The 1997

Big East men's basketball tournament The Big East Men's Basketball Tournament is the championship tournament of the Big East Conference in men's basketball. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. As part of the 2013 deal in which seven schools ...

took place at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Its winner received the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

automatic bid An automatic bid is a bid or berth to a tournament, granted based on performance in prior competition, and not based on subjective picking (see: at-large bid). It is used in the United States in all professional sports, in which all playoff bids a ...

to the 1997 NCAA tournament. It is a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

with four rounds and the three highest seeds received byes in the first round. All 13 Big East teams were invited to participate.

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

and Villanova finished with the best record in the regular season. After tie-breakers, Villanova was awarded the top seed. Boston College defeated Villanova in the final, 70–58 to earn its first Big East tournament championship. Future NFL quarterback

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played college ...

participated in the tournament as a reserve forward for Syracuse.

Bracket

Awards

Dave Gavitt Trophy (Most Outstanding Player): Scoonie Penn, Boston College All-Tournament Team * Danya Abrams, Boston College * Victor Page, Georgetown * Scoonie Penn, Boston College * Tim Thomas, Villanova *

Alvin Williams Alvin Leon Williams Jr. (born August 6, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player who played for Villanova University and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1997 to 2007. College career Williams graduated from G ...

, Villanova * Duane Woodward, Boston College

References

General: {{1997 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

Big East men's basketball tournament College basketball tournaments in New York City Sports competitions in Manhattan

1990s in Manhattan