Pitt seeded 3rd, WVU 5th as Big East Tournament gets underway
After being picked to finish first in the pre-season Big East coaches poll, the Pittsburgh lost three of its last five conference games and now have to settle for the third seed in this week’s Big East Tournament, which starts today at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Panthers (25-6, 12-4) were tied for first with surprising Georgetown (23-6, 13-3) on the last weekend of conference play. They would have earned a tie for first and a second-seed in the tournament with a win at Marquette, but lost and dropped to a second-place tie with Louisville (22-8, 12-4).
Since the Cardinals won the only meeting between the two teams this season, they earned the second seed and Pitt had to settle for third. The Panthers still earned a first-day bye and are joined by fourth-seeded Notre Dame as one of the top four seeds who do not have to play on the first day of the tournament.
Pitt will play its first tournament game at 9 p.m. Thursday against the winner of tonight’s Marquette (6-seed)-St. John’s (11 seed) game. Pitt could be playing Marquette for the third time this year and has yet to beat the Golden Eagles this season.
Seventh-seeded West Virginia (21-8, 9-7) will play at 7 p.m. today against tenth-seeded Providence (18-11, 8-8). The Mountaineers are hoping to make a run in the tournament to solidify their chances for an NCAA Tournament invitation on Sunday night.
The winner of tonight’s game will face Louisville at 7 p.m. Thursday night.
The 9 p.m. game will be the Marquette-St. John’s contest.
The Panthers could face the Mountaineers on Friday night if Pitt wins on Thursday and West Virginia wins tonight and Thursday.
Pitt has appeared in five of the last six Big East Championship games. Two years ago, when they did not advance to the championship game, the Mountaineers did.
The tournament starts at noon today with eighth-seeded DePaul (18-12, 9-7) facing ninth-seeded Villanova (21-9, 9-7) followed by fifth-seeded Syracuse (21-9, 10-6) against 12th-seeded Connecticut (17-13, 6-10).
Top-seeded Georgetown will play at noon Thursday against the winner of the DePaul-Villanova game followed by Notre Dame playing the winner of the Syracuse-Connecticut game.
The two quarterfinal games will be 7 and 9 p.m. Friday with the championship game scheduled for 9 p.m. Saturday instead of 8 p.m. as it was in past years.
The winner of the tournament receives an automatic invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
The bottom four teams in the Big East the season, South Florida, Seton Hall, Rutgers and Cincinnati did not qualify for the Big East tournament.
The Big East conference announced Monday that Pitt senior center Aaron Gray and West Virginia forward Frank Young were named to the conference first team.
Pitt point guard Levance Fields earned second-team honors and West Virginia forward Da’Sean Butler was named to the Big East All-rookie Team.