Georgetown Grabs Top Seed for Conference Tournament, Last One As Fans Know It
The Big East wrapped up the regular season without any surprises on Saturday and now teams are set for the upcoming conference tournament.
The #5 Georgetown Hoyas (24-5, 14-4) routed #17 Syracuse (23-8, 11-7) on Saturday, 61-39, they have the No. 1 seed for the Big East tournament.
This also came after the Hoyas won 12 of their last 13 games, including their two wins versus Syracuse. This represented the team’s first two-game sweep in a season series since 2001-2002 against the Orange.
As for this great rivalry, it has come to an end in the regular season. Syracuse is off to the Atlantic Coast Conference and Georgetown will join six other schools to form a league that will keep its Big East designation.
Referred to as the Catholic 7, it will also keep the right to play the conference tournament in Madison Square Garden.
The schools include the following: DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova. Butler, Xavier and possibly Creighton will also join them to form a 10-school league.
For fans, these games will be shown on Fox Sports as the group is currently working out a media rights deal.
Georgetown forward Otto Porter, Jr.
Saturday’s game also represented the last regular season one for Georgetown’s sophomore Otto Porter, Jr. He’s off to the NBA but first enters the postseason with a 16.4 points per game average, 7.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists.
He impressed Syracuse’s veteran coach Jim Boeheim in their two meetings this season and on Saturday he said Porter should be the NBA’s overall No. 1 pick. He is a top contender for the Big East player of the year and could be a first-team Wooden Award All-American.
On Saturday, the Wooden Award committee disclosed its final 15-player list. Porter is the only player from the Big East.
But don’t count him out as a potential national player of the year award winner as Indiana’s Victor Oladipo and Michigan’s Trey Burke could share the Big Ten voting.
This comes after Porter didn’t have any odds to be this year’s top player while Louisville’s Peyton Siva had 25 to 1 odds.
Looking at the competition, Georgetown now shares the Big East regular-season title with Marquette and Louisville, who each won on Saturday.
#8 Louisville (26-5, 14-4) defeated #24 Notre Dame (23-8, 11-7) 73-57. They are now the No. 2 seed for the tournament, followed by #15 Marquette (23-7, 14-4) for the third seed. The Golden Eagles beat St. John’s (16-14, 8-10) 69-67 in OT to end their season.
Then we have the fourth seed, #20 Pittsburgh. They defeated DePaul (11-20, 2-16) on Saturday.
The tournament begins on Tuesday, March 12. The top four seeds received byes until Thursday and will start their play in the quarterfinals.
Historically, Georgetown and Connecticut sit at the top for Big East Championship tournament wins at seven each. Louisville won last year and will try to repeat. Success comes to those teams who win the tournament as they’ve made it all the way to the NCAA Final Four in the last two seasons.
Take a look at this year’s schedule.
Tuesday, March 12 – First Round (ESPNU)
No. 13 USF (12-18) vs. No. 12 Seton Hall (14-17) – 7 p.m.
No. 14 DePaul (11-20) vs. No. 11 Rutgers (14-15) -Â 9 p.m.
Wednesday, March 13 – Second Round (ESPN/ESPN2)
No. 9 Cincinnati (21-10) vs. No. 8 Providence (17-13) -Â Noon
USF/Seton Hall winner vs. No. 5 Syracuse (23-8) -Â 2 p.m.
No. 10 St. John’s (16-14) vs. No. 7 Villanova (19-12) - 7 p.m.
Rutgers/DePaul winner vs. No. 6 Notre Dame (23-8) -Â 9 p.m.
Thursday, March 14 – Quarterfinals (ESPN)
8/9 winner vs. No. 1 Georgetown (24-5) -Â Noon
5/12/13 winner vs. No. 4 Pittsburgh (24-7) -Â 2 p.m.
7/10 winner vs. No. 2 Louisville (26-5) -Â 7 p.m.
6/11/14 winner vs. No. 3 Marquette (23-7) -Â 9 p.m.
Friday, March 15 – Semifinals (ESPN)
Thursday afternoon winners -Â 7 p.m.
Thursday evening winners -Â 9 p.m.
Saturday, March 16 – Championship (ESPN)
Semifinal winners -Â 8:30 p.m.
After the upcoming conference tournament, seeding will make things either easier or more difficult for these teams in their march toward the NCAA Championship.
For Louisville, they’re 7 to 1 to win it all, followed by Georgetown at 10 to 1, Syracuse 18 to 1 and Pittsburgh 40 to 1.
