A year ago, the Big East was UConn's league and college basketball's mountaintop was claimed by Dan Hurley. The man was in the process of solidifying his Hall of Fame credentials by guiding an all-time-great Huskies team to a sweep of Big East championships and a 37-3 record while clinching  an accomplishment for eventual inclusion in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame: back-to-back national titles.

Steve Masiello is associate head coach at St. John's, so maybe he's a little biased, but he'll eagerly make the case that his boss, Rick Pitino, is the best there ever was in this game.

Smith looked the best he has since bruising his right shoulder in a Jan. 11 win over Villanova. Since then, he missed four games and didn’t look like himself when he was on the floor, hesitant to shoot and favoring his right shoulder. But in 26 impactful minutes on Sunday, he had eight points and three steals and showed no hint of an injury.