Syracuse University ended the regular season as the number one team in the country and, as such, received the top-seed in the Big East Conference Tournament. However, Orange coach Jim Boeheim is not pleased.
The Big East Tournament adopted a 16-team format two years ago. Under this structure, the top four teams have to wait until third round to face an opponent. The bottom eight teams square off in the first round then the winners advance to face teams five through eight in the second round.
"I think the double-bye is awful," Boeheim said. "Conventional wisdom says the double-bye teams should fare better, but (two) of the four lost last year. If that doesn't say something, I don't know what does."
In the 2009 tourney, second-seeded Pittsburgh and third-seeded UConn were upset and fourth-seeded Villanova squeaked by with a one-point win over Marquette.
All of the Big East coaches held a meeting last spring and unanimously drafted a new format that was proposed to athletic directors. It called for every team to play in eight first-round games before the usual Thursday quarterfinals. The advantage to the teams finishing in the top four is that they would face seeds 13-16 on Tuesday with winners getting Wednesday off, while the middle eight teams would play on Wednesday.
The proposal was rejected because it is too soon to change since the current format hasn't had a chance.
