2011 Big East men's basketball tournament

For the women's basketball tournament, see Big East women's basketball tournament.

The 2011 Big East men's basketball tournament, a part of the 2010-11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, took place from March 8–12, 2011, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This was the third Big East tournament to include all 16 of the conference's teams. The teams finishing 9 through 16 in the regular season standings played first-round games, while teams 5 through 8 received byes to the second round. The top 4 teams during the regular season received double-byes to the quarterfinals.^[2] The tournament was won by Connecticut, their seventh title, tying Georgetown for the most championships in Big East Men's Basketball Tournament history. Connecticut guard Kemba Walker was named the tournament MVP.

2011 Big East men's basketball tournament
2011 Big East tournament logo
Classification	Division I
Season	2010–11
Teams	16
Site	Madison Square Garden New York City
Champions	Connecticut (7th title)
Winning coach	Jim Calhoun (7th title)
MVP	Kemba Walker (Connecticut)
Top scorer	Kemba Walker (Connecticut) (130 points)
Television	ESPN
Big East men's basketball tournaments ← 2010 2012 →

2010–11 Big East men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 4 Pittsburgh	15	–	3		.833			28	–	6		.824
No. 5 Notre Dame	14	–	4		.778			27	–	7		.794
*#12 Syracuse	12	–	6		.667			27	–	8		.771
No. 14 Louisville	12	–	6		.667			25	–	10		.714
No. 18 St. John's	12	–	6		.667			21	–	12		.636
Cincinnati	11	–	7		.611			26	–	9		.743
No. 22 West Virginia	11	–	7		.611			21	–	12		.636
Georgetown	10	–	8		.556			21	–	11		.656
No. 9 Connecticut†	9	–	9		.500			32	–	9		.780
Villanova	9	–	9		.500			21	–	12		.636
Marquette	9	–	9		.500			22	–	15		.595
Seton Hall	7	–	11		.389			13	–	18		.419
Rutgers	5	–	13		.278			15	–	17		.469
Providence	4	–	14		.222			15	–	17		.469
South Florida	3	–	15		.167			10	–	23		.303
DePaul	1	–	17		.056			7	–	24		.226
† 2011 Big East tournament winner As of April 4, 2011[1] *Syracuse:: 7 wins vacated due to sanctions against the program; Disputed record: Syracuse–(27–8)(10–6) Rankings from AP Poll

Seeds

2011 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament seeds
Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker[3]
1.	‡†Pittsburgh	15–3	27–4
2.	†Notre Dame	14–4	25–5
3.	†Louisville	12–6	23–8	2–0 vs. SYR/SJU
4.	†Syracuse	12–6	25–6	1–1 vs. LOU/SJU
5.	#St. John's	12–6	20–10	0–2 vs. LOU/SYR
6.	#West Virginia	11–7	20–10	1–0 vs. CIN
7.	#Cincinnati	11–7	24–7	0–1 vs. WVU
8.	#Georgetown	10–8	21–9
9.	Connecticut	9–9	21–9	2–1 vs. VILL/MARQ
10.	Villanova	9–9	21–10	1–1 vs. CONN/MARQ
11.	Marquette	9–9	18–13	1–2 vs. CONN/VILL
12.	Seton Hall	7–11	13–17
13.	Rutgers	5–13	14–16
14.	Providence	4–14	15–16
15.	South Florida	3–15	9–23
16.	DePaul	1–17	7–23
‡ – Big East regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a double-bye in the conference tournament. # – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament. Overall records are as of the end of the regular season.

Bracket

	First round Tuesday, March 8					Second round Wednesday, March 9					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 10					Semifinals Friday, March 11					Championship game Saturday, March 12
											1	#3 Pittsburgh	74
						8	#22 Georgetown	62			9	#21 Connecticut	76
	9	#21 Connecticut	97			9	#21 Connecticut	79								9	#21 Connecticut	76*
	16	DePaul	71													4	#11 Syracuse	71
											4	#11 Syracuse	79
						5	#17 St. John's	65			5	#17 St. John's	73
	12	Seton Hall	70			13	Rutgers	63													9	#21 Connecticut	69
	13	Rutgers	76*																		3	#14 Louisville	66
											2	#4 Notre Dame	89
						7	#25 Cincinnati	87			7	#25 Cincinnati	51
	10	Villanova	69			15	South Florida	61								2	#4 Notre Dame	77
	15	South Florida	70													3	#14 Louisville	83*
											3	#14 Louisville	81
						6	#20 West Virginia	61			11	Marquette	56
	11	Marquette	87			11	Marquette	67
	14	Providence	66

Championship game

ESPN

March 12 9:00 pm

Box Score

(9) #21 Connecticut Huskies 69, (3) #14 Louisville Cardinals 66
Pts: K. Walker 19 Rebs: A. Oriakhi 8 Asts: J. Lamb, K. Walker 3		Pts: P. Knowles 18 Rebs: P. Siva 7 Asts: P. Siva 7 Halftime Score: Connecticut, 38-32

Madison Square Garden - New York, NY Attendance: 19,375 Referees: Mike Roberts, Ed Corbett, John Gaffney

* Denotes Overtime Game

Rutgers–St. John's controversy

• In a controversial finish to a second round game, St. John's defeated Rutgers, 65–63, allowing the Red Storm to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2003.^[4] The final seconds of the game were heavily criticized by analysts, including the live ESPN crew, for a lack of officiating that appeared to hinder the Scarlet Knights' late rally, including two uncalled personal fouls against Red Storm players, and an incident in which St. John's forward Justin Brownlee appeared to prematurely celebrate by traveling, stepping out of bounds, and throwing the ball into the stands with more than a second remaining in the game.^[4][5][6][7] Rutgers' head coach Mike Rice Jr. could be seen screaming frantically for an explanation for the missed calls, while officials Jim Burr, Tim Higgins and Earl Walton had already left the court.^[4] At end of the game, ESPN analyst Doris Burke was quoted as saying, "this was the bizarrest ending of a game I've ever seen," and in a later post-game analysis that "the officials won't sleep tonight."^[8][9] Analyst Fran Fraschilla also added that the officiating "crew lost its composure."^[8] Following the game, the head of the NCAA's officiating arm, John Adams, who is in charge of selecting 98 officials for the NCAA tournament, called the lack of officiating "unacceptable," but would still consider the overall body of work of each official throughout the season to determine whether or not they would be invited to the tournament.^[10] Big East commissioner John Marinatto released a statement acknowledging "two separate officiating errors" that occurred at the end of the game, but conceded that "neither error is reviewable or correctable under NCAA playing rules."^[10] The following day, the conference announced that all three officials had voluntarily withdrawn themselves from the remainder of the tournament, which was, according to Marinatto, "in the best interests of everyone involved — including coaches, student-athletes, game officials and Big East member institutions."^[11]

See also

• 2011 Big East women's basketball tournament