News and Notes: UConn and the Big East proved the league's depth in NCAA Tournament, how the "other six" of the "Catholic 7" still have room to grow, Ed Croswell earns honors in Portsmouth

1. As much as Providence supporters cringed their way through Connecticut’s national championship run this March, the Big East made quite a statement about the depth of the league this spring — and they did it in a season in which Villanova was watching from home come tournament time.

For all Nova did to solidify the league’s legitimacy since 2013 (a pair of national titles, another Final Four appearance in 2022, and a 22-6 NCAA Tournament record in a ten-year span has a way of doing that), the knock on the Big East has been its depth beyond the Wildcats.

It’s not a wholly unfair argument. For as well as the Big East fared during regular season play, NCAA Tournament success was hard to come by for the “Catholic 7” schools outside of Villanova.

In fact, with their six NCAA Tournament wins this spring, UConn matched the tournament win total of the “other six” of Catholic 7 since the league realigned in 2013. Providence is 3-7 during that time, Seton Hall and Marquette are both 1-4, Georgetown is 1-2, St. John’s 0-2, and DePaul hasn’t played in a tournament game.

That’s a combined 6-19 record since the 2013-14 campaign.

The league won 12 NCAA Tournament games in 2023, with Creighton (3), Xavier (2), and Marquette (1) chipping in with victories.

Since the realignment of 2013, here are the NCAA Tournament records for every team in the Big East as members of the league: