The Pittsburgh Panthers have dominated the Big East all season, so naturally, they will be the No. 1 seed when the Big East Tournament gets underway at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Led by guards Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker, the Panthers will be the favorite. However, there are a number of teams that could knock them off during the week.
The conference is as deep as ever, and the seeding shows it. Three likely NCAA Tournament teams -- Connecticut, Villanova and Marquette -- will have to win five games in five nights if they want to get the conference's automatic bid. All five are very capable of doing that, which goes to show just how deep the conference is this season.
Here are all the tournament matchups. All games will be on either ESPN, ESPNU or ESPN2, and all will be available on ESPN3.com.
Tuesday, March 8:
Noon, ESPN2: No. 9 Connecticut (21-9, 9-9 Big East) vs. No. 16 DePaul (7-23, 1-17 Big East)
2:30 p.m., ESPN2: No. 12 Seton Hall (13-17, 7-11 Big East) vs. No. 13 Rutgers (14-16, 5-13 Big East)
7:00 p.m., ESPNU: No. 10 Villanova (21-10, 9-9 Big East) vs. No. 15 South Florida (9-22, 3-15 Big East)
9:30 p.m., ESPNU: No. 11 Marquette (18-13, 9-9 Big East) vs. No. 14 Providence (15-16, 4-14 Big East)
Wednesday, March 9
Noon, ESPN: No. 8 Georgetown (21-9, 10-8 Big East) vs. Connecticut/DePaul winner
2:30 p.m., ESPN: No. 5 St. John's (20-10, 12-6 Big East) vs. Seton Hall/Rutgers winner
7:00 p.m., ESPN: No. 7 Cincinnati (24-7, 11-7 Big East) vs. Villanova/South Florida winner
9:30 p.m., ESPN: No. 6 West Virginia (20-10, 11-7 Big East) vs. Marquette/Providence winner
Thursday, March 10
Noon, ESPN: No. 1 Pittsburgh (27-4, 15-3 Big East) vs. Georgetown/Connecticut/DePaul
2:30 p.m., ESPN: No. 4 Syracuse (25-6, 12-6 Big East) vs. St. John's/Seton Hall/Rutgers
7:00 p.m., ESPN: No. 2 Notre Dame (25-5, 14-4 Big East) vs. Cincinnati/Villanova/South Florida
9:30 p.m., ESPN: No. 3 Louisville (23-8, 12-6 Big East) vs. West Virginia/Marquette/Providence Winner
Friday, March 11
7:00 p.m., ESPN: Pittsburgh/Georgetown/Connecticut/DePaul vs. Syracuse/St. John's/Seton Hall/Rutgers
9:30 p.m., ESPN: Notre Dame/Cincinnati/Villanova/South Florida vs. Louisville/West Virginia/Marquette/Providence
Saturday, March 12
9:00 p.m., ESPN: Big East Championship Game