BE Championship to Begin Sunday for RU

The Scarlet Knights enter the Big East Tournament as a #2 seed after falling to #1 UConn at the XL Center in Connecticut. All games will be televised on BigEastTV and ESPNU, while the Championship game will be shown nationally on ESPN2.

The 2008 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Championship will get underway this weekend with the first match pitting No. 5 Pittsburgh vs. No. 12 Villanova, on Saturday, March 8th, with tip-off schduled for noon.

The Scarlet Knights will, for the second straight year enter the tournament as a #2 seed, after falling at UConn earlier this week in a game that decided the regular season Champion. #4/#5 Rutgers (24-5, 14-2) will begin play on Sunday, at 6 p.m. The Scarlet Knights will face the winner of No. 7 Louisville vs. No. 10 St. John’s, a game that will be played at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 8th.

The top four teams in the tournament received first round byes - thtis included #1 Connecticut,#2 Rutgers, #3 West Virginia, and #4 Notre Dame. All four of these participants will begin tournament play in the quarterfinals, on Sunday, awaiting the conclusion of first round games to be played on Saturday.

The Big East Tournament Semis will be played on Monday (Semifinal #1 at 6 p.m. and Semifinal #2 at 8 p.m.) while the Conference Championship will be played on Tuesday, March 11th. Television coverage, on ESPN2, of the Championship contest will begin at 7 p.m.

The Big East tournament champion will earn the conference's automatic berth into the 64-team NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.

For a complete Big East Tournament bracket, with date and times, please click to the right: Download Doc