In a league full of high-profile coaches and big-time programs, there may be no two coaches who are better known than Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino.
The two men have combined to win three NCAA championships (although one of Pitino’s was later vacated). They met in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year — with Hurley’s UConn Huskies coming from behind at the half to beat Pitino’s Iona team en route to the NCAA championship — and will meet again on Saturday night when Pitino’s St. John’s club plays UConn in Hartford, Conn.
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On Wednesday, St. John’s will open league play at home against Xavier, while UConn will visit Seton Hall.
Both coaches on Tuesday looked ahead to the start of conference play and were in agreement that the league is as strong as its been since it reconstituted as the “new Big East” in 2013. Three of the last seven NCAA champions have come from the Big East, and the league currently has three of the Top 10 teams in both the NET Rankings and KenPom.com: UConn, Marquette and Creighton.
“The league is going to be brutal, man,” Hurley, who played at Seton Hall from 1991-96, said on a Zoom call with reporters.
He said the league’s teams, coaches and their various home arenas breed intense and competitive games that are “so physical”
“Hopefully they get officiated more like the non-conference and the NCAA Tournament so it prepares us as a league for that,” Hurley said. “Every game is hard to win.”
Pitino is returning to the Big East after previously coaching in the league with both Providence, which he led to a Final Four in 1987, and Louisville, which he guided to the NCAA championship in 2013 (before it was vacated).
“It’s the best basketball conference since the inception and Dave Gavitt starting it,” Pitino said Tuesday.
“On a given year, the ACC could be a little bit stronger, the SEC could be a little bit stronger, but the Big East, since…
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