NBC Sports: The New Big East will never be the Old Big East

[DeePhence]

Syracuse fans are bored sh-tless in the ACC, they miss MSG and their longtime rivals. For them, yes, they're in a place that has no resemblance to the Big East. To them the Big East doesn't exist cuz they're eating at Denny's in Winston-Salem and Applebee's in Nowhere-land South Carolina.

Meanwhile, the 10 of us have everything today that we had back in 1984. Everything is still in place. The feel of today's Big East is the closest to 1984 than it's been in 25+ years. Many of us here have witnessed everything since 1979, so we're talking firsthand.

Bruising hoops, 5-star talent, comraderie, and a portion of the hoops world that dislikes us out of jealousy or whatever (see ACC land mid 80's, see Billy Tubbs late 80's). Perfection. Love it.

This. Except they're at Waffle House, not Dennys.

This is the most entertaining league in college hoops.

[herodotus]

So many things happened to give rise to the Big East. The way we Providence fans tell it - Joe Mullaney had turned PC into a national power in the 1960s - won two NITs when independents didn't go to the NCAAs and winning the NIT was almost as big a deal on the east coast as the NCAA was. Dave Gavitt inherited the team, got lighting in a bottle with Ernie DiGregorio and Marvin Barnes, Joey Hasset and Kevin Stacom - all southern NE kids who turned out to be all-Americans. But Gavitt saw that little PC could not stay a basketball power forever (especially after the NCAA opened the tournament up to multiple bids from multiple leagues) and saw the threat to other schools like PC. He also saw the potential of Cable TV. That's why the original Big East HQ was in Providence, the first BET was at the Dunk (then called the Civic Center), etc.

Syracuse had a record unbeaten streak at the old Manley Gym, and had just built the Dome. They were one of the big gets for the league for sure, and were always a glamor program.

I guess if the East Coast football league had actually formed, Syracuse might have gone that way - maybe same with BC. So sure, Syracuse was crucial to the league (signing Pearl Washington also helped the league).

But I still hate them, and they can spend all night at Waffle House.

Gavitt had vision. The 70s was a great decade for PC, but Gavitt had to notice that many of the old eastern Catholic powers weren't as dominant as they were at the beginning of the decade. You have to give him credit for being willing to embrace such a change at a time when his program was doing well under the old system.

[Toronto Rapture]

This is a nice read. Unfortunately, much of what I know of the history of the conference came from that 30 for 30 piece and just reading on wikipedia. Its nice to hear from fans directly and their program specific view points too. I consider Toronto an East Coast city and I'm Catholic, so when I started to get into college ball I think I naturally gravitated to this conference. Most of all though, the basketball is just real entertaining and I enjoy spending some of my weekend watching.

[BEXU]

Adding X (1), Creighton (3) and Butler (5) looking pretty good lately.

[Irishdawg]

Wasn't a huge fan of how the Butler Way was characterized as being a Brad Stevens thing, but when you have 3 different coaches in 5 years, it's tough to characterize Butler as something other than "that place that Brad Stevens used to coach". Hopefully Jordan can continue the program's success and give Butler fans something they haven't had since joining the Big East, head coaching stability.

Other than that, enjoyed the article. As someone who used to laugh when Barkley would characterize the conference as "The Little East" during the tourney and never really gravitated toward a major conference league other than the Big Ten for basketball viewing, I couldn't feel happier that Butler was fortunate enough to get picked up in this league, and I watch these games, not just to check out the competition, but because the games themselves are thoroughly entertaining and fun.

I was at the Notre Dame/UNC game earlier this year in South Bend (Not a ND fan, in case you're wondering), and was chatting with a ND grad who said he was happy to be in the ACC, but he does wish that Notre Dame was in the Big East for men's basketball because it's so much fun to watch, along with ND having a university profile much more similar to those in the Big East vs. the ACC. So fans of the old Big East are coming around as well. Looking forward to see what the rest of this season brings.

[BEXU]

ND would certainly be a 100% choice here to join and the website would crash. lol

[XUFan09]

ND would certainly be a 100% choice here to join and the website would crash. lol

Lol yeah.

[gtmoBlue]

Would love to have both S'cuse and ND back in the BEast. Both are well hated and the conference can use some new bottom feeders.

[billyjack]

I saw "Requiem" for the first time in 5 years last night on ESPN-U. It's so much easier to watch now, compared to when we had all the uncertainty back in 2013.

"Requiem" now plays out as a sad farewell tour for Syracuse... a sad bunch of Orangemen fans, leaving home go live in Outer Mongolia.

Nice thing is that if you watch it today, it gives you a pretty good history of the conference, especially the 80's. It has a heavy and ridiculous and hilarious "Syracuse at the center of the universe slant" (SU communications majors have an outsized influence at ESPN etc), but includes interviews with Ewing and Mullin, and all the coaches, nice to see Massimino.

But ultimately, when they show the MSG court being disassembled, in reality it's Syracuse fans only that are leaving for good, joining Club Denny's, i mean Club Waffle House, whether they know it or not.

[ivet]

Why you guys knockin' on Waffle House? I was stationed in Georgia for 3 years and was introduced to the place. It's pretty awesome. Anthony Bourdain also agrees.