'Old' Big East has lost its luster

Ah, remember the good old days when the Big East was the beast in college basketball, and Syracuse, Connecticut and Georgetown were regular participants in the NCAA tournament?

Well, with less than two months remaining until Selection Sunday, all three teams appear likely to be watching March Madness on television.

The Orange, a Final Four participant last season, are 12-9 and ranked No. 113 in the RPI. Connecticut, which won the 2014 national championship, is limping along at 9-11 with an RPI of 144. Georgetown has the best RPI of the trio – 81st – but is 11-10. The teams' KenPom ratings are 58, 104 and 61, respectively.

According to Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com, this would be the first time since 1993 – and only the second time since 1972 – that all three teams would be sitting out the Big Dance. Back in the days of the "old" Big East, which ran for 34 years between 1979 and 2013, the three combined for 70 NCAA appearances, 12 Final Fours and five national championships.

Syracuse left for the ACC and Connecticut for the AAC after 2013, while Georgetown stayed put.

In the preseason Associated Press rankings, UConn came in at No. 18 and Syracuse at 19. But the Huskies fell out almost immediately with losses to Wagner and Northeastern in their first two games. The Orange lasted until just after Thanksgiving.

The Hoyas are 2-6 in their conference after a 20-point win over a Creighton team missing its outstanding point guard, Maurice Watson Jr. Still, coach John Thompson III looked for positives in an upcoming stretch that includes a game at Butler and a home-and-home against Villanova.

"Despite how things have gone so far, there's plenty of opportunities in front of us," he said, "so let's just keep trying to get better and put ourselves in a position to take advantage of those opportunities."

Speaking of the old Big East, what has happened to Pittsburgh? Playing at home, the Panthers were hammered, 106-51, Tuesday night by Louisville, their largest margin of defeat since 1906. They went 12 minutes of the first half without a basket and trailed, 51-18, at halftime.

After it was over, first-year coach Kevin Stallings, who was ejected early in the second half, said he doesn't think his players "feel the need" to play at the level needed to compete in the ACC, where Pitt is 1-6.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Stalling said, "You're on a team, the expectations for each other should be, 'I'll give you my best, you give me your best, and let's do our best and see what we can do.' We don't have that simple lesson down yet."

Gonzaga coach Mark Few quoted a familiar refrain around these parts when asked about the reason for the Bulldogs' undefeated season to date.

"This group has done an excellent job of focusing on the process," Few said.

Ah, the process. The main thing is, if they can defeat Pepperdine on Saturday night to go to 22-0, the Bulldogs are likely to see themselves No. 1 in the AP rankings come Monday afternoon after both Villanova and Kansas lost earlier this week.

Gonzaga has three transfers from Power Five schools in Nigel Williams-Goss (Washington), Johnathan Williams (Missouri) and Jordan Mathews (California). Williams-Goss leads the team in scoring at 15.0 points per game, averages 5.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists and shoots 48.7 percent from the floor.

When critics blast the West Coast Conference, where Gonzaga has trailed for a total of 25 minutes in their nine league games, the Bulldogs can point to wins over three nationally ranked teams – Arizona, Florida and St. Mary's. They'll meet the Gaels again on Feb. 11 on the road.

According to an ESPN report, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has banned his players from the locker room and from wearing team apparel in the wake of a 1-3 record in its last four games. Jay Bilas, who played for and coached under Krzyzewski, said the move isn't such a big deal, telling the Raleigh News and Observer that "athletic teams run differently than your normal office." Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst, said the frustrating part of this for the players is "that a locker room issue became public." He said that while they're not laughing now, "they'll laugh later."

In a 57-53 loss last week against South Carolina, Florida went 0 for 17 from three-point range, breaking a streak of 850 games with at least one three-ball dating back to 1992. One week later, the Gators set a school record with 19 threes in a 106-71 win over Louisiana State. . . . Seton Hall center Angel Delgado leads the nation in rebounding at 12.9 per game. In the Big East, he has 111 more rebounds (258-147) than the player in second place, DePaul's Tre'Darius McCallum.

Miami's Ja'Quan Newton, who starred in high school at Neumann-Goretti, scored a career-high 23 points, including four free throws in the final 27 seconds, to lead the Hurricanes past Boston College. Newton, a 6-foot-2 junior, is the team's No. 2 scorer at 15.1 points per game and leads in assists at 3.9 per game. He is shooting 47.8 percent from the field after an 8-for-13 performance against the Eagles.

jjuliano@phillynews.com

@joejulesinq