The Big East tournament kicks off tomorrow at noon with 12th seeded Syracuse facing No. 13 Providence followed by No.9 South Florida meeting No. 16 Pittsburgh. The night session begins at 6 p.m. with No. 10 Villanova meeting No. 15 Seton Hall followed by No. 11 Cincinnati squaring off with No. 14 Marquette. In the "not much has changed in a year" category, seven of the eight teams that played on the first day in the 2011 tournament will also be in action on the first day this year. West Virginia, which jumped from the 10th seed to No. 5, is the only school not slated to play on the first day for the second straight season.

In between sessions the Big East will announce its Coach of the Year, Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year awards. The all-conference and all-freshman teams as well as the Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Sportsmanship Award winner will be announced later today.

I made my predictions yesterday including Kelly Faris being the Defensive Player of the Year but history is not on my or UConn's side as Ashley Battle following the 2002-03 season is the only UConn player to be named the conference's top defensive player in the last 13 seasons even though the Huskies have led the conference in field goal percentage defense 12 times during that span and topped the conference in scoring defense for the fourth straight season. Perhaps the most remarkable statistic is that the Huskies led the Big East in scoring margin for the 20th straight year.