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Big East Ready to Celebrate 25th Hoops Tourney
BY BERNIE BEGLANE
Where did the time go?
A familiar comment when an anniversary or a birthday is being celebrated, right?
Believe it or not, the Big East Conference will stage its 25th consecutive basketball championship at Madison Square Garden next week.
The opening round of the silver anniversary gets underway Wednesday and the title contest is set for Saturday night.
Dave Gavitt, then the basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College, was the ‘brainchild’ behind not only the formation of the conference – strictly men’s basketball in the beginning – but, also of staging the playoffs at the “world’s most famous arena.”
MSG became the site in 1983 after the Providence Civic Center in ’80, the Syracuse Carrier Dome the following year, and the Hartford Civic Center in ’82.
Gavitt negotiated the contract with Michael Burke, then the president of the Garden, in 1982.
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RISING STAR: Chris Mullin, right, and St. John’s University helped bring the
Big East Conference into prominence in the early 1980s.
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Michael Tranghese, who was the sports information director at Providence under Gavitt at the time, is now the commissioner.
Tranghese served – as did Gavitt – a dual role in the early stages of the Big East. Each carried out their duties at Providence as well as with the league.
As for the actual formation of the conference, Gavitt contacted other athletic directors of Eastern schools on his schedule.
Frank Rienzo of Georgetown, Jake Crouthamel of Syracuse, and Jack Kaiser of St. John’s University listened to his ideas – and agreed with their counterpart at the Dominican Fathers’ school in Providence – that a league was necessary.
The initial meeting took place in Kaiser’s office at St. John’s University followed by another gathering at LaGuardia Airport, Jackson Heights.
The first season – 1979-80 – saw Georgetown defeat Syracuse, 87-81, for the championship.
The Hoyas landed Craig Shelton (also the MVP), John Duren and Eric Floyd on the all-tournament team with Louis Orr and Marty Headd, both of Syracuse, and David Russell of St. John’s.
From day one, Gavitt had it in the back of his head to eventually take the playoffs to Madison Square Garden.
That happened in 1983 and St. John’s defeated Boston College, 85-77, for the title.
Chris Mullin led the then-Redmen and was selected MVP.
Enter Tranghese once again as he recalled, “Dave wanted to be sure they were ready for the Garden.
“So he waited until the Big East was four years old and Mullin and Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) were sophomores.
“He wanted exposure, but the right kind, and those two players did not disappoint him.”
Returning to the subject of the actual formation of the conference, Tranghese was queried as to why the Big East was formed in the first place.
“You will recall,” began the reply, “that all schools in the area belonged to the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
“To be considered for the NCAA playoffs, the schools had to play a specific number of games. And they were against teams from your region.
“For example, Providence would have to face New Hampshire and schools as small as that. St. John’s had to go against LIU and St. Francis and Wagner.
“That would not work, so Dave did something special.”
Believe it or not, Lou Carnesecca, who, like Gavitt, is a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, was in disagreement with the formation of the conference.
“I was not opposed to it, but I wasn’t in favor of it either,” double-talked Little Looie, now retired as St. John’s coach.
“We were doing well playing in the National Invitation Tournament every year and winning our share.
“Why go into the meat grinder?”
That term was picked up from the late Frank McGuire, a close friend and a Hall of Fame coach who launched his career at St. John’s before going to North Carolina and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Frank told me that he found conference play so much tougher than regular games,” explained Carnesecca.
“Turned out we were both wrong regarding the Big East. The conference has been a bonanza for our schools.”
No doubt about that. The addition of Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida has increased membership to 16.
Critics called the alignment unwieldy at first, but for the most part, remain silent now.
The membership makes the Big East the largest National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A conference in the nation.
In addition, the 16 schools are located in nine of the top 34 media markets in the country. And those markets contain almost 25% of all television households.
And women’s basketball has made an impact what with the national titles earned by Connecticut.
To say nothing of the presence of nationally ranked Rutgers and Notre Dame.
There have been 11 Final Four appearances in all.
Then there is football, which has taken off and produced bowl winners.
Baseball, track and field, cross country, swimming…and on and on.
The planning by Gavitt and his early cohorts certainly has reaped dividends.
Celebrate the anniversary with them next week!
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