The 2006 Big East Men's Basketball Championship was played from March 8 to March 11, 2006. The tournament 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 ...

. 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. Villanova and

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

tied for the best regular season conference record. Based on tie-breakers, Connecticut was awarded the #1 seed.
The

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

won the tournament for the second consecutive season and fifth time overall, and were awarded an automatic bid to the

2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2006 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2005–06 basketball seaso ...

. As a 9-seed, the Orange are the lowest seeded team to win the Big East tournament, and became the first school to win four games in the tournament.

Gerry McNamara Gerry McNamara (born August 28, 1983) is an American former basketball player and current head coach of the Siena Saints men's basketball team. Gerry is the former associate head coach of the Syracuse University men's basketball team. A forme ...

of Syracuse was given the Dave Gavitt Trophy, awarded to the tournament's most outstanding player. Due to NCAA sanctions for the use of ineligible players, all of Syracuse's wins from the 2005–06 season, including its four Big East tournament wins, later were vacated.

Syracuse's Run

This tournament is best remembered for Syracuse's improbable run to the championship as a #9 seed, with McNamara pulling off excellent 3-point shooting and some improbable buzzer beaters and last-second shots to lead them. In the first game, after Devan Downey of Cincinnati stole the inbounds pass with ten seconds left and was fouled, he made one of two to put the Bearcats up two points. However, with just a half second left, McNamara made a running one-handed three-pointer to secure the victory, 74–73. After jumping out to a big lead against Connecticut in the second game, UConn battled back for much of the game until they finally took their first lead of the game with 30 seconds to play. Incredibly, McNamara was the hero for Syracuse again, hitting a 30-foot three-pointer with 5 seconds left to send the game into overtime. The Orange went on to win 86–84, holding off the Huskies on a last-second effort. McNamara finished with thirteen assists, ten in the first half alone. They faced Georgetown in the semifinals in their attempt to become the first team to win the Big East tournament as one of the teams forced to play on the first day, requiring four wins in a row. The Hoyas went up early, holding a fifteen-point lead at the half. McNamara sat out for ten minutes because of a nagging groin injury. Surprising everyone, McNamara came out in the second half and drained five three-pointers, including one with 45 seconds left and the Orange down four.

Demetris Nichols Demetris Nichols (born September 4, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. He can play at both the small forward and power forward positions. Nichols played college basketball with the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team ...

knocked away the inbounds pass for Georgetown, allowing McNamara to take possession and rush down the floor with time running out. He passed to an open Eric Devendorf who laid the winning shot in with 1.5 seconds to go. The Orange had advanced to the finals, beating Georgetown, 58–57. After improbably winning three straight games either in overtime or by one point, they got a slightly easier win in the finals against Pittsburgh, winning 65–61. The Orange led most of the game, but midway through the second half, the Panthers had taken the lead. McNamara quickly made a three-point shot after that and

Josh Wright Joshua William Wright (born 6 November 1989) is an English Association football, manager and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently manager of club Ebbsfleet United F.C., Ebbsfleet United. Wright played fo ...

made four clutch free throws in the final minute to secure the historic championship. Syracuse had finished just 7–9 in the Big East that year, and would have likely been left out of the NCAA tournament had they not pulled off at least two of the four wins. They would go on to lose to

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

in the first round of the

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 ...

.Orange Hoops 2006 season recap
/ref>

Bracket

* – Overtime Notes: By finishing below twelfth place during the regular season, DePaul,

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in some religions * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

, St. John's, and

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

did not qualify for the tournament. The NCAA later vacated all of Syracuse's victories during the 2005–06 season, including its four tournament wins, because of the use of an ineligible player.

Games

*1st round: Wednesday, March 8 :Noon :2PM :7PM :9PM *Quarterfinals: Thursday, March 9 :Noon :2 PM :7 PM :9 PM *Semifinals: Friday, March 10 :7 PM :9 PM *Finals: Saturday, March 11 :8 PM

Awards

Dave Gavitt Trophy (Most Outstanding Player):

, Syracuse All-Tournament Team *

Aaron Gray Aaron Michael Gray (born December 7, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player who played seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A heart condition forced him into early retirement in 2015. Early life and ed ...

, Pittsburgh *

Carl Krauser Carl Isaac Krauser (born May 13, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for the Quebec Kebs of the National Basketball League of Canada. He was a point guard for the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsb ...

, Pittsburgh *

, Syracuse *

Darryl Watkins Darryl Finesse Watkins (born November 8, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player who played for BTN CLS Knights Indonesia of the Asean Basketball League. He is a former college basketball player for the Syracuse Orange who h ...

, Syracuse *

Randy Foye Randy Foye (born September 24, 1983) is an American former professional basketball player. He played collegiately at Villanova University. He was selected seventh overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, but was immediately traded to ...

, Villanova

References

{{2006 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

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 ...

2000s in Manhattan