With the offseason upon us I wrote a feature article for BigEastCoastBias.com on the unique camaraderie among the Big East’s coaches and fans.

You can read the entire article by clicking here. Below is an excerpt:

The league needed to make a statement in year 2. It did.

Big East embracing identity, showing strength in non-conference play

That was the headline of an SI.com article written by Brian Hamilton on December 12, 2014. At that point the league had won 78.8% of their non-conference games, including some marquee wins like Butler beating North Carolina, Providence beating Notre Dame, Creighton beating Oklahoma and even perennial cellar-dweller DePaul beating a good Stanford team. Jay Wright had a quote in that article that is exactly the “cool” concept that I’m going to write about in this space:

“We do feel rejuvenated and excited by [the newly formed basketball-centric league]. And we root for each other. Then when we play during the season, we want to kill each other. It’s pretty cool.”

That is pretty cool. It also isn’t a concept seen throughout other leagues. I have a strong feeling that you won’t find too many Clemson fans rooting for Louisville or Oklahoma fans rooting for TCU. But that does happen in the Big East. Creighton fans did root for Providence. Marquette fans did root for Villanova. All 9 teams were rooting for Xavier in the Sweet 16 this season. The 6 Big East teams in the NCAA Tournament in 2015 had their own fanbases supplemented by those of the other schools. There was a genuine camaraderie and rooting interest. Don’t take my word for it. “Based on my perspective from interacting with fans on social media, it seemed that once the final buzzer of the BIG EAST Tournament sounded, fans from all teams came together to support all six teams in the NCAA Tournament,” said Kim Adams of the Big East Digital Network. Adams mentioned the uniqueness of the entire league rooting for Xavier in the Sweet 16. “It was really special to see fans across the conference pulling for Xavier – in just its second year in the conference – when they were the only team left standing in the Sweet 16.”