Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Watching from my living room since Wednesday... I'm 180 miles from Midtown Manhattan, Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of College Hoops, in the World's Most Famous Arena, in the World's Greatest City... the unmatched excitement of the Big East Tournament traveled through the driving snow, 30 mph winds, and 15-degree temps... came thru my 50" Samsung in crystal clear HD...

From my perspective, these were the memorable highlites of a great week, in no particular order:

- Villanova on stage after a great finals win, reminiscent of their National Championship celebration in Houston last April.

- Villanova players consoling the great Angel Delgado after a last-second finish.
- Chris Mullin and JT3 almost coming to blows, late 2nd half of a tight opening game.
- Jay Wright repeatedly and mistakenly referring to Coach McDermott as "Doug".
- Trevor Bluiett drilling a 14 footer to get Xavier past Butler.

- Bluiett following up the ndxt night with a 3 to tie Creighton, seconds before Marcus Foster rattled home his game winning 3 at the other end.
- the great announcing of the legendary Gus Johnson, along with Jim Jackson, Bill Raftery, Steve Lavin, Donnie Marshall, and the workmanlike job of Bob Stone, who keeps things fun and light.
- Marshall, a UConn grad, giving great props all week for the Big East.
- last second miss of a layup by Hoya Marcus Derrickson, giving St John's their win.

- Nineteen-thousand plus (19,000+) packing the Garden with noticeable deafening roars on TV... place was rocking...!
- Lisa Byington's calm and steady on-court interviews. She could easily work on Meet The Press or Face The Nation.
- Josh Hart following up a Kris Jenkins miss with a putback and 1 to take the lead with 5 seconds left vs Seton Hall.
- wish i had good memories of the Friars...! or Marquette (i was at work), DePaul (will miss Billy Garrett Jr)... the 4-year seniors this year were part of all 4 years of the "new" Big East, so definitely a special place for guys we started watching during those exciting times back in November of 2013... Garrett Jr, Chrabascz, Jenkins, Hart, Bridges, Zierden, Hayes, Woodring (gotta give him props), Curington, Darrick Wood, etc...

Really interested in hearing about everyone's experiences at the tourney. Like hooper meeting the Hoyas... Scoutfriar poster meeting and bonding with some Bluejays fans near Radio City... restaurants... shows, maybe one of you saw Hamilton... etc...

Great post.

Wasn't there as well, but had the same vibes as you, watching on a big screen that made the experience beyond worthwhile.

Josh Hart consoling Delgado did it for me. I mean, my God; how do you go to athletic war like that and then have the presence and class to do that.

And I'll be adamant about this here, if the media partner is okay in its own right and satisfied with what we're bringing, then, for the love of God, keep it at 10, keep beating the snot out of each other during conference play, and continue to move forward with the round robin. IT is providing the juice that sets up the NYC electricity.

Sportsmanship. Sportsmanship and electric, packed crowds. They came for good reasons.

Excellent post. I went to the first two years when it was aptly referred as the NBE. It was such a great experience. One roots hard for their team and when it's over you root for everyone in the Big East in the NCAA. This is something really special all 10 schools have. I think the addition of Butler, Creighton and Xavier was an incredible call. It has worked out great. I met some UConn fans who went the first year I went because they love the Big East; although, they couldn't tell you which school was in Omaha and which one was in Indianapolis or Cincinnati they still showed up. We have something really special and I hope we keep building on it. And I agree with Dash; keep it at 10. I love the round robin setup. There is no comparing this great place in which we are. And let's do ever thing we can to remain at the MSG. The ACC can have the Barclay's.

Agreed with all. The semi final night was the best. Sold out crowd and both games came down to the last shot. Also love the Thursday 4 pack. 2 games during the day, get a bite to eat and then come back for 2 more games. As a Big East fan, thats worth the all session pass alone. I'm a Jersey guy, so I root for Seton Hall and St Johns, the 2 local teams, but I was blown away at the support for the non local teams: Xavier, Butler and Creighton bringing amazing crowd support. I was near the Xavier student section one game, and it sounded like I was at the Cintas Center. Not to get greedy, but lets sell out all sessions next year including opening night!

Agree about the post...great thoughts billy.

Favorite Creighton moment was Foster's shot.

Favorite non-Creighton moment was watching Hart play basketball. What a complete player...not sure I remember an opposing team having such a good player that was impossible to dislike for any reason. How he carries himself (as evidenced by the moment with Delgado) has to be as much a source of pride as the quality of his play.

Best part of going to the tournament is interacting with fans from other schools. Last year, it was Villanova fans and we discussed the possibility of them winning it all and how much that would mean to the conference. I wish I had gotten their numbers so we could have chatted again after "the shot!" This year it was Providence fans, the day after the PC/CU game. They were knowledgeable, gracious, and fun to talk basketball and drink beer with and it really makes me want to go to a game at the Dunk.

Only wish we'd have been a little more competitive in the championship game but the atmosphere that night was electric. There were just a "few" Villanova fans there...

And I saw snow falling for the first time in a few years...

I was just thinking about the Delgado-Hart moment and how it was such a far cry from what happened between them 2 years ago. Both guys have grown and matured immensely since then. Great job to both of them and I hope they both do great in the tournament!

I was there and Trevon's step-back 3 to tie was my favorite moment, but Foster had to ruin it a few seconds later. Beating Butler was a good moment too since we really needed that to lock up a bid as it turned out. Great tournament as always.

Though SJ is finished this yr, here were my highlights:

*Meeting and shaking hands with JT3, Peak, Pryor, and Ewing JR...even though I had my SJ jersey on, it was a long rough season and though we are big rivals, we are still brothers deep down in this new NCAA landscape where football rules. Very nice guys but man Ewing is scary LOL. A drunk guy was bothering him and he looked like he wanted to take care of him but thought better of it and got security then went on the bus.

*Sitting 2nd row behind the basket right next to the cheerleaders and directly behind the FS1 camera. Turns out the FS1 guys were SJ fans so we talked all game. They want to see Mullin succeed. The guy said he would get me on camera, then he paused and said never mind Allen Iverson is here we have to film him. I gladly yielded to him.

*Meeting Ponds, Simon, Owens, his father, and having LoVett see me going crazy after a dunk and pointing to me trying to get everyone else on their feet. I never felt so close to a game before. I also met Lavin who was very nice and I thanked him for his time with us. I also told him he has a better shoe game than Jay Wright which gave him a good laugh.

*Catching the ball out of bounds then throwing it back to the ref and being nervous I would jinx SJ since I had greasy fingers from my fries. I caught a ball at MSG at the BET. Seems so small but again never been so close to the game...unreal.

*The win of course. Then after the game a few X fans sat near me and my friend and they taught us the X chant with their student section. I turned around in my SJ jersey and threw up an X at the students and they went nuts haha. Many of the X fans said they rooted for SJ so made plenty of friends. I was also rooting for X over DePaul. After a few minutes of the 1st half of the X game, me and my friend decided to go to the top level, find 2 random X fans, a father and young son and give them our tickets right behind the hoop on the floor. They definitely thought it was a scam at first but once they realized it was for real they lit up and the kid was all excited. Gotta pay it forward! All in all an amazing time and electric atmosphere.

Any word on the ratings yet?