No small task in the Big East

For many, road in tourney is tough

D.J. Kennedy draws contact from Georgetown's DaJuan Summers in St. John's win. (Chris McGrath/ Getty Images)

NEW YORK - The big boys - Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Louisville, Villanova - won't even be here until tomorrow. And the crowd for yesterday's noon tipoff between No. 9 seed Cincinnati and No. 16 DePaul numbered in the hundreds, an indication that even the Big East tournament - which with 16 teams in the same venue is the biggest conference tournament in history - has limitations on what it can sell.

The madness of March officially began for the Big East at Madison Square Garden yesterday with four "play-in" games. The challenge for those teams, looming as an impossible dream, is winning five games in five days, with an automatic NCAA Tournament bid the prize.

In a league labeled by some as one of the toughest in the history of college basketball, playing the Powerball lottery would seem to have better odds for Cincinnati, DePaul, Seton Hall, South Florida, Rutgers, Notre Dame, St. John's, and Georgetown, the eight teams that drew the extra workload with the decision to invite all 16 teams (instead of 12) to New York.

How tough is the Big East? Consider yesterday's second game, between No. 12 seed Georgetown and No. 13 seed St. John's. Between them, they have won 10 of the previous 29 Big East tournaments.

How tough is the Big East? There is a distinct possibility that the conference will have three of the four No. 1 seeds (Pitt, UConn, and Louisville) when the NCAA Tournament field is announced Sunday.

Although the rigors of the regular season have whittled the possibilities - there were outlandish predictions of nine teams making the 65-team NCAA field - the Big East appears to have seven teams that can cause problems for anyone.

"When the season started, I thought that Villanova, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and UConn could be really good," said Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, who is retiring this spring. "They are significantly better than I thought. We were good in 1985 and in 1989, but this year has been remarkable."

Georgetown started the season looking as if it could challenge its upper-echelon brethren in the conference. But its only shot was to put together a four- or five-game winning streak this week, so it won't be in that group.

The Hoyas, who started their Big East schedule Dec. 29 with a win over UConn, have fallen steadily, because of inexperience as much as ineptness. But the Hoyas were a Final Four team two years ago.

For St. John's, the journey to respectability has been much bumpier. Yesterday was only its second appearance in the Big East tournament since 2003, as a combination of NCAA violations and mediocrity have turned the Red Storm into a Red Cloud of frustration.

Georgetown has reached the Big East semifinals 19 times, including three times against St. John's, and has won seven championships, most in conference history. St. John's has reached the semifinals 11 times, with three titles.

Despite the Tuesday afternoon booking and the low seeds, the game still had a feeling of royalty to it. The basketball did not, however.

After DePaul, which went 0-18 in the Big East this season, set the tone for hope with a 67-57 victory over Cincinnati, St. John's (16-16) eked out a 64-59 victory.

That earned coach Norm Roberts's team a date with Marquette this afternoon, and it has a glimmer of hope that postseason play is still possible.

"I told them before the game that they had a chance to either define the moment or let the moment define them," said Roberts. "Today, the kids defined the moment."

The feeling among the players was that it was not a fluke.

"In this league, any team can beat any other team on any given day," said St. John's forward Sean Evans. "We knew it was our day."

Just as it was DePaul's day for the first time this calendar year.

"The only thing I can tell you is this," said DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright. "The kids that are in our program have never really had a bad day of practice. It's been a little bit frustrating, and you run the gantlet this year."

Wainwright, who has nine freshmen and sophomores on his team, knew what might happen.

"It's a bad year to be young in this league," he said.

For DePaul and St. John's, the year, somewhat surprisingly, will continue today.

The fun should start tomorrow when the four teams with double byes - Louisville, Pittsburgh, UConn, and Villanova - begin play. Louisville probably has to win the tournament to make three Big East No. 1 seeds a feasible idea.

"What it is," said Tranghese with a laugh, "is a long week."

Or a short week for teams such as Cincinnati and Georgetown, whose stay in the biggest Big East tournament yet was in by noon, out by 5.

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.