17 points including an incredible running, one-handed go-ahead three-pointer with less than a second in regulation to push Syracuse past eighth-seeded Cincinnati, 74–73.
The play pushed the Orange to the Big East quarterfinals, and coach Jim Boeheim to go on one of the great rants of his coaching career, calling out the anonymous coaches who dared question McNamara's greatness.
"Without Gerry McNamara, we wouldn't have won 10 f---ing games this year," Boeheim said. "Without him, not 10. We wouldn't even be here to even have a chance to play this game. And everybody's talking to me and writing about Gerry McNamara being overrated? That's the most bulls--- thing I've seen in 30 years."
McNamara's run in New York didn't end there. The following day, he finished with 17 points and 13 assists, drilling a 30-foot three-pointer to force overtime against No. 1 UConn. SU would win 86–84. On Friday, the Orange took down their other archrival, five-seed Georgetown, 58–57. McNamara, hobbled by a groin injury, missed significant time early, and the Hoyas ran out to a 15-point lead at half. In the second half, he stunned the crowd at The Garden, drilling five threes en route to his third consecutive 17-point game. And finally, the Orange outlasted sixth-seeded Pitt in the Big East final on Saturday, 65–61, to punch a ticket to the NCAA tournament, which they likely would have missed without the run in New York.
Syracuse couldn't keep the magic going in the Big Dance. Earning a five-seed, the Orange fell to 12-seed Texas A&M 66–58, with the hobbled McNamara scoring just two points in 23 minutes.
How 2011 UConn Pulled Off Its Big East Tournament Run
In 2006, it was McNamara, In 2011, Kemba Walker led his No. 9 seed Connecticut Huskies to five wins in five days to win the Big East tournament.
Walker totaled 54 points in the Huskies' first two games—a 97–71 win over 16-seed DePaul and a 79–62 victory against No. 8 Georgetown—before things heated up in the quarterfinals.
No. 1-seed Pitt gave Walker his toughest challenge of the tournament, holding him to 24 points on 22 field goal attempts. His final shot was perhaps the signature moment of his legendary run with the Huskies. After getting a mismatch with Panthers center Gary McGhee with the game tied at 74 and the final seconds ticking off the game clock, Walker sent his defender flying with a nasty crossover stepback, drilling a long jumper to seal the win.
It wouldn't be a classic Big East tournament without an overtime clash between UConn and Syracuse, and Walker delivered in the semifinal game, dropping 33 to lead the Huskies past the Orange, 76–71. Louisville made Walker work in a slugfest Big East final, but he scored a game-high 19 points in the 69–66 win to capture the conference crown. The Huskies beat four ranked teams in the five-day tournament run, one of the most impressive conference tournament runs in college basketball history.
Walker was just getting started at Madison Square Garden. UConn earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, and kept things rolling, beating Bucknell, Cincinnati, San Diego State, Arizona, Kentucky and Butler to win a third national title under Jim Calhoun.
What Is the Lowest Seed to Win the Big East Women's Tournament?
The women's Big East tournament has largely been the UConn invitational. Since the tournament debuted in 1983, the Huskies have won the event 22 times, 17 more than any other program despite UConn leaving the league for seven seasons from 2013–14 to '19–20. UConn hasn't always dominated the Big East tournament, however. A pair of No. 5 seeds have taken home the conference title.
In 1985, a year before the Geno Auriemma era began in Storrs, a middling Syracuse team made a run to the title while hosting the tournament. In 2004, Boston College stunned UConn en route to a Big East title of its own.
How 1985 Syracuse Pulled Off Its Big East Tournament Run
The Orange went just 18–13 on the season with a 10–6 record in league play. After Providence and St. John's hosted the first two years of the tournament, it was Syracuse's turn in 1985, and they took full advantage. Led by freshman Felisha Legette, now the program's head coach, the Orange took down Pitt, St. John's and Villanova to take home the conference title.
They couldn't take advantage of that moment in the Big Dance, however. The No. 8 Orange lost in the first round of the 32-team tournament to No. 1 Old Dominion, 88–63, the eventual national champion.
How 2004 Boston College Pulled Off Its Big East Tournament Run
The '04 Eagles weren't the same kind of underdog, with a 21–6 record in a much stronger league. However, they had to pull off a tremendous upset to win the tournament.
After beating 12-seed Syracuse and four-seed Miami, Boston College had the tall task of taking on UConn in Hartford in the heart of Auriemma's dynasty. Jessalyn Deveny scored a game-high 21 points, while Kathrin Ress scored 18 to beat the Diana Taurasi-led Huskies 73–70.
The Eagles met another lower-seed in the Big East final, No. 7 Rutgers. Deveny scored 20, while Amber Jacobs chipped in 22 to lead the Eagles past the Cappie Pondexter-led Scarlet Knights to win the tournament.
BC would earn a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, beating No. 14 Eastern Michigan and No. 6 Ohio State before falling to No. 7 Minnesota in the Sweet 16.
UConn, meanwhile, would recover to run through the NCAA tournament, beating Tennessee to capture the national title.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lowest Seeds to Ever Win the Big East Tournament, Men and Women's .
