Matchups Set For Big East Tournament
New York, NY (AP) - Pittsburgh's 60-50 victory over Villanova on Saturday gave the Panthers the outright Big East regular-season title and made them the No. 1 seed for next week's conference tournament.
Pittsburgh (15-3), Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse will receive a double-bye into Thursday's quarterfinals.
No. 5 seed St. John's (12-6), which finished in a three-way tie with Louisville and Syracuse, will get a bye to Wednesday's second round along with defending tournament champion West Virginia, Cincinnati and Georgetown.
Tuesday's opening-round games will have ninth-seeded Connecticut against DePaul, 10th-seeded Villanova facing South Florida, No. 11 Marquette against Providence and No. 12 Seton Hall meeting Rutgers. That means the Big East, which some forecasters predict could get as many as a record 11 teams in the NCAA tournament, will have two ranked teams playing on opening day — No. 16 Connecticut and No. 19 Villanova.
The second round will be Wednesday.
The semifinals are set for Friday and the championship game is Saturday night.
