That sound you heard last night around 7 p.m. ET, right after all the cheers from the schools seeing their names splashed on the screen during the Selection Show, was the roar of buses heading for airports all over the country. And all with the same itinerary - destination Indianapolis.
When the NCAA Selection Show was completed and the entire field of 68 was revealed, the BIG EAST had four teams heading to Indy with the hopes of coming home with some championship hardware.
Creighton was the first BIG EAST school to see its name called as the Bluejays (20-8), who posted 14 BIG EAST victories this season and reached the conference championship game, received a fifth seed in the West Region. Creighton will meet the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos, a 12 seed out of the Big West Conference, on Saturday.
“We’re excited with the seed, we’re a top five seed,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We don’t know much about Santa Barbara but we will before the end of the night. Obviously they’ve had a terrific year being both the regular-season champ and the conference tournament champ. So they’ve won a lot of games and are playing with a lot of confidence.”
The Bluejays gathered as a team in a ballroom at the Conrad Hotel in New York City to watch the selection show.
“Obviously they don’t know a lot about Santa Barbara but they’re excited to continue playing,” McDermott said. “Obviously they’re disappointed with the way we played last night (in the BIG EAST Conference championship game loss to Georgetown) but understandably happy to move past that and we have this tremendous opportunity in front of us.”
If the Bluejays defeat Santa Barbara, they would face either No. 4 Virginia or No. 13 Ohio University on Monday.
Villanova also came in as a No. 5 seed and was placed in the South Region where the Wildcats (16-6) will face off with Winthrop on Friday. The Eagles, out of the Big South, lost just once in 24 games this season.
“We’re so excited to start this final portion of the season. We always talk about never taking this for granted. It’s such an honor to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “But I think this year, more than ever, just to be able to make it to this point and know you got a chance to play in this great tournament, is an incredible accomplishment. I wanted to make sure our guys understood that.”
So what does Wright think of his first-round opponent?
“You play in the NCAA Tournament and you know you’re going to play a great team,” Wright said. “We’re playing a great team in Winthrop that is 23-1, won their regular season, their tournament, they shoot the three, they have great inside people and a 6-7 point guard. But that’s what you get in the NCAA Tournament.
Ah yes, that 6-7 Winthrop guard Wright alluded to is Chandler Vaudrin, a redshirt senior who led the nation in triple-doubles this season. ESPN’s Jay Bilas called Caudrin “Collin Gillespie at 6-7 and left-handed.”
“He’s got great size and mobility and a very high basketball IQ,” Wright said. “That combination is rare. He’s got it and he’s going to be a handful.”
But McDermott said don’t sell Villanova short despite not having the injured Gillespie (torn MCL) available for the tournament.
“Villanova is Villanova,” McDermott said. “I know they’re down a very important player but they also haven’t had a lot of time to prepare without him. This 10 days between their game (last) Thursday and when they play next weekend is going to get them a little more ready for what’s ahead.”
If the Wildcats get past Winthrop they would move on to face either No. 4 Purdue or No. 13 North Texas on Sunday
Both UConn, a No. 7 seed, and newly-minted BIG EAST Tournament champion Georgetown, which grabbed a No. 12 seed, were placed in the East Region.
In their first season back in the BIG EAST, the Huskies went 15-7 under head coach Dan Hurley and reached the conference semifinals before losing to Creighton. Now UConn will turn its attention to its next opponent, No. 10 Maryland, which the Huskies will meet on Saturday. The Terps logged a 16-13 record on the season and reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the last six seasons. This will be the Huskies’ first trip to the Big Dance since 2016.
If the Huskies can pull off the win over Maryland, they will face either No. 2 Alabama or Rick Pitino and No. 15 Iona in the second round on Monday.
“The way they defend, they’re going to be able to compete with anybody,” McDermott said of UConn.
Finally, there are the Hoyas, just coming off cutting down the nets at Madison Square Garden after winning their first BIG EAST Tournament championship since 2007. Patrick Ewing’s team, which is currently on a season-best four-game winning streak, will lock horns with No. 5 Colorado (22-8), which reached the Pac 12 championship game before being upset by Oregon State.
It’s the Hoyas’ first trip back to the Big Dance since 2015 and Ewing and the Hoyas will look to continue their hot play versus the Buffaloes. Both Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis of CBS liked the Hoyas’ chances on Saturday.
“If you want to grab hold of a 12 over a 5, the way the Hoyas rolled through the BIG EAST Tournament in New York, they certainly are playing at a high level,” Kellogg said. “This is a comfortable matchup going against Colorado.”
“I like Georgetown in that game, too,” Davis added
So does McDermott, who has fresh memories of just how good Georgetown is playing of late.
“I ended up watching the end of the Colorado-Oregon State game and the way Georgetown is playing I wouldn’t bet against them against anybody,” McDermott said. “They’re playing at a really high level.”
So what does it mean to Ewing to be the one who returned Georgetown to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015?
“It means everything,” Ewing said. “It’s been about seven years since we’ve been back to the NCAA Tournament and about that much time since we won the BIG EAST Tournament. We started at the bottom and now we’re number one in the BIG EAST.”
And does he think the Hoyas still have something left in the tank after those four physically-draining days at Madison Square Garden?
“We can’t be happy with just winning this game,” Ewing said after his tourney win over Creighton. “We came to New York and we talked about taking steps. There were four steps that we had to take (and) on all four we came out on top. We can’t be satisfied with that. (Now) we’re going somewhere in Indiana.”
While no teams were told neither which venue they will play in next weekend nor the tipoff time of their game, Ewing knows one thing he needs to do before hitting the road for Indianapolis.
“I have to figure out how I’m going to get some clean underwear, some clean socks, clean t-shirts, and even some clean polos to get ready for the journey that we’re going to be on,” he said.