The Big East kicked off the most competitive conference tournament in the country yesterday as the first round opened in Madison Square Garden. The Villanova Wildcats who began the year 16-1 and was ranked as high as 7th in the nation completed a disastrous 4-10 finish to their season when they were knocked off by the 9-22 South Florida Bulls who had won only 3 Big East games all year. Nova will likely still make the NCAA tournament despite losing their last 5 contests but should expect no higher than a 9 or 10 seed at best. They were knocked out of the top 25 last week for the first time since the end of the 2008 season.
Tonight the second round saw the resurgent St. John's Red Storm escape Rutgers 65-63 in the most controversial of endings (see below). St. John's was one of the hottest teams in the country down the stretch and finished the regular season ranked 18. At the end of a back and forth battle the Red Storm held a two point lead with Rutgers needing to inbound the length of the court with about 5 seconds left. St. John's picked off the inbound attempt but the player prematurely ran with the ball out of bounds and then chucked said ball deep in to the stands with time still remaining on the clock. The officials were unable to review the play and ran out of the stadium as fast as they could. The call should have been a technical foul on St. John's resulting in a free throw for Rutgers who would then have the chance to inbound the ball from half court with 1.7 seconds remaining. It looks like St. John's is living a charmed life this year.
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