Joe Lunardi of ESPN has 11 Big East Teams in the NCAA Tournament Field as of today. I love the Big East, but I have to think that 11 is a little optimistic. As it stands now, Pitt, Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame are locks. Cincinnati and West Virginia are probables, but either could collapse. There are others with serious problems to overcome.
So far, St. John's can't hit free throws at home to put away opponents and, unfortunately for them, they still have to play Georgetown, Duke, Pitt, Villanova, Marquette, and UCONN. Oh yeah, UCLA at Pauley and at Cincinnati (who just beat St. John's at the LOU). They won't be in the field of 64 in all likelihood. Rutgers has beaten nobody worth mentioning, and still has Villanova, Pitt, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Louisville and Cincinnati on their schedule. They will likely fold under the competition as well. Marquette has a similar gauntlet to run, although they beat Notre Dame earlier in the year. It's likely that 2 of these 3 teams, St. John's, Rutgers, and Marquette, will drop off because of unusually tough schedules from here forward.
I think 9 teams from the Big East is assured, even money on 10 to get in, and 11 is unlikely. The teams towards the bottom-middle of the pack will beat on each other and succumb to the powerhouses in the league.
This brings up another interesting point. The Big East, if the Committee spreads the powerhouse teams out, has a better chance of advancing 4 teams to the Final Four than any other conference in history, because Pitt, Syracuse, Villanova, UCONN, and Notre Dame can play with anybody. Louisville has a coach who tends to surprise people in March and Georgetown (who currently sits 11th in this freakazoid League) is a capable club as well.
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