NCAA Tournament: Big 12 has company

The Big 12 is having a miserable NCAA Tournament. But the Big 12 has some company. The Big East is gasping, too.

Among the major conferences, the Big 12 has the worst NCAA record this season — 4-4. But the Big 12 is matched by, yes, the Big East, which is 9-9.

Think about that. The Big East had 11 teams placed into the 68-team bracket but has pushed fewer teams into the Sweet 16 than has the ACC, which had just four teams in the tournament. The Big East has Marquette and Connecticut; the ACC has Duke, North Carolina and Florida State.

during a Southeast Regional NCAA college basketball tournament third round game Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, March 19, 2011. Wisconsin won 70-65. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Ironically, the Big East’s two regional semifinalists had to beat fellow Big East teams to advance — Marquette over Syracuse, UConn over Cincinnati. You could argue that such a packed bracket kept the Big East from perhaps having four in the Sweet 16. Or you could argue that such a packed bracket is what helped the Big East get any into the second weekend.

Here are the conference records: ACC 7-1 (three in the Sweet 16); Big Ten 7-5 (two); SEC 4-3 (two); Pac-10 4-3 (one); Big East 9-9 (two); Big 12 4-4 (one). Among the mid-majors, the Mountain West is 4-1 (two), the Colonial 4-2 (one) and the Atlantic-10 3-2 (one).