NEW YORK – How many Big East games have you watched this year? Chances are, unless you’re a fan of one of the league’s eleven teams, it’s not very many. There is absolutely no way around the fact that the on-court product in the Big East does not have the national – or even regional – intrigue that it should.

There are only four teams with legitimate hopes of getting an NCAA Tournament bid, and one of them might just be in freefall. It’s not top-heavy either, as there’s only one team that is widely considered a national championship contender.

But on Friday night, when UConn plays St. John’s in the marquee Big East Game of the Year, singled out by the league and scheduled for this special, standalone power conference, network television window, the college basketball world will remember the singularity and inimitability of the Big East.

When Dave Gavitt dreamed up the idea of a conference for the nomadic basketball powers of the country's most populated region, this is the type of game that he pictured. The league has larger-than-life characters playing and coaching in larger-than-life settings, and has from the very start.

The Big East never would've been the Big East if it weren't for its initial crop of coaches. Carnesecca, Massimino, Thompson, Boeheim, and eventually, Calhoun and Carlesimo. Each time their respective teams played a game, the coaches displayed a caricature on national television of what a college basketball coach is.

Today, their legacy is carried on by the two most captivating and polarizing personalities in the sport, Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley.

They are two consummate northeast guys born just a river apart who grew up to be ruthless leaders, brash and controversial every time their mouths open, and most importantly, serial winners.

Between the two, there are four National Championships. No other conference in the country has multiple coaches with multiple titles. It's not just the jewelry on their fingers, but also what they represent.

Hurley, coming from basketball royalty, only somewhat recently emerging from the shadow of his brother and father in terms of success on a wide scale, but never shy to voice his opinion on anything. Whether it's to the media or to the officials.

Pitino, who ruffled the feathers of the original Big East fraternity when he took Providence to the Final Four in 1987 at age 35, and then went on to win over 900 games coaching college basketball with a swagger to him that no other coach can quite match. It takes a special type of character to be beloved by both Kentucky and Louisville fans.

Other leagues have charismatic coaches. Other leagues have great rivalries. Heck, other Big East games can sometimes be considered bigger rivalries. But no other league can produce an atmosphere and an intrigue the way the Big East can.

A lot of that comes down to Madison Square Garden.

"We'll have 10,000 people, they'll have 9,000 people," Pitino said on Inside College Basketball with Jon Rothstein this week. "It'll be magical."

He understands the importance of the Garden in building St. John's brand as a program. In Mike Anderson's final year at the helm, the Johnnies only played four regular-season games at MSG. That doubled in Pitino's first season, and then rose to nine last year, helping St. John's re-enter the national spotlight.

Pitino plays into the big city media market. He relishes being watched, loved, but also hated. Nothing he loves more (aside from winning basketball games) than stirring up intrigue.

I think back to the 2024 Big East semifinals, when a St. John's fan in a red suit sitting courtside next to the benches essentially caused the coaches to pick up double technical fouls. And that's the Big East for you.

For as much as St. John's fans love to pack the Garden, UConn fans are just as vocal in declaring it Storrs South. While the lower bowl will be filled up in St. John's red, the upper bowl? Full of delirious Husky blue, still drunk from the alcohol consumed at Legend's on 33rd street.

"It's a different electricity," Hurley said on Thursday. "I'm not sure there's another college game – and there are some incredible rivalries in college basketball – but I don't know that any of them would be able to produce the electricity just when you add in MSG and New York City."

He's right. It's not Duke/UNC at Cameron Indoor Stadium. That's unique. That's awesome. But you don't watch that game and feel the same type of energy as you do when you're watching a UConn/St. John's game between Hurley and Pitino at MSG.

In today's landscape of college basketball, no other power conference has an ecosystem as close-knit as the Big East. It's the only remaining double round-robin of the five top leagues. If you're a Big East fan, you are able to keep up with the entirety of the league much easier than fans of other leagues because of the bloated size.

You're also able to join Twitter spaces run by the conference and hosted by its human mascot, John Fanta, who may embody the spirit of the conference even better than anybody else.

His personality and passion rise to the occasion, matching the fans and coaches in a way that you can only find in the Big East. Eleven schools, eleven basketball schools.

F— southern hospitality. F— Minnesota nice. F— California cool.

This is the league for the northeast, by the northeast, and unapologetically northeast.

If that's not you. That's okay.

But there's nothing else in the sport like it.