Sixteen Deep: More Tournament Woes

Let me just start by saying I know all you guys who've been fans of Maryland basketball for years look down your noses at the NIT. Hell, Gary tried to reject the invitation a few years back and they ended up losing badly to a Manhattan team way worse than the Terps.

But to many people, including Rutgers fans like myself, the NIT is really the most realistic goal you can set for your team. Rutgers hasn't made the tournament since 1991 so it's not like I expect them to anytime soon. But in 2004, they made the finals of the NIT and had probably their best team since 1996. Those games at the Garden were exciting, hard-fought and at least a little bit meaningful. (See: Quincy Douby, my absolutely favorite player of all time) They ended up losing to a Michigan team that would have made the NCAA Tournament if not for Chris Webber induced sanctions.

At any rate, for perennial powerhouses and bubble teams, this tournament may suck, but for the rest of us, it's really fun.

But now the final eight are set and not one of the five Big East teams remain. And the Big East had a couple real strong teams like number two Cincinnati and number four UConn. But both lost tonight in heartbreaking fashion.

UConn lost on a Dorenzo Hudson jumper with 14 seconds to go as the home Virginia Tech team won by the slimmest of margins. UConn had a nice look at the end but senior Gavin Edwards muffed a pretty easy layup.

Cincinnati lost on their home floor to Dayton by a much wider margin. The Bearcats never looked like they were into the game and ended up losing by 15 points to an Atlantic 10 team that had only beaten them twice in the past 40 meetings.

But at least those teams made it to the second round. The other three teams, Seton Hall, St. John's and South Florida, all lost in the first round and each loss was worse than the next.

St. John's lost by two on a buzzer beater layup by Memphis' Wesley Witherspoon as time expired. They put up a pretty good fight on the road but still couldn't convert.

South Florida lost on their home floor by one when N.C. State's Richard Howell hit the go-ahead layup with 8 seconds left. (Sound familiar?)

But the worst of all was Seton Hall. They were at home and managed to lose by 18 and make themselves look like thugs in the process.

So the Big East season is done for all but West Virginia and Syracuse. Not a proud year for the conference in the postseason so far. Both the Orange and the Mountaineers need to do further damage to bring up the conference's name. Otherwise chants of "overrated" will echo throughout gyms around the country.