Big East Tournament: Unranked Teams Most Likely to Steal Tourney Crown

Syracuse must be wary.

The Big East is on a down year, but they’re still one of the deepest conferences in college basketball.  Pittsburgh and Villanova aren’t contenders like in the past, but a number of other teams have stepped up their game to replace the fallen prestigious schools.

Here are the most likely unranked teams to steal the 2012 Big East tournament crown.

5. Seton Hall

Jordan Theodore and Herb Pope are talented enough to carry the Pirates to a string of upsets. A loss to Rutgers on February 25^th hurt their Big Dance odds, so they’ll enter the conference tournament desperate. They slaughtered then-No. 8 Georgetown 73-55 just days before their letdown to the Scarlet Knights showing their potential.

4. West Virginia

The Mountaineers didn’t have a fun February, but they’re currently on the rise after a huge win at Southern Florida. Kevin Jones and Darryl Bryant are skilled enough scorers to lead WVU to a nice winning streak if they get hot.

3. Connecticut

Now that Jim Calhoun is back, don’t count out the Huskies. Even without their legendary coach, they managed to lose to Syracuse by just two points late in February. With Calhoun back on the bench, they convincingly beat Pitt 74-65.

2. Cincinnati

The Bearcats only loss since February 11^th was to USF by a single point. The disaster that was their game against Xavier is history—21-9 Cincinnati is a good basketball team.

1. South Florida

South Florida edges out Cincinnati on this list because they just knocked them off on February 26^th. The game after that, they upset Louisville in Kentucky 58-51. They don’t possess a true No. 1 scoring option, but strong team defense will keep them close in the tournament no matter who their opponent is.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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