Big East, MSG joined at the hip
Conference returning to NYC to crown champion
PROVIDENCE – Even in those early years of Big East basketball, getting to Madison Square Garden for the postseason conference tournament was a goal that was not left on the cutting room floor, but rather the table itself.
Sitting in the Providence Civic Center boardroom in May 1979, Mike Tranghese remembers how his close friend/mentor Dave Gavitt concluded the meeting. The Big East had yet to formally get off the ground and Gavitt was talking big. Big Apple big, in fact.
“Dave said, ‘Oh by the way, we’re playing our first three tournaments (in Providence), but we’re going to the Garden as soon as we can. I’ll know when it’s the right time,’” Tranghese recalled him saying. “He said it half-handedly and I remember saying to myself, ‘These people don’t understand what he’s saying.’”
As usual, Gavitt remained ahead of the curve thanks to his unique brand of visionary tactics. The fact that the Big East Tournament this week is celebrating 35 consecutive years under Madison Square Garden’s famed bright lights is a testament to each party’s staying power. When you think Big East basketball, you think conference tourney, early March, and the hallowed hall known as the “World’s Most Famous Arena.” Book it, confirm it. “Without question of all the conferences, the Big East has the best venue,” Tranghese said, a former longtime Big East commissioner (1990-2009) and nowadays a senior advisor for basketball at Providence College. “People everywhere in the country know it’s being played in New York.”
Tell the average fan to take a quiz at where all the other upper-tier conference tournaments are taking up residence this week. Chances are they’ll probably struggle to identify the ACC heading to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, or the Big Ten at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. There’s no reason to feel ashamed – both leagues are utilizing first-time locations.
The SEC is starting to get the idea with Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena hosting for the fifth time in the past eight years. Next year, the scene shifts to the Scottrade Center in St. Louis before returning to Nashville in 2019.
Follow the bouncing ball? How about following the conference tournament? You can become dizzy trying to keep up with what league is playing where, or you can truly appreciate the empire the Big East has built in the shadow of the Empire State Building.
“That’s never an issue with the Big East. Everyone knows it’s New York City, Madison Square Garden,” Tranghese said. “That’s because there’s been a 35-year investment in it.”
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As the assistant to the commissioner during the league’s inception and through the 1980s, Tranghese had a front-row seat to many groundbreaking moments as the Big East sought to establish itself.
He remembers the day when Georgetown head coach John Thompson called Gavitt to inform him that 1981’s top high-school prospect in the country, Patrick Ewing, had committed to the Hoyas.
“Dave looked at me and said, ‘We’re going to New York. We’re going to talk to the Garden about it,’” Tranghese said. “Now we’ve got the cache.”
Gavitt had met Madison Square Garden President Sonny Werblin previously. The Ewing-to-Georgetown news provided the fledgling league with a trump card that was realized by Frank McGuire, the former head coach at St. John’s, North Carolina, and South Carolina who was hired by MSG officials as a basketball consultant.
“When we met, Frank was all onboard. He understood basketball and knew what it meant,” Tranghese said. “He knew the kind of players we had so he was very supportive.”
Gavitt and Tranghese traveled to New York a couple of times before an agreement was reached with Werblin. A Big East Tournament, that for three years had rotated between the Providence Civic Center, Syracuse’s Carrier Dome, and the Hartford Civic Center, was at last ready to head uptown.
“Off we went,” Tranghese said. “Dave didn’t want to go anywhere else. He wanted to be in New York.”
The first deal struck between the Big East and MSG was for three years. When St. John’s captured the inaugural Big East Tournament in 1983, it lent even more credibility to the belief that this marriage could work.
“Dave didn’t want to go to New York and have our tournament struggle. We expected to do well and I think the Garden expected the same,” Tranghese said. “To me those initial years in the 1980s … you couldn’t get a ticket. Scalping was ridiculous at the time.”
When Tranghese moved over to the commissioner’s chair, there was a little bit of a push from some people about the idea of moving the Big East Tournament. No way was that going to happen under his leadership.
“I just said that’s heresy. We’re not moving it. I wouldn’t even bring it up for discussion,” Tranghese said. “It was an event and so important to recruiting for everybody. It was a showcase and we got tremendous exposure. Plus, it was a big element in all television negotiations.”
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As he watched the league that Gavitt and he helped nurture splinter apart during the conference realignment arms race from earlier this decade, Tranghese in his heart of hearts knew that the Big East’s relationship with Madison Square Garden would endure. He knew the people responsible for constructing this current 10-team arrangement would be wise enough to recognize that playing in New York was at the heart of the league and should remain the case.
“I knew that coaches like (Villanova’s) Jay Wright, (Georgetown’s) John Thompson III, and (Providence’s) Ed Cooley were adamant about staying in New York,” Tranghese said. “They had a history and I knew they weren’t going to go anywhere else. It would have been crazy and not make any sense.”
The reaction of the ACC trying to create an imprint in New York has a twinge of Big East nostalgia to it, given the number of schools that shifted gears.
“As I say to people, they’re not coming to New York,” Tranghese said. “They’re coming to Brooklyn.”
What about the Big Ten invading the Big East’s turf beginning next year when Madison Square Garden hosts Michigan, Michigan State, and Wisconsin the week before Villanova and Providence make its annual March pilgrimage?
“What it’s done is probably heighten the resolve of the Big East to make certain that they do everything they have to do in order to keep the tournament in New York City,” Tranghese said. “I think the ACC and Big Ten being there is pretty odd, but we’ll see what happens.”
The current deal cements the Garden as the Big East’s postseason home for men's basketball through 2025-26. Fellow conferences like the ACC and Big Ten will likely continue to wage the never-ending battle of establishing a footprint in New York.
As the Big East would proudly attest, it is often imitated but never duplicated. That comes with a lengthy record of building a ton of hoops history under one famed roof.
“There’s been a lot of great players and moments and candidly, they’ll be more,” Tranghese said.