Big East the big deal in NCAA Tourney

NCAA Tournament committee chairman Mike Slive kept talking about how the "whole body of work" mattered the most when assembling the 2009 tournament bracket.

Sounds like somebody noticed the way the Big East flexed its muscles from mid-November all the way through Sunday's unveiling of the pairings.

The committee handed out No. 1 seeds to Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut - giving one conference three top seeds for the first time in NCAA history.

North Carolina, the top-ranked team in the preseason, is the lone No. 1-seed interloper as the drive toward Detroit begins.

Rick Pitino's Cardinals (28-5) earned the overall top seed after going 20-2 during 2009, including wins in their final 10 games.

But Louisville's exalted status comes with a caveat. The Cardinals' Midwest regional second-round game in Dayton could come against Ohio State, which is just an hour away on Interstate 70.

"We protect teams in the first round," Slive said. "Only in the first-round games. We don't project who's going to win games."

They also don't look at conference affiliation when they ratify qualifiers for the 65-team field. This year, that meant a flurry of high-major teams scarfing up the 34 at-large berths.

The Big East, ACC and Big Ten led the way with seven bids apiece, while the Big 12 and Pac-10 grabbed six.

Penn State (22-11) thought it had a good case to give the Big Ten eight teams for the first time, seeing as how it went 10-8 in the nation's second-toughest league. But the Nittany Lions joined Saint Mary's, Auburn and San Diego State among the last few teams cast to the side.

"They had a tremendous year," Slive said. "I mean, they really had a tremendous year. And they were in the conversation right down to the last day.

"But, again, it's the whole body of work. Their strength of schedule was about 119. Their nonconference strength was 312 (out of 341 Division I teams)."

In that vein, Slive hopes his reign as NCAA committee chairman encourages teams to bulk up their preconference schedules.

"We've been talking about this for several years, that nonconference games are important," Slive said.

Of course, that requires high-major schools to increase their willingness to play midmajors that are trying to build into something like a Gonzaga or a Butler.

"I think what we are trying to do is to open that window even wider," Slive said, "and give people a chance to play a schedule that can get them those kinds of games."

Illinois State needed to hear all of these words and react accordingly.

For the second year in a row the Redbirds (24-9) had a stronger RPI (47) than a fistful of teams that received at-large berths. But ISU played just two nonconference games against teams with an RPI better than 100.

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