West Virginia of the Big East

Going in to the final four, West Virginia remains to lone Big East team in a tournament that has become an embarrassment for the conference. Known for having a strong conference, the Big East is used to fielding multiple teams in the NCAA tournament. This year was no different, with 8 teams making the tournament from the Big East, more than any other margin by a good shot. Several teams, including West Virginia, as well as Syracuse, Villanova, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown received very high seeds. Based on the seeding in the tournament, it looked like the Big East had to potential to dominate many of the games. However they ended up falling flat on their face.
Georgetown, Marquette,and Notre Dame all lost on the first day of the tournament in disappointing upsets. Pittsburgh was upset in the second round, and Villanova lost in an upset during the second round too. Syracuse failed to make it out of the sweet 16. Excepting West Virginia, Louisville was the only Big East team not to lose in an upset.
Overall, the Big East's performance in this tournament will tarnish its reputation. After a season of analysts talking about how strong of a conference they are, the losses in the tournament will make it all look like fake hype. If the tournament remains as 64 teams next year, I wouldn't expect the Big East to have 8 teams unless some amazing basketball goes on next season. This also raises questions about how teams are judged against each other. The lack of inter-conference games with many of these teams makes comparing them to each other very difficult. Hopefully the Big East will be able to recover from this loss in the future.