BIG EAST TIME;League's 8 are well prepared

As Saturday night crept into Sunday morning and rain and wind howled through Manhattan, Madison Square Garden offered refuge in the form of a full-blown West Virginia party. The building's speakers boomed the lyrics of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in honor of the Mountaineers' first Big East men's basketball tournament title, serenading jubilant players as they accepted awards, cut down the nets and danced on the very same hardwood where they'd just beaten Georgetown.

At that point, all was right for West Virginia. Coach Bob Huggins, who had just brought his alma mater to unprecedented heights, was certain he'd also catapulted his team into a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That top seed didn't happen during Sunday evening's selection show, going instead to the inarguable likes of Kansas and Kentucky as well as the somewhat shakier recipients Duke and Syracuse.

Pity the teams that have to deal with a ticked off West Virginia team. And come to think of it, pity any teams that have to face a Big East team in the early days of March Madness. Because if they paid any attention to the Big East tournament and the dramatic, combative games that defined the week, they know how tough an out any of the record-tying eight Big East teams in the field will be.

"The Big East is one of the best conferences in the country and we beat on each other all year long," West Virginia point guard Joe Mazzulla said. "It's like [Syracuse] coach [Jim] Boeheim said, that we just want to get out there and play teams that haven't seen us before. That's what's going to be difficult for teams to match up against."

Teammate Da'Sean Butler just grinned when asked what he would say to teams facing the Big East. "Good luck ? I'll tell them that," Butler said.

Of 15 games played at the Garden, nine were decided by five points or fewer, including a fantastic final that finished on Butler's twisting, daring drive to the hoop. Perhaps worse than the fact that the win didn't secure WVU the coveted top seed, it actually set up the Mountaineers, seeded No. 2 in the East, with a potential Sweet 16 game with Big East counterpart and No. 6 seed Marquette.

The same is true for Villanova, the No. 2 seed in the South, and Notre Dame, No. 6 in the South. By rule, the NCAA selection committee is supposed to avoid league rematches until the regional finals, but with eight Big East teams in the field, committee chair Dan Guerrero said in a conference call that he and his colleagues "did everything they could to separate those teams as much as possible," but said it became too difficult "once you got into bracketing."

The Big East still can make plenty of noise. Syracuse, No. 1 in the West, has an intriguing opener against Vermont, the same school that shocked the Orange in the first round in 2005. The league's two No. 3 seeds ? Georgetown in the Midwest and Pitt in the West ? shouldn't have any issues with Ohio University and Oakland, respectively. But each school does have a right to gripe.

Georgetown should have been given more credit for its strong finish to the season, taking its No. 8 seed all the way to the heartbreaking two-point decision to West Virginia on Saturday night. If you imagine the Big East tournament as its own 16-team bracket, Georgetown went from a No. 8 against its own conference teams to a No. 3 against the rest of the country, one without league cellar-dwellers such as DePaul, Providence and Rutgers.

And Pittsburgh got no favors by staring at a potential Elite Eight meeting with fellow Big East powerhouse Syracuse. The Panthers couldn't be blamed for flashing back to last year's devastating loss to Villanova in the regional final. Meanwhile, the Wildcats, a Final Four team a season ago, appear to have earned their seed before the final week of the regular season was complete, considering they lost their only game at the Garden and dropped five of their last seven overall.

The last three Big East teams in the field also have reason for optimism. If Notre Dame does indeed arrange a date with Villanova, it will do it on the strength of momentum that saw it win six of its last seven, ending with a semifinal loss in the conference tournament. Marquette, No. 6 in the East, also gained steam in New York, reaching the semis. And Louisville, No. 9 in the South, still boasts one of the most talented rosters in the league.

Villanova coach Jay Wright knew he'd get in trouble for recently admitting that the end stages of the Big East tournament mean more to him than the early stages of the NCAA tournament. The electricity at the Garden is tough to match in neutral-site games. The emotion spent over five New York nights has been both blessing and curse.

Syracuse and its scintillating Gerry McNamara-fueled title run of 2006 lost its NCAA opener. Connecticut took its grueling 2004 victory and rode it all the way to the NCAA title.

Though Syracuse turned into the league's dominant team in the second half of the regular season, the Orange are limping into March. But the call here? They'll win it all.

E-mail: sullivan@northjersey.com