The 2012–13 Big East Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2012 and ended with the 2013 Big East men's basketball tournament 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 ...

March 12–16, 2013 in

Manhattan, New York Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. The regular season began in November, with the conference schedule starting on December 31, 2012. 2012-13 marked the 34th year of the Big East, and the 2013 men's basketball Championship marked the 31st anniversary of the Big East at Madison Square Garden, the longest-running conference tournament at one venue in the country. With

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

now in the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

, the 2012-13 Big East Conference schedule included 4 repeat games.

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

was ineligible for postseason tournament participation due to low APR scores, The Huskies were also ineligible for the 2013 Big East tournament; the school unsuccessfully appealed the ruling. The 2012–13 season was the last for the Big East in its original form. In December 2012, the seven Big East schools that do not sponsor Division I FBS football— DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's,

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

, and Villanova, collectively called the "

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

7"—announced they would leave the Big East to start a new conference of their own. On March 8, 2013, the "Catholic 7" and the remaining Big East schools announced a separation agreement. Under the agreement, the "Catholic 7" purchased the Big East name and the contract with Madison Square Garden for the conference tournament, and began operating under the Big East name beginning on July 1, 2013. The remaining schools, which kept the charter of the original Big East, announced on April 3 that they would operate as the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

(The American). This was also the final season for Notre Dame,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, and

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 ...

, all of which left for the ACC on July 1, 2013. On the same day, SMU, UCF, Memphis,

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

became full members of The American.

Preseason

Coaching changes

Jim Calhoun James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is an American former college basketball coach. He is best known for his tenure as head coach of the University of Connecticut (UConn) men's basketball team. His teams won three NCAA national championships ( ...

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. ...

announced his retirement on September 13, 2012.

Kevin Ollie Kevin Jermaine Ollie (born December 27, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player who most recently was the interim head coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the former head coach of the ...

, an assistant under Calhoun for the previous two years, was named Calhoun's successor.

Predicted Big East results

At Big East media day on October 17, the conference released their predictions for standings and All-Big East teams. ''first place votes''

2012-13 Preseason All-Big East Teams

Big East Preseason Player of the Year: Peyton Siva, Louisville
Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year:

Steven Adams Steven Funaki Paea He Ofa Ki Loa Adams (born 20 July 1993) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing one season with the Wellington Saints, in 2011, Adam ...

, Pittsburgh

Preseason Watchlists

Regular season

Head coaches

: Mick Cronin, Cincinnati :

, Connecticut :

Oliver Purnell Oliver Gordon Purnell Jr. (born May 19, 1953) is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Radford University from 1988 to 1991, Old Dominion University from 1991 to 1994, the University of Dayt ...

, DePaul :

John Thompson III John Robert Thompson III (born March 11, 1966) is an American professional basketball coach and executive who has been the assistant coach for the United States men's national basketball team since 2017. He previously served as the head coach of ...

, Georgetown :

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (; born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University. He was also the head coach of Greece national basketball t ...

, Louisville :

Buzz Williams Brent Langdon "Buzz" Williams (born September 1, 1972) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach at the University of Maryland. He previously served as head coach at Texas A&M from 2019 to 2025, Virginia Tech from 2014 to 2019, Marq ...

, Marquette :

Mike Brey Michael Paul Brey (born March 22, 1959) is an American basketball coach (sport), coach. Currently an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association, he was previously the men's head basketball coach at the Universit ...

, Notre Dame :

Jamie Dixon James Patrick Dixon II (born November 10, 1965) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach of the TCU Horned Frogs men's team, where he played college ball. He previously served as the head coach of the University of Pittsburg ...

, Pittsburgh :

Ed Cooley Ed Cooley (born September 10, 1969) is an American college basketball coach and currently the head coach of the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball program. Cooley held the same position at Providence College from 2011 to 2023, and Fairfield Univ ...

, Providence : Mike Rice, Rutgers :

Steve Lavin Stephen Michael Lavin (born September 4, 1964) is an American college basketball coach and former broadcaster who is the head coach of the San Diego Toreros men's basketball team at the University of San Diego (USD). He previously served as head ...

, St. John's :

Kevin Willard Kevin Schreiber Willard (born April 6, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and the incoming men's basketball head coach at Villanova University. Willard played basketball at Western Kentucky during the 1992–93 season before transfer ...

, Seton Hall :

Stan Heath Stanley Heath III (born December 17, 1964) is an American basketball coach currently serving as the head coach for Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball, Eastern Michigan. Heath formerly served as head coach at the South Florida Bulls men's b ...

, South Florida :

Jim Boeheim James Arthur Boeheim Jr. ( ; born November 17, 1944) is an American former college basketball coach and current Special Assistant to the Athletic Director at Syracuse University. From 1976 until 2023, he was the head coach of the Syracuse Orange ...

, Syracuse : Jay Wright, Villanova

Composite matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play. (x) indicates games scheduled this season. ''As of completion of games on March 6th''

Rankings

Weekly honors

Throughout the conference regular season, the Big East names a player of the week and rookie of the week each Monday.

Postseason

Big East tournament

* March 12–16, 2013– Big East Conference Basketball Tournament,

Manhattan, NY Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely ...

NCAA tournament

National Invitation tournament

Awards and honors

Conference awards and teams

The

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

, Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Scholar Athlete of the Year awards are announced, after the conclusion of the first session of the Big East tournament. The remainder of the individual awards are announced at the conclusion of the regular season.

National awards and teams

Players

= Award finalists

NBA draft

Several players from the conference declared early for the NBA draft. Several players were among the 60 players invited to the 2013 NBA Draft Combine. The following list includes all Big East players who were drafted in the

2013 NBA draft The 2013 NBA draft was held on June 27, 2013, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including internation ...