Let’s now focus on the top of the Big East and arguably the top of college basketball in general. The Big East, no matter what happens in the conference tournament will place at least 5 teams in the big dance. Perhaps 2 of those teams will be number one seeds and if you listen to the sports talking heads, the Big East could get as many as 9. Of course the rest of the basketball universe would have to disappear (well, maybe just the MAAC) in order to have that happen. How proud  Mike Tranghese must be of the conference this year. They lose Virginia Tech, Boston College and football powerhouse Miami to the ACC. All appeared to be lost especially in football and until recently only UConn seemed to be the only team people remembered about Big East Basketball.  Tranghese must be immensely excited to see not only traditional powers Georgetown and Villanova return to glory, but add Pitt and West Virginia to the mix become one of the best conferences in basketball. In fact 7 Big East players were named to the top 30 considered for the Naismith award.