I took the day off today because I wanted to get in some me time and watch some more Championship week basketball with the bigger conferences in full swing in their own conference tournaments. Yesterday I got to see three great Big East games with 3 top seeded teams all going down. Being from New England, and not a fan of a Big East team I got a chance to just enjoy this great and traditional tournament over the years. So many memories I have of this tournament from either great games, to great performances, to watching rising stars before my eyes, to almost being arrested after coming home from Madison Square Garden after watching the entire first round games. Here's just a sample of my memories of the Big East Tournament:
GERRY MCNAMARA LEADS CUSE IN 2006
In the '06 tourney Gerry McNamara led the underdog Syracuse Orangemen to win the Big East Tournament as a 9 seed. McNamara was absolutely incredible, hitting the game winning three pointer in the first round to beat Cincinnati, tied the game in regulation with a three in the closing seconds verses top seeded UCONN and beat them in overtime, hit 5 threes in the second half including one with less than a minute left to beat Georgetown, and finally gave 'cuse the championship by scoring 14 and dishing out 6 assists verse Pittsburgh. All four victories for the Orangemen were decided by less than 4 points. This was one of if not the best single performance I have ever seen in a single tournament.
UCONN/GEORGETOWN CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1996
My senior year of high school. Not a Georgetown fan, not even close to being a UCONN fan but I can remember who I was with and where I was watching this Big East Championship game. Ray Allen verses Allen Iverson. This great rivalry was a must see matchup of two teams not just competing for bragging rights but for a conference title and a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Iverson was held in check for most of the game and was stuck in foul trouble but the tournament MVP Victor Page picked up the slack and kept the Hoyas in the game throughout. But, it wasn't enough when Ray Allen's double-clutching shot driving in the lane went in for the game winner with seconds left.
KERRY KITTLES TOURNAMENT IN 1995
Kerry Kittles was a star for the Villanova Wildcats but nobody knew about him or the Cats until the tail end to the Big East regular season. Kittles, a junior that year, put on a show for the ages in the Big East Tournament averages more than 20 points in each game blowing out the opposition. In the championship verses UCONN, though the stats were unavailable for me, I remember him leaving the game with about a minute left to a standing ovation from the Madison Square Garden crowd. He was really an incredible college basketball player that most people tend to forget about.
FITTING THE DESCRIPTION IN DARIEN IN 2000
How we ended up in Darien was one thing that I would rather not talk about. Leaving Darien would be something that I will remember forever, for I think of this moment every time the 1st round begins in the Big East Tournament. 7 of us made the trip to Madison Square Garden to watch all of the 1st round games. By the time we finally got to the Garden, we not only were a mess from a certain thing that I'll never do again, but I really vaguely remember any of the action during all the games. We didn't finally somber up until the very last game of the day and when we finally got the balls to ask someone at the subway how the hell to get to back to Darien we were in for a very long night. It took us what seemed forever to finally get to our cars from the train station and when we finally got out of the parking lot and driving around to find route 15 we got lost again. This time I was alittle more coherent, so I saw a cop on the side of the road and ask him where route 15 was. Before we knew it our two cars were surrounded by the police and we were held their for at least 2 hours with what the Darien police called fitting the description of men in the parking lot of the train station, breaking into the cars. I remember being an absolute prick to one of the officers that I really thought that they were going to arrest us on being punk ass Meriden kids in Darien. I must have repeated myself about why we were there and where we were that day at least a dozen times. What finally happened was that they found that no cars were broken into at the station and they wanted to just check my trunk and then they would let us leave. I told the lead officer that I didn't have to open my trunk, but I knew that I had nothing to hide but 3 empty thirty packs inside. So I went ahead and opened the trunk and began to laugh and said to the officer, "Oh my! Is it illegal to have empty cans of beer in my trunk?". The officer was so pissed that he just said, "Dennis, get the hell out of my town!" We didn't get home until at least 2 in the morning and to this day I really believe that they kept us there that night because we were from Meriden. Little did the officer know that we did have something illegal that night...in our left over brownies!
GERRY MCNAMARA LEADS CUSE IN 2006
In the '06 tourney Gerry McNamara led the underdog Syracuse Orangemen to win the Big East Tournament as a 9 seed. McNamara was absolutely incredible, hitting the game winning three pointer in the first round to beat Cincinnati, tied the game in regulation with a three in the closing seconds verses top seeded UCONN and beat them in overtime, hit 5 threes in the second half including one with less than a minute left to beat Georgetown, and finally gave 'cuse the championship by scoring 14 and dishing out 6 assists verse Pittsburgh. All four victories for the Orangemen were decided by less than 4 points. This was one of if not the best single performance I have ever seen in a single tournament.
UCONN/GEORGETOWN CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1996
My senior year of high school. Not a Georgetown fan, not even close to being a UCONN fan but I can remember who I was with and where I was watching this Big East Championship game. Ray Allen verses Allen Iverson. This great rivalry was a must see matchup of two teams not just competing for bragging rights but for a conference title and a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Iverson was held in check for most of the game and was stuck in foul trouble but the tournament MVP Victor Page picked up the slack and kept the Hoyas in the game throughout. But, it wasn't enough when Ray Allen's double-clutching shot driving in the lane went in for the game winner with seconds left.
KERRY KITTLES TOURNAMENT IN 1995
Kerry Kittles was a star for the Villanova Wildcats but nobody knew about him or the Cats until the tail end to the Big East regular season. Kittles, a junior that year, put on a show for the ages in the Big East Tournament averages more than 20 points in each game blowing out the opposition. In the championship verses UCONN, though the stats were unavailable for me, I remember him leaving the game with about a minute left to a standing ovation from the Madison Square Garden crowd. He was really an incredible college basketball player that most people tend to forget about.
FITTING THE DESCRIPTION IN DARIEN IN 2000
How we ended up in Darien was one thing that I would rather not talk about. Leaving Darien would be something that I will remember forever, for I think of this moment every time the 1st round begins in the Big East Tournament. 7 of us made the trip to Madison Square Garden to watch all of the 1st round games. By the time we finally got to the Garden, we not only were a mess from a certain thing that I'll never do again, but I really vaguely remember any of the action during all the games. We didn't finally somber up until the very last game of the day and when we finally got the balls to ask someone at the subway how the hell to get to back to Darien we were in for a very long night. It took us what seemed forever to finally get to our cars from the train station and when we finally got out of the parking lot and driving around to find route 15 we got lost again. This time I was alittle more coherent, so I saw a cop on the side of the road and ask him where route 15 was. Before we knew it our two cars were surrounded by the police and we were held their for at least 2 hours with what the Darien police called fitting the description of men in the parking lot of the train station, breaking into the cars. I remember being an absolute prick to one of the officers that I really thought that they were going to arrest us on being punk ass Meriden kids in Darien. I must have repeated myself about why we were there and where we were that day at least a dozen times. What finally happened was that they found that no cars were broken into at the station and they wanted to just check my trunk and then they would let us leave. I told the lead officer that I didn't have to open my trunk, but I knew that I had nothing to hide but 3 empty thirty packs inside. So I went ahead and opened the trunk and began to laugh and said to the officer, "Oh my! Is it illegal to have empty cans of beer in my trunk?". The officer was so pissed that he just said, "Dennis, get the hell out of my town!" We didn't get home until at least 2 in the morning and to this day I really believe that they kept us there that night because we were from Meriden. Little did the officer know that we did have something illegal that night...in our left over brownies!
1 comment:
If it's all the same...I'd rather not live that day over ever again...I think we shoud all make a return trip to the Big East Tourney next season in an attempt to redeem ourselves...
Post a Comment