So Long, Big East
So the end of the Big East is near despite the Catholic 7 universities taking the name with them. It will not be the same just as ESPN has wonderfully displayed with historic highlights of the league in basketball (Mostly through Syracuse/Georgetown highlights). But there is more than just those schools; heck, there was even more than just Men's basketball! This was bound to be so since the conference was founded in 1979. I'm not going to give you a history lesson on events I haven't experience myself; that just doesn't work very well with sports. I'm going to tell you moments I've personally experienced with the Big East we once knew.
For me, it all started with the Providence College Friars men's basketball team in 2003 led by Ryan Homes (all time leading PC in points, reached over 2000 points and 1000 rebounds) . I wasn't much of a sports fan back then; it was fueled by the rivalry with my brother (explanation for the various teams I root for). Fast forward four years, I commit to the University of Connecticut without any interests in the sports besides maybe joining the club team for tennis (funny thing is I didn't know a classmate committed to UConn too. She is one of my better friends now!)
So I get to UConn and attend the Goal Patrol (for the free food) and turns out that we had a great soccer team led by O'Brian White. This is the first time I hear and see 7 foot 4 inch Hasheem Thabeet who will be ultimately be terrible that very year. My obsession for UConn became present not too much later but I'm not hear to talk about just UConn but the great moments I witnessed with the other teams in the Big East.
Everyone knows the men's basketball rivalry against Syracuse but it really only started with the six overtime game. For me, the rivalry with Providence was most exciting for me; my soul didn't know what to do (School loyalty or hometown loyalty). For some odd reason UConn always had trouble with PC no matter how much more talented they were. But the most memorable game against Providence must have been on January 31, 2009 because we chanted "#1" with the winning score of 94-61 (Can you spot me?).
But in the (old) Big East, the majority of the games were huge games. The basketball conference was just dominate: UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Providence, and other teams (including West Virginia just 2 years ago). It's sad to see it go away but it looks like the ACC could use the "pick me up" though. The Big East Tournament was so great.
UConn didn't have long term rivalries in every sport but they were forming. In field hockey, the rivalry with Syracuse was always intense and very competitive. I'm not sure when it started though. In men's and women's soccer, games against the St. John Johnnies became the game(s) of the year to attend. This rivalry was so emotional that it affected the fans to become ridiculously vocal; the play on the field was as physical as I have ever seen. The rivalry got so immense that St. John's sent a bus load of student fans to a women's soccer game to Morrone Stadium in beautiful Storrs, CT; it was the first time I've seen this in any sport. It's unfortunate that this rivalry game isn't guaranteed to happen every year (and no chance of two games).
While in women's volleyball did not have a rival with any team, I had very fond memories against Big East teams. One of my fondest memories have to be against Villanova because of Villanova some Coach Josh Steinbach because he would argue with the referees, in turn arguing with me (sometimes others too). After one match, he complemented my chants and arguing, after pretending not to notice me during the game. My favorite moment volleyball moment must be against St. John's where a couple of their players reacted to our chants (doink doink doink OOoooOoo). And many times we ask for water since we chanted our hearts out to the point of thirst; this time #15, Korina Yee, told us to get it ourselves during a game but of course she knew we couldn't.
It's not often players respond to the opposing team's fans. A couple Husky Hardcores and myself may have been the first fans to be kicked out of Morrone Stadium for talking to the USF goalie; we simply asked her if she was cold. She gestured her hand signifying slightly. Seconds later, the referee stops play on the field and we were confused; the referee runs towards us and ejects us from the stadium just like a baseball umpire does.
The Women's basketball team only started their rivalry with Notre Dame with the arrival of Skylar Diggins. But before this season, games against Rutgers were the most emotional games of the season but it wasn't even close to thought of games against Tennessee. I missed the years against Tennessee since Pat Summit questioned UConn recruitment of one of, if not, the best women's basketball ever, Maya Moore, and cancelled the series. Women's basketball will have lost a great opportunity to grow with the Notre Dame/UConn rivalry.
Oh yeah, I saved the most "important" sport of all, football. Football is the reason all these conference realignments are occurring. Some key highlights in the Big East while I was at UConn (the best years in UConn Football): Larry Taylor's controversial "fair catch" punt return against Louisville on Homecoming, UConn beats it's first ranked team (USF), and of course West Virginia's dominance of the league (West Virginia just score again...).
But that's the past, UConn has to move on from this conference realignment in the America 12 Conference. Or as Scott put it the Conference of Misfit Teams (CMT). While the teams aren't influential teams, SMU, Houston, Tulane, East Carolina, Central Florida, and Memphis should be decent teams to build a conference but may suffer from having much similarities between them. Good news for UConn is that they may get up to $30 million from the Catholic 7 leaving and taking the Big East name. To be honest, I'm still hoping for an ACC team to leave so we can take their spot...
Why can't we just go back to the times where Bill Raftery and I were happy about the Big East?
I was even happy when Charles Barkley called it the "Big Least" because I had not doubt that UConn was going to win that year. Charles Barkley may be the only person in the world to be joyous about the end of the Big East that we once knew.