“It hurts doesn't it? Your hopes dashed, your dreams down the toilet. And your fate is sitting right besides you.”

It’s 11:49 pm, only 11 minutes left in Valentine’s Day, and Teddy KGB’s words have never wrung truer. Maryland just lost to Clemson (again) 89-77 and it hurts badly. It’s somewhere between “my girlfriend ditched me on Valentine’s day and hooked up with my best friend” and “Duke winning the National Championship” bad. Our dreams of just trying to make the field of 65 – done, evaporated like a snowflake falling on an oven. And now we resign ourselves to the fact that our team will be competing in that other tournament come March. Again.

***

Well you know what? Who cares? Screw those guys. Why should we as fans keep exhausting ourselves in front of the T.V. doing everything we can to make Maryland care about the game? Bottom line, if they don’t care, why should we?
 

I’ll keep with the Valentine’s Day motif and use an appropriate metaphor here. Say that you have a girlfriend that you’ve been going out with for a while and you’re just head over heels in love with her. You’re not going to dump her just because she fails a test or gets fired from her job. Nah, you’ll stand by her, tell her to get back on her feet and keep going. She’s not perfect, but she returns your love, and that’s what matters. But lets say you love this girl, but she doesn’t care one way or the other how you feel about her. What would you do if you found out the girl you were dating didn’t return the feelings you had for her? I’ll tell you what you’d do. You’d dump her and you’d move on. 
 

And that’s what I’m doing. I’m moving on from Maryland. And there’s one more thing I have to say before I go: I’VE BEEN CHEATING ON YOU! That’s right you heard me. And I didn’t even have to go very far to do it.

Two days before I officially broke up with the 05-06 Terrapins, something happened to me. A huge Nor’easter brought snow, closed schools and Big East basketball to the D.C. area (really is there a better combination in the world?).

Watching Georgetown and West Virginia was complete cultural shock for an ACC guru like myself. I felt like Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas as soon as he discovers Christmas. What's this? What's this? There’s other basketball in the region. What’s this? They’re having a good season. I must be dreaming. Wake up, Chris, this isn't fair – What is this?

Watching the Hoyas is such a breath of fresh air for anyone who has been stuck in the musty cellars of College Park. I saw them in a losing effort and loved it. People were diving for loose balls, fighting for rebounds and contesting every shot. As a new comer to the conference, there were a couple things I learned Sunday night about the Big East.

First of all, every Big East game has to take place in arena that has at least one foot of snow outside. Apparently this was the reason for kicking Miami out of the conference – just not enough snow on south beach (Editor’s note: this is not true as South Florida is a member of the conference, although at 0-10 in conference play, not by much). Second, they play on Monday nights. Every week there is a big conference match up that makes you forget that football season is over. It’s a very courteous thing for them to do for us sports fans. 

Also, the name “Big East” is a huge understatement. Shaq is big. The Capital building is big. This conference is gigantic. And the ‘East’ part is only valid if you live in California. Did you know that the Depaul Blue Demons are a part of the Big East? Depaul-out-in-Chicago Depaul? If the conference has a candidate running for President in the 2020 election, I’m not going to be surprised. 

During a TV timeout on Sunday, they ran one of those conference promotions on the scoreboard. You know those things that advertise how good the conference is because it has all these great teams in it. These ads never made any sense to me because I’m not sure what they’re trying to sell. We’re obviously supporting the Big East, that’s why we’re at this game. Anyway, on this ad, their slogan was, “And getting bigger.” No duh. Pretty soon the Big East tournament is going to be bigger than the NIT. If they start handing out at-large bids in a couple years to teams like Georgia Tech and Minnesota, watch out.

The bad news about the Big East is that everyone seemingly plays that stupid 2-3 zone. Now, I’ll admit that the reason I’m so anti-zone is that I’ve become so used to watching ACC teams (like Maryland) struggle against it so much that it becomes frustrating for the fans. How many times have you thought to yourself, “put me in coach, I can’t do any worse than these guys.” But the great thing about the Big East is that since they see zone defenses so much (it’s Syracuse’s bread and butter), they know how to play against. Example: See Jeff Green run. See Jeff Green move without the ball. See Jeff Green get the ball. See Jeff Green hit a 12-foot jumper.

Speaking of Green, if you haven’t had a chance to watch this kid play yet, you don’t know what you’re missing. For five minutes in the second half I just watched him. Ignored following the ball, just kept my eyes on number 32. He’s listed as a power forward but he plays like a true center, which I think is one of the reasons it’s so fun to watch him, considering centers are a dying breed. He always had good position in the paint; always had his man blocked out and is great at the pick and roll. Oh, and he’s only a sophomore.

The MCI Center had a pretty similar atmosphere to the Comcast Center which was quite refreshing since all I’ve ever seen there were Wizards games (with the exception of last years ACC tournament). For NBA games, the MCI Center is filled with suits and ties that are entertaining clients or relaxing after work. But the cool thing about college basketball is that students treat the game like it is work. The students were rowdy, resourceful and creative (favorite sign of the night: Brokeback Mountaineers) and there was a nice competitive vibe throughout the stadium as many West Virginia fans made the trek to D.C. I was actually surprised by the large number of WVU fans in attendance, so much so that when I first got there, I thought there was a large number of event staff on hand, and then I realized that they were all mountaineer fans. But it makes sense now that I think about it; I mean how many winning seasons has West Virginia had since Jerry West left? Three? Might as well see as many games as you can this season before the clock strikes 12. (For future reference, I know exactly when this is going to happen. WVU is going to end up playing Duke in a regional final during the NCAA tournament and they will go 3-40 from three and lose. All because I’ll be rooting for them.) 
 
I’ll admit, when I first walked into the MCI Center, I was skeptical and scared. First, there is no better basketball conference than the ACC, and before this weekend I would’ve refused to believe otherwise. And I was scared because what happened if I liked what I saw? It was like Phil Hartman’s Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer sketch on SNL. “ Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just an ACC fan. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your 2-3 zone frightens and confuses me!”
 
Well I was wrong. I had fun on Sunday night. The Big East is the best conference in the country. Georgetown (not George Washington or Maryland) is the best local college basketball team. And I think I could get used to watching the teams in this league.
 
Even when they play zone.

 
Chris DiIonno is hoping for an all Big East Final Four. He can be reached at .