…wait, you were waiting for me to say “I can make it anywhere” to complete the “New York, New York” lyric as some lame intro to today’s pre-Big East Tournament post. No! Rather, if I can make it there, it’ll be a small miracle. The way I’m going with travel, I’m legitimately scared to check a bag because I know it’ll get lost. I’m instead stuffing a few days’ worth of clothes into a carry-on. I’ll do laundry if I must. The last time I packed short, WVU was in the the Big East Tournament final in 2005.

Anyhow, we’re in the midst of the best week of the year and a day away from the best conference tournament of the year. Just ask Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun.

It’s become something else. It’s the conference championship, but it’s an event. Before the league was probably playing for a lot of reasons, financial and otherwise, like to play in the NCAA Tournament, but now we play because it’s a really special basketball weekend. With the quality and the depth of teams coming in, there’s no question it’ll be an incredible week of basketball. If you love basketball, New York City is the place to come to. This is my 22nd tournament and it has grown and become more and more special every year. This year, in my own personal opinion, there is more depth and more quality in the league than there has been at any one time.

Sadly, this is likely all for today. Between flying and the awards banquet tonight, there probably won’t be time for another. I plan on soaking it all in this week and sharing as much as I possibly can. In other words, you won’t catch me hanging around with Bob Huggins.

All that stuff, other than playing the game, we don’t get involved with. We don’t sit there and watch the tournament. We’ll play Providence and hopefully go back to the hotel and get ready for Connecticut the next day. We don’t watch the tournament. We go back and watch who we’re going to play next. It’s not the same thing for us as it is for other people.