The 2003

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 ...

, a part of the 2002–03 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, took place from March 12–15, 2003, 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 will receive 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 2003 NCAA tournament. It was 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 four highest seeds (two from each Big East division) receive

byes In cricket, a bye is a type of extra. It is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batter and the ball has not hit the batter's body. Scoring byes Usually, if the ball passes the batter without being deflected, th ...

in the first round. The 6 Big East teams with the best conference records from both the East and West Divisions of the Big East Conference were invited to participate. Boston College, who had an identical 10–6 record as Connecticut, received the #1 seed from the East Division due to a tie breaker. Likewise, Syracuse, who had an identical 13–3 conference record to Pitt, received the #1 seed from West Division due to tiebreakers. Virginia Tech from the East Division and Rutgers from the West Division failed to make the tournament.
Pittsburgh defeated Connecticut, 74–56, in the finals to earn its first Big East tournament championship.

Bracket

* denotes an

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

(OT) period Note: By finishing in last place during the regular season in their respective divisions,

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

and

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

did not qualify for the tournament.

Championship game

On March 15, Pittsburgh won their first-ever Big East tournament, defeating Connecticut 74–56. They led by one at half-time, but quickly extended their lead in the second half.

Jaron Brown Jaron Brown (born January 8, 1990) is an American former professional American football, football wide receiver. He played college football for the Clemson Tigers football, Clemson Tigers. He was signed by the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted f ...

led the Panthers with a career-high 19 points. Brown converted all six of his

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

attempts and was 6-of-9 from the field. He added ten rebounds to notch his fourth career

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the ter ...

Julius Page Julius Marvin Page (born February 26, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. An athletic combo guard whose vertical leap was reported to be , he played high school basketball at Turner-Carroll High School in Buffalo, New York ...

and

Brandin Knight Brandin Adar Knight (born December 16, 1981
,

Chevon Troutman had 12. Page, a junior, averaged 13.3 points and 3.7

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

on 47.1 percent shooting (16-for-37) in the three tournament games. He won the Tournament

MVP MVP most commonly refers to: * Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition * Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering MVP may also refer to: ...

award. Knight averaged 12.0 points, 5.3 assists, 3.3 steals, and 3.3 rebounds in the tournament. It was the third straight title game reached for Pittsburgh. Howland and the Panthers lost to Uconn in double overtime in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. It tied the largest margin of victory for a Panther team in the Big East tournament. They also defeated Boston College by eighteen, winning 88–70 on March 8, 2000. The win was Pittsburgh's ninth in a row, tying their season high. They also won nine in a row to begin the season.

Awards

Dave Gavitt Trophy (Most Outstanding Player):

, Pittsburgh All-Tournament Team *

Brandin Knight Brandin Adar Knight (born December 16, 1981
,

Ben Gordon, Connecticut *

Emeka Okafor Chukwuemeka Ndubuisi Okafor (born September 28, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Okafor attended Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas and the University of Connecticut, where in 2004 he won a national championship. ...

, Connecticut * Craig Smith, Boston College *

Carmelo Anthony Carmelo Kyam Anthony ( ; born May 29, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Anthony played 19 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is a ten-time NBA All-Star Game, NBA All-Star and six-time All-NBA T ...

, Syracuse

References

External links

Big East website
{{2003 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

2000s in Manhattan