The Big East Conference Tournament 2012 tips off Tuesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, and this SB Nation New York StoryStream is the place to come for every tidbit of information. For a full schedule with results and updates of the bracket, click here.
If there's a team suited to make a solid run in the Big East Tournament, it's probably the West Virginia Mountaineers who feature one of or, if not, the best player in the league, senior forward Kevin Jones.
Add a guard that can score from anyplace on the floor, Darryl Bryant, and a head coach, Bob Huggins, who does his job very well, and that's a perfect mixture to make noise in the world most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.
Head Coach: Bob Huggins, fifth season
There’s never dull moment with Huggie Bear, who is in his fifth season at West Virginia. He brought the Mountaineers to the Final Four two seasons ago.
Team MVP: Kevin Jones, senior forward
A First Team All-Big East selection, Jones is looking to cap off an excellent senior season. The versatile 6-8 forward can score in a number of different ways, and was also the Mountaineers’ leading rebounder. He scored in double figures in every single game this season, and West Virginia will lean heavily on him as they try to secure an NCAA berth.
Playing For: To not sweat on Selection Sunday
With a weak at-large field this year, West Virginia will likely get in at 19-12 (9-9 in the Big East). As the 8 seed, they’ll enjoy the first day of the tournament from the stands, but they better hope they grab a win over the winner of the DePaul/UConn game just to ensure that they don’t sweat too much on Selection Sunday.
Breakdown: A Bob Huggins team is always going to fight and scrap, and this West Virginia team is no different, despite being much less talented than in years’ past. One of those physical bangers is Turkish forward Deniz Kilicli, who is a handful on the low block. Point guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant is one of the league’s better scoring guards at over 17 points a game, but he struggles from deep and is averaging under 3 assists a game this year.
West Virginia has gone 4-7 down the stretch, so it is tough to think they’ll be able to flip the switch. If they win their first game of the Big East Tournament, they’ll match up with top seed Syracuse. Although that’s not the worst matchup for the Mountaineers, they likely won’t go too far this week at MSG.
Big East Tournament Seed: No. 8, will play winner Tuesday's winner of No. 16 DePaul Blue Demons and No. 9 Connecticut Huskies (noon ET).
Rosters and stats:
For a SB Nation New York preview of other Big East schools, click on its respective links: Syracuse, Marquette, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Georgetown, South Florida, Louisville, West Virginia, Connecticut, Seton Hall, Rutgers, St. John's, Pittsburgh, Villanova, Providence, DePaul.