Looking back, there’s little wonder that there was so much unforgettable basketball in those first years of the Big East. Those years, the early 1980s, were when college basketball coaches first became stars unto themselves.
They weren’t all in the Big East. There was Jimmy V. at North Carolina State and Dean Smith up the road in Chapel Hill. There was Bob Knight in Bloomington, Ind., and Jerry Tarkanian winning 25, 26 games a year in Vegas. Denny Crum was the king of Louisville. Guy V. Lewis had his checkered towel in Houston.
But the Big East had coaching stars who shone brighter than anyone. Four of them landed in the Hall of Fame — Lou Carnesecca, Jim Boeheim, John Thompson, Rollie Massimino. They were brilliant coaches and even better salesmen, and it was through their eyes and through their talent that the Big East became, 40 years ago this month, the king of the sport, three of them — Looie, Rollie and Big John — landing in the Final Four. And as if to run it in a little more, those games were played in the cradle of blue blood basketball, at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
There were others who came along later on — Jim Calhoun, Pete Gillen, Gary Williams — who augmented the high-wattage lineup. But it was those four who planted the seeds, who built the foundation.
