Pitino: Big East Tournament won't be the same without Syracuse

[Orangeyes]

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2012/02/louisville_coach_rick_pitino_i.html

 

[Cootface]

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2012/02/louisville_coach_rick_pitino_i.html

Every Syracuse Fan: Big East Tournament was never the same with Louisville, Cincy, Marquette, DePaul, etc.

 

[Orange87]

Try telling us something we don't know, Coach Newsflash.

 

[ImperialOrange]

The Big 12 tournament will never be the same with Louisville

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

Plenty of tickets will be available for the rabid Marquette and Depaul fanbases to snatch up in March.

 

[All4SU]

Just wait until Central Florida, SMU, San Diego State and Bumfolk State stroll into MSG for the tournament.

 

[NKR1978]

He's right and it's a really nice sentiment to hear. I've been a combination of annoyed and (I guess) proud to have friends who are not fans of Syracuse or even another Big East team complaining to me that Syracuse is going to the ACC because we are synonymous with the Big East. I had the same sense of pride in the unnamed Big East officials in articles right after we jumped saying that "Syracuse is the one school we couldn't afford to lose." How funny is it that after a decade of irrelevance in football with WVU winning BCS bowls against the Big 12 and SEC and going to the 2010 Final Four that we were the one school that the Big East could not afford to lose. That must have upset our friends in Piscataway, Mogantown, Washington and Storrs to no end.

This is the same sentiment as a Dana O'Neil column lamenting that MSG turns into a sea of orange during the BET and that the Conference will be hard pressed to fill in the hole that we will leave.

This has been a tough break up and I've been through every emotion possible. Right now I'm gung ho for the ACC and sentimental for the Big East as it is today. These are the last two great Big East Tournaments and its a privilege for us to be a part of them. And then, in 2014, we're going to take part in a new and improved ACC tournament, and hopefully upset our gentile southern friends with our drunken, vulgar and boorish Yankee sensibilities.