The Big East tournament wraps up today as UConn and Louisville meet in the final after both teams won in overtime fashion last night. Kemba Walker continued to cement his status as the MVP of the Big East tournament with a monster 33 point, 12 rebound effort as the Connecticut Huskies avenged a legendary loss in overtime to beat Syracuse 76-71. Those same two teams featured in one of the great Big East tournament games of all time two years ago, when the Orange won in six overtimes. It was UConn's fourth win in four days.
At this point, there's no questioning whether UConn has the talent to win this tournament, rather it's whether they'll have enough left in the tank playing their 5th game in 5 days. So far though, they've shown no signs of slowing down.
Rick Pitino's Louisville squad also went to overtime in the semis beating Notre Dame 83-77. It was the 6th time in the past 10 meetings between the Cardinals and the Irish that the game went to overtime. Preston Knowles led the way for Louisville with 20 points, while Big East player of the year Ben Hansbrough struggled shooting 3 for 16 from the field. He did manage 16 points. Pitino said after the game that a visit from a certain ex president boosted the team's spirits.
"We had a big treat," Pitino said "President Clinton came by and said hi and my guys were in shock. We're all big fans of him and we're so happy he is a big basketball fan from Razorback times and I remember in '96 getting a call from him right before or afterwards and I made the blunder of saying yeah, I'm sure this is Mr. Clinton, and I didn't believe it. It was. I made a fool of myself."
So It's the Connecticut Huskies vs the Louisville Cardinals tonight at 9pm on ESPN for the Big East title and the automatic NCAA bid that goes along with it.