Rick Pitino, A St. John's Assistant And Dan Hurley Getting Into A Multi-Day Pissing Match Means One Thing - The Old Big East Is Officially Back

[Source] - We've had unbelievable success here in basketball. There are programs who haven't been to a Final Four, or haven't been to the NCAA Tournament in 20 years, so there's obviously a lot of punching up."

Oh hell yeah. Nothing gets me going like a little pissing match between coaches. In case you missed it because, you know, football, we had St. John's and UConn over the weekend. It was actually a good game too! I'm not just saying that because I'm begging you to like my sport, it's just a fact. But anyways, that game was at UConn which makes this all even funnier. Pitino has had enough of UConn fans taking over MSG. I mean, I don't blame him. It's called Storrs South for a reason. There's a legit shot UConn fans talk about how they own MSG as much as they do their 5 national titles. 

So Pitino doesn't want that to happen. He says they are playing UConn at Carnesecca next year which is just smart. Play them on campus at the smaller arena and limit how many UConn fans can even get there. You're trying to save a program here so you can't take any small steps. You gotta do whatever it takes for an edge. Why let a home game become a road game when you're playing at MSG? 

But that's not the point here. We have these guys going at it, Dan Hurley mentioning the punching up comment. It seemed to cool off a for a couple days before St. John's assistant (former Manhattan coach) Steve Masiello threw this out last night

Waiting a couple days and in the middle of the college football playoffs to throw this out there is fucking hilarious. That's how you keep a rivalry going. That's how you build a rivalry because you can't really call UConn/St. John's a rivalry right now. St. John's has been awful no matter who has been in charge. Listing his Final Fours is also a great move because that has nothing to do with St. John's. No one is saying Pitino can't coach, that's fucking insane. Might as well list off some accomplishments! 

This is what I need though. I hold the Big East near and dear to my heart. It's arguably the most fun league to watch. They still have the double round robin and the new teams have fit in with the old teams. But I want the old teams to hate each others guts. I don't care if it's St. John's/UConn or Providence/Georgetown or Nova/Seton Hall or anything like that. Hate each other. That's how the Big East was built. You had these massive coaches with bigger personalities and they weren't afraid to say whatever about each other. I'm talking the days of Carnesecca, Rollie, John Thompson, Pitino, Calhoun, Boeheim, etc. We gotta get back to that. 

They shouldn't have to wait a year for this. Move the February game to Carnesecca right now. I don't know how you can do it, but you gotta do it. Pitino needs to work his magic and get it done. Then UConn fans need to find a way to pack that instead of MSG. There's truly nothing like Big East basketball and this is just another reason why. It's back.