When the men's NCAA pairings were set a couple of weeks ago most of the conversation (OK, it was mostly argument) surrounded the eleven teams being picked from the Big East. Almost immediately everyone was calling them "The Big Least" even before they started falling like so many bowling pins. Now on this Friday morning only one Big East team remains: The Huskies of UConn. The naysayers will claim that it proves those eleven teams didn't belong in the tournament to begin with and after the shellacking the conference has taken so far in the tournament that's a hard argument to oppose.....until you look at this mornings tournament standings and see Uconn sitting there waiting to play in the round of the Elite 8". Yes, UConn won the Big East Tournament like a steamroller but many saw Connecticut falling before Pitt, Syracuse and even Notre Dame, but The Huskies just kept on winning. Whether or not they have enough to get past Arizona this weekend remains to be seen. As tough a road as it's been for Jim Calhoun's team to get this far, they just might continue to surprise everyone. Although no one should be surprised any longer that this group of guys from a small state in New England have gone from being viewed as one of the "Big Least" to one of the elite teams in all of college basketball.
