NCAA Basketball Odds: Big East Tournament Preview

Irish star Luke Harangody is back but will be a sixth man for now. (AP Images)

College basketball’s best and deepest conference, the Big East, begins its conference tournament on Tuesday afternoon with as many as possibly nine NCAA Tournament bids likely to come from the Big East – bet on the tournament through with Bodog’s basketball odds.

The bottom eight-seeded teams in the conference tip off on Tuesday, with seeds No. 1-4 getting a double-bye and Nos. 5-8 getting a one-game pass. Tuesday’s opening schedule is this, with all games in the tournament at Madison Square Garden: No. 9 South Florida at No. 16 DePaul (winner faces Georgetown); No. 12 Connecticut at No. 13 St. John’s (winner faces Marquette);   No. 10 Seton Hall at No. 15 Providence (winner faces Notre Dame); and No. 11 Cincinnati at No. 14 Rutgers (winner faces Louisville). In reality, only USF, Seton Hall and UConn still have a shot among that group for an at-large NCAA bid, but all three need at least two wins in this tournament and possibly three.

The Big East’s top eight seeds are all locks to head to the Big Dance, topped by regular-season winner Syracuse, which will get a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs.   No team in the conference is playing better right now than Notre Dame (8/1 to win this tournament at Bodog). The Irish lost star Luke Harangody, the conference’s leading scorer and 2009 Big East Player of the Year, for five games down the stretch with a knee injury. The Irish dropped the first two without their star but then rebounded to beat Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Connecticut to climb back above .500 in Big East play. Then they got Harangody back for Saturday’s win over Marquette that salted an NCAA berth. The junior had just five points and two rebounds in 11 minutes of action against Marquette and will continue to come off the bench, according to coach Mike Brey. The coach doesn’t want to mess with chemistry right now, and Harangody still lacks much stamina. Harangody was averaging 24.1 points and 10 rebounds a game before suffering the injury.

Meanwhile, Georgetown (8/1) and Villanova (7/2) both looked like Final Four teams at points this season but both are sliding at the wrong time, going a combined 9-10 since the beginning of February. Thus Syracuse (37/20) has to be the favorite, as it is the best shooting team in the Big East and ranks second in field goal percentage defense. But the Orange enter off a loss to Louisville (8/1), which swept Syracuse this year.

West Virginia (3/1) seems to be peaking at the right time, having closed the season with wins over Cincinnati, Georgetown and Villanova. Da’Sean Butler was chosen as the final conference player of the week after he averaged 21.5 points and 8.0 rebounds, including hitting the game-winning basket in Saturday’s overtime win at Villanova. Bob Huggins’ team will play against the winner of Wednesday's game between Louisville and either Cincinnati or St. John's. WVU was 1-0 against all three schools this season. The Big East final is Saturday night on ESPN.

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