Cincy just missed getting UConn's Kemba

WASHINGTON -- Even as the mighty Big East goes about its work of trying to devour college basketball, there is -- within the brute conference -- a conventional pecking order, only partly related to what everyone has done lately.

When UConn (27-9) faced its come-lately league brethren Cincinnati (26-8) in Saturday night's late Round of 32 NCAA joust here, the former had to its credit not only this year's conference tournament title, but also its status as a Big East charter member.

When the Big East was formed, in 1979, UConn was one of the seven originals; Cincinnati, which belonged at the time to the Metro Conference, has spent almost three decades embarked on a slow ascent up the ladder of prestige, through the Great Midwest Conference and Conference USA.

By the time Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2005, its Oscar Robertson era and the two NCAA titles that immediately followed his college career in 1961 and '62, were far too distant, and grounded in a period when college basketball was not yet a major business. Far more relevant to modern recruiting have been UConn's NCAA championships in 1999 and 2004.

This past regular season, Cincinnati actually enjoyed the greater success, with an 11-7 conference record compared to UConn's 9-9. But fourth-year Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin explained the hierarchy in his profession with this little tale:

"I went to Danny Hurley" -- then coach of high school power St. Benedict's Prep of Newark -- "and Mo Hicks" -- New York's Rice High School and AAU major-domo. "I said, 'I gotta rebuild this program and I need a player.'

"Danny said, 'I've got a guy, underrated, but he's tough. Rashad Bishop.' " Cronin signed Bishop to a scholarship virtually unseen. Then, "I said to Mo, 'Who you got?' Same description. Kemba Walker."

Bishop was an important find and has developed into an indispensable piece of the Cincinnati operation. UConn and Calhoun, meanwhile, got Walker, whom Cronin described as "arguably the best player in the country now." Because, as Calhoun said, "We knew that Kemba said to Mo Hicks at the time that his dream school was UConn."

Cronin, Walker said, "did a great job recruiting me. He had a good relationship with my parents, also. So if UConn didn't come in, it would most likely have been Cincinnati. But I really wanted to come to UConn my entire life."

It is the old haves-and-have-nots story. "In college basketball," Cronin said, "it's very competitive. Guys at the top don't throw the rope down to help you climb up. And the hardest thing is to get to believe in something they can't see. The difference now [at Cincinnati] is they can see it. But, behind the scenes, let's just say that everybody's not looking to help you."

So, while the Big East has reinforced its collective superiority in the national power structure this year with a record 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament field, within the Big East family there remains a food-chain fight.