Three share Big East title, while Miami takes the ACC title
The NCAA basketball regular season concluded this past weekend with conference titles being awarded in arenas across the country. Two conferences that went down to the wire were the Big East and the Atlantic Coast Conference. The two conferences will have a number of representatives in the NCAA Tournament that tips off next week.
The Big East conference will never look the same again after this season as seven schools have decided to leave and make a new conference. This season’s regular season title was shared between the Marquette Warriors, Louisville Cardinals and the Georgetown Hoyas.
Marquette has a national championship they won back in 1977 and now they have a Big East title to add to it after the No. 15 ranked Golden Eagles defeated St. John’s in overtime 69-67. The win gave Marquette a share of the regular season Big East title and it was their first since joining the conference in 2005.
Georgetown, ranked No. 5 in the nation clinched their share of the title with an impressive display of defense in defeating the Syracuse Orange 61-39 on Saturday. The Louisville Cardinals, ranked No. 8 in the nation made the title a three-way tie when they defeated Notre Dame 73-57.
Marquette nearly blew their shot at the conference title, as they led by nine points with only 1:50 to go and allowed St. John’s to tied the score and send it to overtime.
The three teams will get a bye in the conference tournament this week until the quarterfinal round on Thursday. All three will easily qualify for the NCAA tournament and all three have a legitimate shot at making the Final Four and even playing for the national championship.
The ACC always has great depth and a tough conference schedule and this season was no exception. However, the cream that rose to the top is not one that has been there in the past. This past weekend, the Miami Hurricanes defeated the Clemson Tigers to win the ACC regular season title outright.
The Hurricanes had three games in which to win the title, but lost the first two before defeating Clemson. The No. 6 ranked Hurricanes won the ACC title for the first time.
Miami ended their regular season 24-6 overall and 15-3 in conference play, but lost to Duke and Georgia Tech before clinching the title against Clemson. This is the second time Miami has won a conference championship as they shared the Big East title in 2000.
Miami will enter the ACC tournament this week as the top seed. Miami’s suffocating defense has helped them time and time again this season and against Clemson held an ACC to less than 50 points for the seventh time this season.
The ACC tournament will take place in Greensboro and when the NCAA Tournament selection committee is done making its selections on Sunday, both the ACC and the Big East should have five to six teams each in the field.
