Charles Barkley: Big East “Is The Most Overrated Conference”

by Dan Fogarty | 12:43 pm, March 17th, 2011

Charles Barkley didn’t waste any time making strong statements as a member of CBS’ NCAA Tournament coverage, and it may irk some fans of the Big East. According to Barkley, the conference with (by far) the most teams in the tournament is also the most overrated.

“You’re wrong about the Big East,” Barkley said, in response to Greg Anthony’s assertion that the Big East would have a strong tournament run. “They’re the most overrated conference and let me tell you this: this will be the first loss today.”

That “first loss” Barkley was referring to was for West Virginia, which plays Clemson today at 12:15PM on CBS. If the first 15 minutes of pregame coverage is any indication, this should be an entertaining run of in-studio moments. Here’s video of the (highly-opinionated) segment, courtesy of CBS.

Ustk31

WVU, just beat Clemson….
Big East is the strongest conference in the nation.
11 teams in the tournament, i mean come on! Big East is superior!
ojunc9

haha idiot because they beat clemson one of the last four teams in, and barely at that. Then because the NCAA tournament committee decided they had 11 teams good enough to make it? That doesn’t mean anything and they will continue to get exposed in the next couple weeks.
itsa racket

Barkley is right. The Big Least is the most overrated conference. St. Johns, Louisville and Villanova are proving just how over rated the conference is. 11 teams in the dance is ridiculous, 6 at most would have been fair.
money

Barkley is right the Big East year in year out is always the most overrated conference. UCONN in 2004 was the last Big East team to win the national championship. That was 7 years ago.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YUP5EUUO7GN23V2HCH52AD5ZS4 Rod

The Big East is the Big Let down. I’m a Big East fan, but they aren’t doing well in this year’s tournament.
GW

He missed it by one round…. They lost to Kentucky. The 2nd round for other big east teams seated 4, Louisville and lower proves they maybe should have had 7 in the tournament…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000426106933 Bradley Bagwell

I don’t know what crack you’ve been smoking but the BIG LEAST is the most overrated conference EVER. In the past 5 years (they’ve been considered the best but they have ZERO national championships in that time period.) The Big Least has the same amount of national championships in the past ten years as the SEC does. The ACC has 5 out of ten including the past two but you guys think they suck. The Big Least has more teams in (BECAUSE THEY HAVE 4 MORE TEAMS IN THEIR CONFERENCE DUH) but they don’t do SHIT in the tourney…see Pitt. The highly ranked Big East teams can’t even win the Big East tourney, what makes you fools think they can do work in the NCAA tourney? After today the Big EAST will only have 3 teams in the sweet 16 (if ND wins). One of those teams has to play another Big East team so the Big East is guaranteed atleast two in the sweet-16. That’s HORRIBLE considering you had twice/almost three times as many teams as other conferences…and that makes you the BEST? GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE AND GET A HIGHER BASKETBALL IQ…
AG

2 out of 11 Big East teams in the Sweet 16, and those 2 got in by default. What a joke.
Anonymous

St. Mary’s would have won the big least. There’s really only one good player in the entire league. Sucks that the two teams that got in only had to get past the inferior competition from their own weak conference.
Sjones87

The Big East Sucks and the ACC Rocks
Ljlrrich

Yeah, well by picking Big east teams my bracket is now pretty much toast! If they’re so dang good how come they can’t win? Big East = politics.