The Big East has five teams ranked in the Top 25: Georgetown
Hoyas, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Louisville
Cardinals, Connecticut Huskies, and whatever the Marquette Warriors are now
called. Two more teams have 22 wins: West Virginia Mountaineers and the Pittsburgh
Panthers.

To say the least, the 2008 Big East Men’s Basketball
Tournament should be one of the most hotly contested ever. This is perhaps why
the Vegas odds
are so close. John Thompson Jr. and the Georgetown Hoyas,
led by Roy Hibbert and Jonathan Wallace, are the
favorites at 3/2.

However, Louisville
is very close behind at 5/2 and Connecticut
and Notre Dame are 5/1. Rick Pitino and his Cardinals have very much rebounded
from early season injuries that saw David Padgett miss 10 games, Juan Palacios
out for nine and Derrick Caracter have some off court
distractions.

Marquette and Pittsburgh
are both fairly long shots at 12/1. Pitt though won 3-of-4 to enter the
postseason after a midseason conference swoon. Marquette
has only one conference tournament win in six years and stumbled across the
finish line.

The once highly regarded Villanova Wildcats can be had at
15/1. Bob Huggins current team, the West Virginia Mountaineers are at 15/1 and
the team he made his name with, the Cincinnati Bearcats are 30/1, the same odds
as Seton Hall. The Providence Friars backed into the tournament, but with a
recent win to Connecticut,
perhaps the 40/1 odds a a
bit steep.

Though most sportsbooks
have posted the March Madness tournament lines, these quoted odds are courtesy
of NewBodog