Farewell To The Big East, With An Old, Obscure Memory

This weekend will wrap up the last basketball tournament for the Big East Conference.  So much has already been said about all the great teams, players, coaches, games, etc.  Begun in 1979 as a 7-school pure basketball conference, the Big East hooked up immediately with another newbie, ESPN.  In an era of mostly local telecasts, they quickly found a national audience with "Big Monday" games on ESPN.

I was often part of that audience.  The original Big East teams played high-quality, fast-paced basketball.  Those early days of the 1980's Big East hoops were its best days. Eventually, the member colleges succumbed to the lure of expansion for the sake of football schools and football money. Now, in a couple days, the bloated 16-school, revolving door conference will cease to exist, at least we knew it.

But way back in the 1980-81 season, for some reason I developed an affection for the Big East's Syracuse team.  My first love was and still is Ohio State, but that year's Buckeyes underperformed badly.  In their senior year, the great class of Herb Williams, Jim Smith, Carter Scott, Marquis Miller and Todd Penn went out with a whimper, and so I somehow landed on the Orangemen.  They must have been on TV a lot.

Syracuse that year was good, not great, but I thought they were a bunch of fun to watch.  They were middle-of-the-conference-pack, but they rode a hot streak to win the second-ever Big East Conference tournament at Madison Square Garden.  They were snubbed by the NCAA tourney, but kept up their winnng ways in NIT, until bowing in the finals with a 2-point loss to Tulsa. 

That's my old, really obscure Big East memory -- a fast, fun Syracuse team from 32 years ago.  They finished 22-12.  I had to look that up.  I did not have to look up their starting five.  Anybody except me remember these guys?  Probably not.




Tony 'Red' Bruin, guard

Marty Headd, guard



Erich Santifer, forward

 

 



Leo Rautins, forward

Danny Schayes, center