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2006 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

2006 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
Classification Division I
Season 2005–06
Teams 12
Site Madison Square Garden
New York City
Champions Syracuse (5th title)
Winning coach Jim Boeheim (5th title)
MVP Gerry McNamara (Syracuse)
Top scorer Gerry McNamara (Syracuse)
(65 points)
← 2005
2007 →
2005–06 Big East men's basketball standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   PCT     W   L   PCT
#2 Connecticut 14 2   .875     30 4   .882
#3 Villanova 14 2   .875     28 5   .848
#22 West Virginia 11 5   .688     22 11   .667
Marquette 10 6   .625     20 11   .645
#23 Georgetown 10 6   .625     23 10   .697
#16 Pittsburgh 10 6   .625     25 8   .758
Seton Hall 9 7   .563     18 12   .600
Cincinnati 8 8   .500     21 13   .618
Rutgers 7 9   .438     19 14   .576
Louisville 6 10   .375     21 13   .618
Notre Dame 6 10   .375     16 14   .533
DePaul* 5 11   .313     12 15   .444
Providence* 5 11   .313     12 15   .444
St. John's* 5 11   .313     12 15   .444
South Florida* 1 15   .063     7 22   .241
#21 Syracuse†** 0 9   .000     0 12   .000
2006 Big East Tournament winner
As of April 3, 2006; Rankings from AP Poll
*Did not qualify for 2006 Big East Tournament.
**Syracuse had 23 regular season games vacated due to sanctions against the program; Syracuse′s disputed record was 7–9, 23–12

The 2006 Big East Men's Basketball Championship was played from March 8 to March 11, 2006. The tournament took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was a single-elimination tournament with four rounds. Villanova and Connecticut tied for the best regular season conference record. Based on tie-breakers, Connecticut was awarded the #1 seed.
The Syracuse Orange won the tournament for the second consecutive season and fifth time overall, and were awarded an automatic bid to the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. As a 9-seed, the Orange are the lowest seeded team to win the Big East Tournament, and became the first school to win four games in the tournament.Gerry McNamara of Syracuse was given the Dave Gavitt Trophy, awarded to the tournament's most outstanding player.

This tournament is best remembered for Syracuse's improbable run to the championship as a #9 seed, with McNamara pulling off excellent 3-point shooting and some improbable buzzer beaters and last-second shots to lead them. In the first game, after Devan Downey of Cincinnati stole the inbounds pass with ten seconds left and was fouled, he made one of two to put the Bearcats up two points. However, with just a half second left, McNamara made a running one-handed three-pointer to secure the victory, 74–73.

After jumping out to a big lead against Connecticut in the second game, Uconn battled back for much of the game until they finally took their first lead of the game with 30 seconds to play. Incredibly, McNamara was the hero for Syracuse again, hitting a 30-foot three-pointer with 5 seconds left to send the game into overtime. The Orange went on to win 86–84, holding off the Huskies on a last-second effort. McNamara finished with thirteen assists, ten in the first half alone.


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