Even though my college basketball loyalties remain with the Big Ten and Minnesota, I enjoyed watching Big East basketball, especially in its heyday of the 1980s. This book about the history of the conference is recommended reading for every fan of that time. Here is my review of "The Big East"
Title/Author: "The Big East: Inside the Most Entertaining and Influential Conference
in College Basketball History" by Dana O’Neil
Rating: 5 of
5 stars (excellent)
Review: No
matter what loyalties a college basketball fan may have to a school or conference,
chances are that the fan will have at least a few great memories of watching
Big East basketball. It might be the
thrilling six-overtime game between Syracuse and Connecticut in 2009, the 1985
NCAA championship game in which Villanova shocked favored Georgetown or when
Providence made an improbable run to the Final Four in 1987 under Rick Pitino. These
are just a few of the highlights of the conference’s many accomplishments in
this excellent book about the Big East by Dana O’Neil.
The book
isn’t all about the action on the court.
No book on the Big East would be complete without the story of how the
conference’s first commissioner, Dave Gavitt, took an idea to bring eastern
schools together to form a conference to make east coast basketball improve on
its dismal record of only producing three NCAA championships in 40 years. But thanks to some shrewd talking, handshake
deals and a new all-sports network called ESPN that was looking for programming
to fill its airwaves, Gavitt brought together seven schools to form the Big
East conference and from there, it almost immediately became a basketball
powerhouse.
O’Neil
brings some great storytelling to chronicle not only Gavitt’s wheeling and
dealing to get the conference together, but she also describes his insistence
that all schools not only share the wealth that would be generated but also
should share in the glory and build up a program worthy of championship
contention. While even the most casual fan will remember some of the greatest Big
East teams of the 1980’s such as Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown teams, nearly every
school who was a member of the conference between its inception in 1979 and its
near collapse when Syracuse and Pittsburgh left in 2013.
The
influence of football schools joining, which started in 1993 with the addition
of Miami among others, is when O’Neil argues the conference really started to
lose its luster that Gavitt and company worked so hard to gain. It seemed
almost painful to read about the conference succumbing to football interests after
the story of Gavitt convincing everyone who would listen that the conference tourney
should be held in Madison Square Garden.
The
Big East conference changed the college basketball landscape forever and this
book is a very worthy telling of that story. O’Neil has written about the
conference for ESPN and her knowledge and connections to the most important
people in Big East lore shows. Any fan of
college basketball from the 1980’s and 1990’s should read this book.
I
wish to thank Ballentine Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley
in exchange for an honest review.
I was raised on Big East basketball. Perhaps I was expecting too much but while Dana O'Neil provides a good account of the early days seems like much more could have been included. The book strongly covers the iconic coaches that adorned the sidelines in the heyday of the conference.
ReplyDeleteFeels like a sequel could easily be in the making perhaps discussing other notable players, coaches and luminaries connected to the league. The chapter about Lou Carneseca was among the many highlights.