Favorite Big East Memories

[pfister1]

in no particular order

Leo Rautins' tip-in to win the 1981 Big East tournament in triple OT.

Pearl Washington driving the lane against Patrick Ewing and Ewing swinging at Pearl.

Louie Carnesecca's sweater, St. John's win streak and John Thompson wearing the knock off copy of the sweater for the big St. John's (#1) v. Georgetown (#2) matchup in '85.

Syracuse over UConn in 6 OTs.

The attendance record and blow out win over Villanova in 2010

Syracuse fans throwing Oranges on the court and Thompson pulling his team off of the floor

The three technical ten point play against Thompson and the Hoyas in 1990

Putting three teams in the Final Four in 85 and Nova knocking off Georgetown in a near perfect performance.

Georgetown beating SU in the last game at Manley and Thompson declaring Manley closed and pouring gasoline on the fire of one of the All Time great rivalries that I have followed as an SU fan.

Syracuse being one of two Big East teams in the Final Four in 87

Syracuse breaking the Big East's six year Final Four dry spell with its run in '96

2012 - (17 - 1) conference record, tied for best season in conference history

 

[TDTOrange]

Gerry week, hard to beat that.

 

[tee1222]

in no particular order

Leo Rautins' tip-in to win the 1981 Big East tournament in triple OT.

Pearl Washington driving the lane against Patrick Ewing and Ewing swinging at Pearl.

Louie Carnesecca's sweater, St. John's win streak and John Thompson wearing the knock off copy of the sweater for the big St. John's (#1) v. Georgetown (#2) matchup in '85.

Syracuse over UConn in 6 OTs.

The attendance record and blow out win over Villanova in 2010

Syracuse fans throwing Oranges on the court and Thompson pulling his team off of the floor

The three technical ten point play against Thompson and the Hoyas in 1990

Putting three teams in the Final Four in 85 and Nova knocking off Georgetown in a near perfect performance.

Georgetown beating SU in the last game at Manley and Thompson declaring Manley closed and kicking off one of the All Time great rivalries that I have followed as an SU fan.

Syracuse being one of two Big East teams in the Final Four in 87

Syracuse breaking the Big East's six year Final Four dry spell with its run in '96

2012 - (17 - 1) conference record, tied for best season in conference history

6 OTs, best BE moment to me.

 

[NKR1978]

You've hit pretty much all the big ones. I love the BET's Friday night semifinals and Saturday night championship. A rocking MSG in the world's greatest city in primetime is infinitely more exciting than the other conference tournaments. I'm going to miss Big Monday. Is there any other broadcast team in college hoops that even comes close to Jay, Sean and Bill?

I'm going to mourn the past and mourn the Big East, but I'm so excited to see what we do in the ACC. Glad we have Louisville, Pitt and Notre Dame joining us.

 

[TexanMark]

Wiping Buffalo Wings Hot Sauce off an anonymous Georgetown fan at some bar.

 

[senorpalmer]

Some of my faves that weren't mentioned and/or not so obvious--

1990 quarterfinal vs. Pitt. SU is the top seed, Pitt is awful. Pitt actually leads with under 30 seconds to play, Cuse takes the lead while Pitt holds for a last possession. Brian Shorter gets fed for a what looks like an open dunk and a late lead, until DC comes out of nowhere to stuff him as Cuse held on for the W.

98 BE semifinal win over St. John's. Ryan Blackwell hits jumper at the buzzer as time expires to put SU into the finals.


The 05 title gets overshadowed by 06, but coming out in the semis and punching UCon in the mouth early (and then holding on when the game got a little tighter than it should have) was great, and the run ended the longest drought of BE titles SU ever had in its time as a member.

non-SU, non-BET moment...send it in Jerome!

 

[cliftonparksufan]

You've hit pretty much all the big ones. I love the BET's Friday night semifinals and Saturday night championship. A rocking MSG in the world's greatest city in primetime is infinitely more exciting than the other conference tournaments. I'm going to miss Big Monday. Is there any other broadcast team in college hoops that even comes close to Jay, Sean and Bill?

I'm going to mourn the past and mourn the Big East, but I'm so excited to see what we do in the ACC. Glad we have Louisville, Pitt and Notre Dame joining us.

There were some really great rivalries. We would play some teams two and three times in a season and you would play against the same guys for three and four years. You could make a list of names of guys who seemed to be in the league for six or seven years. Plus the coaches were around forever. It was very easy to develop a hatred of certain programs.

One of my most favorite memory (and I had to look it up to get some of the facts straight) was in 1990. We lost at Yukon and then came home and lost a very tough game vs Providence in a big upset, as we were ranked 5th at the time. This was back in the days when we would have a Jan/Feb swoon. We then played Pitt and won, and then we went down to Georgetown. At that point we were ranked 11th and Georgetown was ranked 3rd and we had lost nine straight BE games down in DC. I was never a huge Billy Owens fan, but this was one of his all time best Cuse games. He finished with 36 points and Cuse won going away 95-76. That was one of the best games we had ever played on the road (plus that one at Yukon when we beat up in 2011).

 

[cuseguy]

A lot of great memories. It will never be the same. Glad I was able to experience it.

 

[suthrills]

Pearl crossing over the entire Georgetown team. He just owned the Garden and put the BE Tournament on the map. He made it must see TV.

Blowing out Indiana at the garden with Sherman's hike to Stevie was also a beautiful memory.

 

[cto]

I've attended every SU BET game since 1985, but two memories stand out.

1) How GMac took over the tourney in 2006 (resulting, in part, in my picture being on back page on NY Post).

2) The six overtime game in 2009. Have never attended anything else like it... and probably never will.

 

[CaptainJ]

Being all of what I can immediately remember was already mentioned, I want to mention a non-BE play in the Garden:


Of course I may have loved that team more than any other and therefor be biased. I seemed to remember Dickie V exclaiming "It's showtime in the Garden!" after that play, but apparently my memory isn't the best unless it was after the clip ended? Maybe someone remembers what play that call was from?

 

[CaptainJ]

I'm going to miss Big Monday. Is there any other broadcast team in college hoops that even comes close to Jay, Sean and Bill?

As Michael Jackson sang, "You Are Not Alone"(and yes, I liked that too), I am going to miss Big Monday too. A decent shot of those 3 fellas at the end of this SU kiss-cam clip in a game against Georgetown, I'm a bit envious

 

[JJReddawg]

UConn getting screwed.

 

[ForeverOrange]

6 OT...stayed up for that entire game, what an emotional rollercoaster that was, and well worth the ride.

 

[br801]

As a fan of old school offensive guard play:

1. Watching Pearl with the ball (any time, any place)
2. Watching Billy Edelin humiliate Chris Thomas (multiple occasions)

 

[bballbeadle]

Gerry.

I had to work the afternoon we played #1 UConn. I recorded the game and desperately didn't want to know what happened, since I wouldn't be able to get home until after the game had ended. I am a therapist, and we are supposed to bring a certain "neutral palate" to our sessions. But that day I had a huge sign on my office door: DON'T TELL ME THE SCORE! This amused two of my clients, and rather irritated another. Too bad! Everyone in the office knew my request and when I walked down the hall I could hear, "Shhhh! Here she comes!" During my last session my phone started blowing up. Ignored it. Tore out of the office when I was done, terrified someone on the elevator or vestibule would give it away. Made it home with virgin ears and watched the entire game without fast forwarding once.

Peak experience!

 

[IthacaMatt]

Being all of what I can immediately remember was already mentioned, I want to mention a non-BE play in the Garden:


Of course I may have loved that team more than any other and therefor be biased. I seemed to remember Dickie V exclaiming "It's showtime in the Garden!" after that play, but apparently my memory isn't the best unless it was after the clip ended? Maybe someone remembers what play that call was from?

I was there for this game. It's hard to call it revenge for losing to them in the championship game, but that's sure what it felt like to me. A blow out.

 

[SUfanNC]

Some of my favorite ball moments in no order.

Pearl's half court game winner against BC

John Thompson getting kicked out of the Dome.

Gerry week

6 OT

National championship season

Off the top those are a few. Basketball is on a roll right now. I will miss Big East. On the basketball side there have been too many moments from some of the BEST coaches in college.

 

[MGP]

A few that stick in my head:

Marty Headd's game-winner to finally break the "Hoya Hex"
Leo's tip-in
Ewing v Hawkins - Ewing v Pearl
Pearl coast-to-coast getting blocked by the Truth (bad memory but memorable nonetheless)
All the colorful coaches who truly made the league what it was (JB, JT, Rollie, Louie, PJ, Petino, Gary Williams, etc)
Sherm owning the '88 BET
Dave Johnson's game-winner in BET vs. Hoyas
Thompson's heralded ejection
'03 Pitt triple court-storming

So many. The obvious ones and the more current ones we all remember. It is most truly sad to see it go.

 

[Upstate]

Leaving the Big East

 

[CuseTroop]

One of my favorite memories is argueing in the bar with an old Army (NC State fan) about which conference was better, Big East, or ACC. We used to get all sorts of loud and heated, it was always pretty fun. Now it doesnt matter anymore

 

[OttoMets]

Some of my faves that weren't mentioned and/or not so obvious--

1990 quarterfinal vs. Pitt. SU is the top seed, Pitt is awful. Pitt actually leads with under 30 seconds to play, Cuse takes the lead while Pitt holds for a last possession. Brian Shorter gets fed for a what looks like an open dunk and a late lead, until DC comes out of nowhere to stuff him as Cuse held on for the W.

98 BE semifinal win over St. John's. Ryan Blackwell hits jumper at the buzzer as time expires to put SU into the finals.


The 05 title gets overshadowed by 06, but coming out in the semis and punching UCon in the mouth early (and then holding on when the game got a little tighter than it should have) was great, and the run ended the longest drought of BE titles SU ever had in its time as a member.

non-SU, non-BET moment...send it in Jerome!

Blackwell in '98 (even though Burgan walked) and Mookie/Forth/Roberts/Warrick dominating the UConn bigs in '05 are way up there on my list.

For a non-Syracuse moment, Providence running through everybody (when we didn't play during primetime and CBS held the rights to the tournament) in '94 was pretty fun. Better them than Georgetown or UConn (both of whom they knocked off).

Dave Johnson's runner in '92 was a good memory, too. Owens bailed on his teammates, we weren't as good, and that'd be our last chance to play our way to a good tournament seed for the next two years. We made the most of it.