Big East gets record 11 teams in NCAA tournament field

Associated Press

Three more teams in this year’s edition of March Madness. Three more networks to cover it.

And the Big East will have its hooks in practically every nook and cranny of that new-look NCAA bracket.

The NCAA selection committee released its newfangled, 68-team draw Sunday and included a whopping 11 teams from the deepest conference in the nation.

Leading the way for the Big East was Pittsburgh, seeded first in the Southeast even though it didn’t win a game in the conference’s postseason tournament.

“It has hall of fame coaches, great programs with storied traditions and heritage,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said, a few minutes before his team became the final squad from the Big East to have its name announced on the selection show.

All 68 teams in the NCAA tournament are aiming for one destination — the Final Four in Houston, set for April 2. At the Las Vegas Hilton, Ohio State was made an early 7-2 favorite to cut down the nets at Reliant Stadium after the title game on April 4.

The Buckeyes (32-2) were the top seed overall, with Kansas (32-2) next, while defending champion Duke aced out another Big East team, Notre Dame, for the fourth and final top seed.

The Blue Devils (30-4) are trying to become the first team since Florida in 2006-07 to repeat as national champions.

The tournament got a facelift this year, including the addition of three more at-large teams that will open the tournament in what the NCAA is calling the “First Four.” Those games — UAB (22-9) vs. Clemson (21-11) and Southern Cal (19-14) vs. Virginia Commonwealth (23-11) — will take place Tuesday and Wednesday.

Those, along with every other game of the entire tournament, will be aired in their entirety on four networks. Before the start of the season, TBS, TNT and TruTV joined CBS in signing a new, 14-year TV contract worth $10.8 billion.

But more teams, more TV and more money don’t solve every problem or erase every whiff of controversy.

As is always the case on Selection Sunday, there were plenty of head-scratchers — a list of teams that came out of nowhere to make it and other virtual shoo-ins that didn’t.

In the first category: Georgia (21-11), given a surprisingly high No. 10 seed despite losing twice to Alabama, a team that got left out. Many experts thought VCU, UAB and Clemson making the tournament at all were equally big surprises.

Among those snubbed were Virginia Tech (21-11), which has come close but missed for four straight years, and Colorado (21-13), which beat tournament teams Texas and Missouri once — and another one, Kansas State, three times.

“I was shocked,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “That’s the only word that comes to my mind. Just absolutely shocked we weren’t in the field.”

The Big Ten placed seven teams, including a pair — Penn State and Michigan State — with 14 losses each.

The Big 12 and Southeastern Conference got five teams each while the Atlantic Coast only got four — a list that included the usuals, Duke and North Carolina, along with Florida State and Clemson, but not Boston College, which finished 20-12.

“I’ll put our top two against anybody. I’ll put our middle pack against anybody else’s middle pack,” BC coach Steve Donahue said. “But, yet, there’s 11 from one league and 31/2, basically, from another. I don’t see the drastic difference. I’m being honest.”

—Last year’s national runner-up, Butler, closed out an up-and-down season by winning the Horizon League title and was rewarded with a No. 8 seed. Butler (23-9) will play Old Dominion in its first game, but could face Pittsburgh in the second.