2012 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

The 2012 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament, officially known as the 2012 Big East Championship, was the 33rd annual Big East Men's Basketball Tournament, deciding the champion of the 2011–12 Big East Conference men's basketball season. For the 30th consecutive season, the tournament was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, from March 6–10, 2012. The tournament was the last to feature participation from West Virginia as they joined the Big 12 Conference on July 1, 2012.

2012 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
2012 Big East Championship logo
Classification	Division I
Season	2011–12
Teams	16
Site	Madison Square Garden New York City
Champions	Louisville (2nd title)
Winning coach	Rick Pitino (2nd title)
MVP	Peyton Siva (Louisville)
Top scorer	Kyle Kuric (Louisville) (58 points)
Television	ESPN
Big East Men's Basketball Tournaments

2011–12 Big East men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 11 Marquette	14	–	4		.778			27	–	8		.771
Notre Dame	13	–	5		.722			22	–	12		.647
Cincinnati	12	–	6		.667			26	–	11		.703
No. 15 Georgetown	12	–	6		.667			24	–	9		.727
South Florida	12	–	6		.667			22	–	14		.611
West Virginia	9	–	9		.500			19	–	14		.576
Connecticut	8	–	10		.444			20	–	14		.588
Seton Hall	8	–	10		.444			21	–	13		.618
Rutgers	6	–	12		.333			14	–	18		.438
St. John's	6	–	12		.333			13	–	19		.406
Pittsburgh	5	–	13		.278			22	–	17		.564
Villanova	5	–	13		.278			13	–	19		.406
Providence	4	–	14		.222			15	–	17		.469
DePaul	3	–	15		.167			12	–	19		.387
*No. 2 Syracuse	0	–	1		.000			0	–	3		.000
**No. 17 Louisville†	0	–	8		.000			0	–	10		.000
† 2012 Big East Tournament winner As of March 31, 2012[1] *Syracuse: 30 reg. season games, 4 postseason games vacated due to sanctions against the program; Disputed record: Syracuse–(34–3)(17–1) **Louisville: 25 reg. season games, 5 postseason games vacated due to sanctions against the program; Disputed record: Louisville–(30-10)(10-8); Rankings from AP Poll

In the final, Louisville defeated Cincinnati, 50–44, to win their second Big East championship in school history. Louisville guard Peyton Siva received the Dave Gavitt Trophy as the most outstanding player of the tournament.

Seeds

This was the fourth Big East tournament to include all 16 of the conference's teams. The teams finishing nine through 16 in the regular season standings played first round games, while teams five through eight received byes to the second round. The top four teams during the regular season received double-byes to the quarterfinals.[2]

2012 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament seeds
Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker[3]
1.	‡†Syracuse	17–1	30–1
2.	†Marquette	14–4	25–6
3.	†Notre Dame	13–5	21–10
4.	†Cincinnati	12–6	22–9	1–1 vs. USF/GTWN; 0–1 vs. SYR; 1–1 vs. MARQ; 1–0 vs. ND; 1–0 vs. GTWN
5.	#Georgetown	12–6	22–7	1–1 vs. USF/CIN; 0–1 vs. SYR; 1–1 vs. MARQ; 1–0 vs. ND; 0–1 vs. CIN
6.	#South Florida	12–6	19–12	1–1 vs. CIN/GTWN; 0–1 vs. SYR; 0–1 vs. MARQ; 0–1 vs. ND
7.	#Louisville	10–8	22–9
8.	#West Virginia	9–9	19–12
9.	Connecticut	8–10	18–12	1–1 vs. HALL; 0–2 vs. SYR; 0–1 vs. MARQ; 1–1 vs. ND
10.	Seton Hall	8–10	19–11	1–1 vs. CONN; 0–1 vs. SYR; 0–1 vs. MARQ; 0–1 vs. ND
11.	Rutgers	6–12	14–17	1–0 vs. SJU
12.	St. John's	6–12	13–18	0–1 vs. RUT
13.	Pittsburgh	5–13	16–15	1–0 vs. VILL
14.	Villanova	5–13	12–18	0–1 vs. PITT
15.	Providence	4–14	15–16
16.	DePaul	3–15	12–18
‡ – Big East regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a double-bye in the conference tournament. # – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament. Overall records are as of the end of the regular season.

Schedule

All tournament games were nationally televised on an ESPN network:

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup^#	Television	Attendance
First Round – Tuesday, March 6
1	1	12:00 PM	#9 Connecticut vs. #16 DePaul	ESPN2	20,057
	2	2:00 PM	#12 St. John's vs. #13 Pittsburgh	ESPN2
2	3	7:00 PM	#10 Seton Hall vs. #15 Providence	ESPNU	20,057
	4	9:00 PM	#11 Rutgers vs. #14 Villanova	ESPNU
Second Round – Wednesday, March 7
3	5	12:00 PM	#8 West Virginia vs. #9 Connecticut	ESPN	20,057
	6	2:00 PM	#5 Georgetown vs. #13 Pittsburgh	ESPN
4	7	7:00 PM	#7 Louisville vs. #10 Seton Hall	ESPN	20,057
	8	9:00 PM	#6 South Florida vs. #14 Villanova	ESPN
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 8
5	9	12:00 PM	#1 Syracuse vs. #9 Connecticut	ESPN	20,057
	10	2:00 PM	#4 Cincinnati vs. #5 Georgetown	ESPN
6	11	7:00 PM	#2 Marquette vs. #7 Louisville	ESPN	20,057
	12	9:00 PM	#3 Notre Dame vs. #6 South Florida	ESPN
Semifinals – Friday, March 9
7	13	7:00 PM	#1 Syracuse vs. #4 Cincinnati	ESPN	20,057
	14	9:00 PM	#7 Louisville vs. #3 Notre Dame	ESPN
Championship Game – Saturday, March 10
8	15	9:00 PM	#4 Cincinnati vs. #7 Louisville	ESPN	20,057
*Game Times in EST.[4] #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

All rankings from AP Poll:

	First Round Tuesday, March 6, 2012					Second Round Wednesday, March 7, 2012					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 8, 2012					Semifinals Friday, March 9, 2012
	16	DePaul	67
	9	Connecticut	81			9	Connecticut	71
						8	West Virginia	67^OT
											9	Connecticut	55
											1	#2 Syracuse	58
																1	#2 Syracuse	68
	12	St. John's	59													4	Cincinnati	71
	13	Pittsburgh	73			13	Pittsburgh	52
						5	#13 Georgetown	64
											5	#13 Georgetown	70
											4	Cincinnati	72^2OT

	First Round Tuesday, March 6, 2012 ESPN2 and ESPNU					Second Round Wednesday, March 7, 2012 ESPN					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 8, 2012 ESPN					Semifinals Friday, March 9, 2012 ESPN
	15	Providence	47
	10	Seton Hall	79			10	Seton Hall	55
						7	Louisville	61
											7	Louisville	84
											2	#9 Marquette	71
																7	Louisville	64
	14	Villanova	70													3	#23 Notre Dame	50
	11	Rutgers	49			14	Villanova	47
						6	South Florida	56
											6	South Florida	53
											3	Notre Dame	57^OT

Championship Game

	Big East Championship Game Saturday, March 10, 2012
	4	Cincinnati	44
	7	Louisville	50

^OT denotes overtime game

All-Tournament team

Following the tournament final, the Big East Conference named its All-Tournament team, composed of the top performers from the entire tournament. Louisville guard Peyton Siva was awarded the Dave Gavitt Trophy as the tournament's most outstanding player, the first time a Louisville player received the tournament MVP award.[5]

2012 Big East Men's Basketball All-Tournament Team
Team	Position	Player	Games	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks
LOU	G	Peyton Siva†	4	55	25	23	2
LOU	C	Gorgui Dieng	4	35	36	2	13
LOU	G/F	Kyle Kuric	4	58	11	6	3
CIN	F	Yancy Gates	3	50	21	2	0
CIN	G	Cashmere Wright	3	37	10	14	0
SYR	G	Dion Waiters	2	46	3	5	1

† Received Dave Gavitt Trophy (Most Outstanding Player)

See also

• 2012 Big East Women's Basketball Tournament

References

1. "Big East Conference Standings - 2011-12." ESPN.com. Retrieved 03-31-12.
2. "16-Team Men's Championship Format" (PDF) (Press release). Big East Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 13, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
3. "CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDING FORMULA" (PDF). bigeast.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
4. "2012 Big East Championship". Archived from the original on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
5. "Postgame Notes – No. 7 Louisville 50, No. 4 Cincinnati 44". Big East Conference. March 10, 2012. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2012.