Big East Getting Its Way Once Again On and Off Court

Well, the Beast is back.

The Big East, the bully of college basketball conferences in the 1980s that got kicked around as the ‘90s wore on when the mid-majors such as the neighboring Atlantic 10 bulked up, is throwing its weight around again.

The Big East’s winning percentage against nonconference competition is its highest in six seasons--.768. Georgetown, at 16-1, has brought back memories of the play-with-a-chip-on-your-shoulder Patrick Ewing era. Two teams are ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 (Syracuse and Georgetown), three others in the Top 25 (Connecticut, Seton Hall and Boston College) and five others in the Top 64 of the RPI ratings (Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John’s and Villanova). That adds up to 10 potential teams in the NCAA tournament, though it would be sheer March Madness if that happened.

The conference is on such a roll these days that it’s even winning battles in cyberspace. It was announced Thursday that the owner of www.bigeast.com will give the domain name to the Big East to settle a federal lawsuit.

Recently, those who visited that Internet address hoping to get the big picture in the Big East got a peep hole to a different view--an advertisement encouraging them to “Pick Your Porno Pleasure” as well as other links to pornography.

The Big East had been forced to operate its official site at www.bigeast.org when it was beaten to the domain-name punch by Michael Agnew of Davidsonville, Md., seven years ago. Agnew registered the www.bigeast.com domain name for his company, East Coast Urethane Inc., because it sold “Big East” skateboard wheels.

When the wheels came off Agnew’s now-defunct company, the porno ads went on. Agnew said he decided to feature pornography on the site because of the potential of www.bigeast.com luring college sports fans, a demographic often targeted by pornography sites.

The embarrassed Big East, which has seven Catholic schools in its 14-school membership, was not only reeling from complaints about the site, but from Agnew’s demand of $100,000 to give up the domain name. First the conference made an offer of $2,500--which Agnew refused.

Then the Big East retaliated with the force of a Dikembe Mutombo elbow. It not only refused to make another offer to Agnew because he had agreed in April of 1999 to stop using pornography on the site, it also filed a suit this week against the cybersquatter. The outcome was a slam dunk for the Big East, according to Anthony DeGidio, a Toledo, Ohio-based attorney who specializes in Internet law and domain-name disputes.

“When you put porno stuff with somebody’s famous trademark, it’s almost always found to be tarnishment,” DeGidio told Bloomberg News.

Agnew and his Web hosting company will transfer the domain name to the conference at their own expense. No financial terms were released.

Now the Big East can get back to business on the basketball court--where it hopes to flex its muscles again come NCAA tournament time against the bad boys of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific 10 and SEC.

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No ‘Cat-scratch fever: It used to be that beating Kentucky was a big deal around the SEC, particularly for Mississippi. After all, from 1925-1996, the Rebels defeated the Wildcats less than half as many times as there was a presidential inauguration.

But, after Mississippi defeated Kentucky, 65-55, Saturday at Oxford, Miss., there was no storming the court by a Rebel-roused crowd or talk by the players about the respect they’ll get by beating the Wildcats. It seems the Rebels came into the game more concerned about simply getting back on track after consecutive losses had put a damper on their best start in decades.

“We didn’t talk about Kentucky [leading up to the game],” said Mississippi Coach Rod Barnes. “We just talked about getting back to doing what we do well.”

The victory was the third in five seasons for Mississippi over Kentucky. In the first 97 games between the teams, the Rebels won only 11.

Indicative of how times have changed: Mississippi, at No. 21 in the nation, came into the game ranked ahead of Kentucky for the first time in the 76-year series, and has a 15-3 overall record compared with the Wildcats’ 10-6.

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Fast food for thought: Texas A&M; Coach Melvin Watkins is impressed that No. 5 Kansas can bring a player such as 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Drew Gooden off the bench and get all-conference numbers.

Gooden, who has been used in a sixth-man role much of the season by Coach Roy Williams, had 19 points and 10 rebounds in only 19 minutes in the Jayhawks’ 100-70 victory over Watkins’ Aggies at Lawrence, Kan.

“It really tells you something when players like Drew Gooden are not even starting,” Watkins said. “When you have McDonald’s All-Americans, Burger King All-Americans and whatnot, you’ve always got a good player on the bench.”

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Cooking 101: St. John’s Coach Mike Jarvis sounded more like the “Galloping Gourmet” than a basketball coach after his team beat Villanova, 82-70, in New York for its sixth victory in seven games.

“It takes a while to make the sauce right,” Jarvis said. “We had the tomatoes, the hamburger, the garlic. We were trying to find the right combination of the ingredients.”

Jarvis was talking about a switch to a three-guard offense, not one of the recipes of Lou Carnesecca, the former longtime St. John’s coach who regularly attends home games.

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A real blowout: After Arkansas made 13 consecutive shots in the second half to make it a cakewalk against No. 15 Alabama in what would be an 87-58 victory at Fayetteville, Ark., Razorback fans broke into a chorus of “Happy Birthday” with 1:19 left for Crimson Tide Coach Mark Gottfried, who turned 37.