NCAA Basketball depaul Blue Demons

The Big East Tournament gets underway Tuesday, and this year the Big East Tournament (BET) matches the construction of the conference -- oversized, a bit confusing and very clearly divided.

The Big East at this point has seven teams that are definitely going to the NCAA tournament and one team that lies way out on the fringe of the bubble. This year, the BET is all about teams trying to improve or maintain their projected seeding for the Big Dance.

With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.

Today's look is the Big East Conference. Since the conference is a 16-team beast, this will be in two parts. Part 1 looks at the group of teams that missed the NCAA Tournament last season. Part 2 will look at the teams that made the NCAA Tournament.

The Big East sent half its teams to the NCAA Tournament. That was the good news. The bad news was that not a one made it to the Final Four, and even worse only two made it out of the opening weekend.

This year the Big East looks to be even better, with four teams being discussed as legitimate Final Four teams, and a lot of strong teams behind them. Some of these teams will make the NCAA Tournament, or at least be perched precariously on the bubble in March.

UConn is the hottest team in the Big East with 9 straight wins. The surprising thing is that most of them are so close. In 7 of the past 8 they were decided by 7 points or less. Make that 8 of the past 9 as UConn extends their winning streak to 10 games with a shaky 65-60 win over DePaul.

DePaul is sub-.500 in the Big East and overall, and shot a dismal 36% but came very close to shocking the Huskies in Hartford. DePaul led for most of the second half, with a 53-40 point lead with 11 minutes left. At that point, though, UConn clamped down on defense and began working the ball inside. The Blue Demons went a stunningly bad 3-16 the rest of the game as UConn outscored them 25-7 for the win. The Huskies shot a blistering 8-11 from the field and was a perfect 8-8 at the free throw line in that stretch.

Craig Austrie has been huge for UConn since Jerome Dyson was suspended and again stepped up. He scored 11 of his 14 points in that final 11 minutes. He was 4-5 and dropped both of his free throws in that stretch. Austrie was also the guy who hit the game winning shot for UConn against South Florida a few days ago.

The best thing you can say is that UConn keeps coming up with wins late in the games and find ways. The flip side is that they have struggled in their past two games against two teams in the lower half of the Big East.

Seven times DePaul went into halftime with a lead and managed to lose 4 of those games. Tonight it looked like this would be the fifth time. DePaul went into halftime leading Villanova 40-28. Through most of the second half DePaul controlled the game and up by 14 with 6 minutes left.

Of course earlier this season, Villanova had a huge comeback win against LSU, down 21 with over 8 minutes left. So, this hardly seemed insurmountable for the Wildcats. Add in the DePaul propensity to collapse late in games, and this game couldn't be considered over until the final horn.

Sure enough, Villanova went on a 10-0 run to pull within 4 points with 3 minutes and change left. All momentum and energy shifted to Villanova. Finally, the Blue Demons didn't wilt. They went inside and took high percentage shots rather than hoisting bad jumpers. They also sank their free throws.

Instead it was Villanova throwing up 3s on a night they weren't falling. They got away from brought them back. Driving and penetrating. Getting DePaul to foul or give up the drive.

Given the youth on DePaul and the number of leads they have already blown this year, this game was vital as Big East play begins.

If you followed DePaul at all last year, you know how schizophrenic they could be. It was mainly home versus road. At home they could knock off Kansas and Marquette then go on the road and lose to Northwestern and UAB. This was expected to be and is a rebuilding year for the Blue Demons with the loss of Wilson Chandler and Sammy Meija.

They haven't looked good this season home or away, as they have struggled with their defense. They have allowed 74 points or more in 4 of 5 games. There's potential with Draelon Burns and Karron Clarke to lead them, but it really hasn't shown up yet.

Vandy has been hot. They came in 9-0 with wins over Bradley, South Alabama, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. They were nationally ranked, and the only other SEC team ranked besides Tennessee. They have been scoring bushels of points -- 77 points or more in every game -- so they would be poised to take advantage of the DePaul defensive woes.

The Big East has released the 2007-08 schedules for the 16 member schools. This year, all teams play each other once and there three home-and-homes in an 18-game conference schedule. All the schedules can be found here.

Toughest Non-Conference Games: at Kansas, at Creighton, Vanderbilt, and Clemson and Ole Miss (in San Juan)

Big East Home-and-Homes: Villanova, Notre Dame and Providence.

Toughest Stretch: DePaul could find itself buried before Christmas in a particularly impressive non-con. Traveling to Kansas, home for Vanderbilt and a game with Illinois-Chicago. Then down to San Juan for back-to-back games with Ole Miss and Clemson. It isn't hard to see DePaul dropping 4 of the 5 games and trying to recover the whole season.

Biggest Game: January 26, at Marquette. So much for tradition. The only meeting this year for traditional mid-west, urban school rivals that joined the Big East together.

Conference meetings always produce a lot of talk, but little action. What makes the talk interesting is the curiosity over who started the conversation. Take this little bit of gossip from the Big East basketball coaches.

At the Big East meetings last week, one coach proposed a rule that would allow members to recruit prospects who are released from their letters of intent by a fellow league member in the event of a coaching change. It's becoming more common for players to be released under those circumstances, and the coach argued it would be better if that talent remained in the league. The proposal did not gain strong support.

The Big East has one of the tightest restrictions on transfers and poaching within the conference. Essentially, once a player signs with a Big East school, that player can never go to another Big East school to play that sport. Period. Not even as a walk-on paying his/her own way. It stems from the earliest days of the league when it was a basketball only league and most of the schools were in such close proximity and constantly battling over the same recruits. Hard feelings, bitter relations, and nasty accusations among the schools and coaches over players. There was a good reason why they instituted the rule

That the coaches in the conference would reject such a minor exception -- coach leaving, the school formally releasing the player from his letter of intent and the kid never even setting foot on the campus as a student -- is a little surprising. Still, old habits die hard.

The fun part is speculating on which Big East coach made the proposal. My guess: Seton Hall, Bobby Gonzalez. He's been fighting for a slew of recruits in just his first year, and has just missed on a few blue-chippers. He would have the most to gain from this. When you consider that the coaches likely to be on the hot seat next year -- Norm Roberts, St. John's and Tim Welsh, Providence -- are competing directly against him. Not to mention that Jay Wright at Villanova spent the past year contending with rumors that he was heading to the Sixers or a bigger job.

It would also explain why the proposal met with little interest. Gonzalez's, um, intense nature, tends to grate on a lot of people -- especially fellow coaches.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

According to the NCAA, if it wasn't for the "squad size adjustments" to the APR results this year, 43.6% of the Division 1 basketball programs would be under the Academic Progrees Rate (APR) this year (PDF, page 5). The Big East is a team worse than that average as 8 of the 16 basketball programs are under the 925 minimum score. The rankings are still incomplete as the APR is to be based on a rolling 4-year rankings, and this is only year three. Teams that are right around 900 are not penalized as there are "squad sized adjustments" to the figures. The NCAA expects that teams around 900 will reach the 925 floor by next year.

1. Villanova 993
2. Notre Dame 977
3. Georgetown 970
4. Syracuse 948
5. Rutgers 943
6. Providence 938
7. UConn 934
8. Marquette 927
9. Seton Hall 921*
10. Louisville 920*
11. WVU 915*
12. St. John's 909*
13. Pitt 907*
14. USF 898*
15. DePaul 893*
16. Cinci 838**

Cincinnati was penalized one scholarship for not even being close to the confidence level of the APR. Cinci apparently anticipated this, as they have not used all 13 of their allotted scholarships. While the blame will fall largely on former coach Bob Huggins, Cinci was really hurt by the firing of Huggins and the subsequent quitting and transfers of players afterwards.

I wasn't surprised by the outcomes, but I had the way they won reversed in my preview.

Villanova 75 DePaul 67. The Wildcats didn't shoot particularly well from the field. But what they did exceptionally well was make their free throws. Boy did they make their free throws. Villanova, the best FT shooting team in the Big East, was 33-38 from the line. It was 61-57, Villanova with a little over 2 minutes left. They never made another field goal, but were 14-18 from the line in that period as DePaul kept fouling and Villanova kept making FTs. Freshman guard Scottie Reynolds scored 29 points with 13 coming at the line. Curtis Sumpter had 25 as well.

For DePaul, they stayed close throughout the game but just couldn't get the game tied. Wilson Chandler and Sammy Mejia had about their normal games and there was matching production from Draelon Burns. The three combined for 56 points. The problem was that the other 6 players provided 11 points on 4-14 shooting.

Syracuse 78 UConn 65. UConn had a 2-point lead at the half. They played a very good first half, but couldn't get separation as Eric Devendorf for Syracuse kept the Orange in the game in the first half. In the second half, Demetris Nichols took over and scored 28 points. Syracuse went on a 19-6 run when the score was tied at 40 to bust the game open. UConn was the UConn team they have been all season. Unable to handle adversity and fading. UConn Coach Jim Calhoun got a technical late in the second half and I'm really not sure whether he was lashing out at the officiating or his own team after the game.

"When bad things happen to you by incompetent people, and they do happen to you at times, and as that built we became a little more frustrated," Calhoun said.

I'm assuming he was blaming the refs, but it really applied to the way his own team has played this season.

Syracuse struggled making free throws -- 13-25 -- or the game would have been a bigger blowout by the end of the game. Luckily for Syracuse, UConn struggled shooting -- period. Under 35% shooting in the game.

Look, I understand the Big East has 16 teams, and it can be hard to pick the best players for an All-Big East team, but to have a 1st team with 11 players is a joke. It may create some hard feelings (maybe) or may take a little more effort but if conferences with 12 members can have a 5-member or even 6-member All-conference squad, surely the Big East could at least limit it to a max of 8.

Instead there's this:

2006-07 All-BIG EAST First Team
*Jeff Green, Georgetown, Jr.
*Roy Hibbert, Georgetown, Jr.
Dominic James, Marquette, So.
Russell Carter, Notre Dame, Sr.
Colin Falls, Notre Dame, Sr.
*Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh, Sr.
*Herbert Hill, Providence, Sr.
Lamont Hamilton, St. John's, Sr.
*Demetris Nichols, Syracuse, Sr.
Curtis Sumpter, Villanova, Sr.
Frank Young, West Virginia, Sr.

The asterisk indicates a unanimous choice.

At least five of the choices were unanimous -- even if it was all forwards and centers. Not a particularly strong year in the Big East for guards.

That's ridiculous. There's a 10-member second team and 7 players listed for the "honorable mention."

The Big East designated 28 players as all-conference. That's 35% of the starters in the Big East being put among the "best" of the group. Clearly the Big East doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but I'd say if you start in the Big East, you have to be pissed that you somehow didn't make the cut. They must really think you suck.

But wait, there's more. There's still the 11-member All-Rookie Team.