Results From Big East, A10 Tournaments Opening Rounds

The Big East and Atlantic 10 tournaments both got underway in New York on Wednesday, and continue through the weekend. 

March 10, 2016
Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY
 

New York - There are two NCAA conference tournaments going on in New York right now and through the weekend. The 2016 Big East Tournament Presented by Jeep is back at Madison Square Garden for the 34th consecutive season and the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship has returned to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the fourth straight year. The A10 tournament will be leaving Brooklyn and heading to Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. for the next two seasons, to make way for the ACC tournament in Brooklyn. The A10 Tournament returns to the borough in 2019 for a three-year run at Barclays Center. The Big East tournament will likely be played at The Garden for the rest of time.

Here's a look at the brackets for the two tournaments:

2016 Big East Tournament bracket courtesy of Wikipedia

2016 Atlantic 10 Championship bracket courtesy of Wikipedia

Both tournaments got underway on Wednesday night and here are the results from ESPN. Each score contains a link for a game recap, also from ESPN. First, here are the Big East tournament scores from Wednesday:

Recap from ESPN

Recap from ESPN

Chris Mullen's first year as head coach of the St. John's program, his alma-mater, was pretty disastrous, as St. John's finished the season a dismal 8-24, and a Big East worst 1-15 in the league. That's not an indictment on Mullen. The jury is still out on him and will be for a while. It's not fair to pin this mess on him. This does, however, highlight the mistake St. John's made in not bringing Steve Lavin back to coach the team.

What a difference a year makes, huh? St. John's was an NCAA Tournament team last season. In fact, in Lavin's five seasons at the helm, he took the Johnnies to two tournaments and two NITs. The team never had a losing record under Lavin, either. Just a year later, they've hit rock-bottom.

Now here are Wednesday's results from the A10 tournament:

Recap from ESPN

Recap from ESPN

On paper, it looks like another bad year for George Mason, finishing the season 11-21 and 5-13 in the Atlantic 10. This has been the norm for the Patriots left the CAA for the A10 after the 2013 season. However, if you were paying close attention to Mason all season, then you know they're a team on the rise. 

First year coach Dave Paulsen inherited a mess, lost some players due to transfer, and didn't have time to recruit. He then dealt with some turmoil regarding his players not going to class, and it all culminated with senior guard Patrick Holloway leaving the team halfway through the season. At the end of the day however, the team finished with more wins than last year, and played a far more competitive brand of basketball. The Patriots weren't getting blown out of the gym and at times, looked great.

Paulsen also has two talented freshmen at his disposal. Otis Livingston and Jaire Grayer really made names for themselves this year, combining for five A10 Rookie of the Week awards over the course of the season. The 5'11" Livingston was the only Patriot to start every game this season and led the team in points per game (11.9) and minutes per game (34.2). Livingston also finished the season with team-bests in assists (112) and free throw percentage (77.8%). He was named to the A10 All-Rookie Team earlier in the week.

The Patriots are now 0-3 in A10 tournaments since joining the league. All three of those games were played at Barclays Center. Perhaps the tournament's move to Pittsburgh is just what the doctor ordered for the Patriots. Any way you look at it, Mason fans have reason to be optimistic for the first time since coach Jim Larranaga bolted for Miami and swingman Luke Hancock took his talents to Louisville after the 2011 season.

Visit For Pete's Sake for some photos from Wednesday's action in Brooklyn, shot by your's truly. Or you can check them out on my Instagram page.

Stay tuned for continuing coverage of the Big East and Atlantic 10 tournaments throughout the weekend. Here's a look at the updated brackets heading into Thursday.

Big East Tournament bracket from Wikipedia

Atlantic 10 Championship bracket from Wikipedia