When nine teams earn postseason bids, five make the NCAA Tournament, three reach the Sweet 16 and one finishes in the NIT championship game, it can't be considered too bad a year.

And it wasn't for the Big East. It's just that last season wasn't a great one for the conference, either -- and it had the potential to be that.

Syracuse, Miami, St. John's, Connecticut and Seton Hall were the league's NCAA Tournament qualifiers. Yet none made it past the Sweet 16 when it was thought that any of the first four could have.

Seton Hall, which was supposed to be a year away, actually wound up as the last Big East team still playing in the NCAA Tournament. Every other league team had been eliminated by the time the Pirates, minus senior point guard Shaheen Holloway, suffered their season-ending two-point loss to Oklahoma State in the East Regional semifinals.

Syracuse and Miami had offered the promise of so much more because the two returned nine of their 10 starters from NCAA Tournament teams in the 98-99 season. Connecticut, the defending national champion, never did get its act together, plagued by what seemed to be a season-long year-after hangover.

Villanova, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Rutgers earned NIT bids. The Irish, angry over their NCAA Tournament snub, used a strong NIT run to make up for it. They lost in the championship game to Wake Forest.

In addition to nine of the league's 13 teams making the postseason, more than half (seven) won 20 games. An eighth, Georgetown, won 19.

Conference champion

Connecticut was the coaches' preseason pick to win the league, but never seriously threatened for it, largely because Syracuse jumped out to a 10-0 conference start. The Huskies wound up a disappointing fourth, tied with Seton Hall, then came up empty in the Big East Tournament as well when they lost to St. John's in the championship game.

Syracuse, which opened 19-0 overall, staggered to a 7-6 finish, but still held on to share the regular-season title with late-surging Miami. It was the Hurricanes' first-ever share of the regular-season title.

St. John's, which missed out on tying Syracuse for first when it lost its final regular-season game to Miami, redemeed itself by winning the Big East Tournament for the first time since 1986, beating UConn in the title game.

Biggest disappointment

A tough call. Connecticut was the preseason No. 1 in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll, but spent most of the year making a steady descent through the rankings. The Huskies didn't win the Big East's regular-season title (they tied for fourth), didn't win the league's postseason tournament and then couldn't even make it past the Sweet 16.

Georgetown, meanwhile, returned five starters and was seen as an NCAA Tournament certainty in the preseason. But the Hoyas never once looked the part in Craig Esherick's first full season. They made a little run in the NIT to finish a respectable 19-15, but wound up just 6-10 in league play.

Biggest Surprise

St. John's exceeded expectations, considering all the physical limitations the Red Storm had, but no team exceeded them the way Seton Hall did. Starting three first-year players (freshmen Samuel Dalembert and Greg Morton and sophomore Darius Lane), the Pirates won 20 games for the first time since 1993 and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994.

Thanks largely to the revival of senior point guard Shaheen Holloway's career, Seton Hall finished tied with Connecticut for fourth after threatening to make a run at the title by opening 10-2. The Pirates continued their unexpected success by winning two NCAA Tournament games as a No. 10 seed, the highlight being an overtime upset of No. 2 seed Temple that vaulted Seton Hall into the Sweet 16.

All that -- the Pirates finished 22-10 overall -- a year before Seton Hall welcomes one of the best recruiting classes in the country.

Player of the Year

Troy Murphy, Notre Dame. It couldn't be anyone else. The Irish's 6-10 sophomore became the first player in Big East history to lead the league in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double for the season. He's the reason that overachieving Notre Dame upset five ranked teams and was an NCAA Tournament bubble team right up until Selection Sunday. The Irish finished 22-15 overall (8-8 in the league), doing more with less than any team in the league because of Murphy, who will be back for his junior season.

Coach of the Year

Syracuse's Jim Boeheim was the pick of his fellow coaches, but he did exactly what he was expected to with five starters back from an NCAA Tournament team of a year ago.

Personalities aside, St. John's irascible Mike Jarvis deserved the award. He coaxed 25 victories out of a Red Storm team that didn't have a player taller than 6-7, started a 6-5 center and barely went seven players deep. He also kept this team together during two separate NCAA Tournament investigations of point guard Erick Barkley, the talented sophomore who wound up declaring for the NBA draft after the season ended.

In the midst of all the Barkley craziness in February, Jarvis guided St. John's to an 8-0 record during the month, twice winning games that Barkley was forced to sit because of NCAA investigations -- including a road upset of Duke.

The Red Storm went down to the final game of the regular season with a chance to earn a share of the title, then won the Big East Tournament. The finish, with a second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Gonzaga, was a disappointment, but the 25-8 record was more than most people expected.

The future

Things are looking up for the Big East.

Darius Miles, the high school phenom from East St. Louis, Ill., one of the country's top five prep players, will attend St. John's as expected and pass on the NBA draft.

Philadelphia schoolboy star Eddie Griffin, the Parade magazine Player of the Year, will attend Seton Hall, where optimism abounds as the Pirates lose just two players from a Sweet 16 roster and welcome one of the top five recruiting clasess in the country. Seton Hall will be deep and talented -- and a likely preseason Top 10 team.

Syracuse loses a lot, but has some promising young talent returning. St. John's also loses plenty but like Seton Hall, also has a Top 10 recruiting class coming in.

Connecticut should be an NCAA Tournament contender, and Notre Dame will be as well with Murphy back. He will be helped by the arrival of 6-8 Oklahoma transfer Ryan Humphries, who sat out last year. Georgetown loses just two seniors off its roster and returns four starters, while Villanova returns three starters and has some good, young talent that has only been awaiting its turn.

The top three point guards from New York City, all of whom are rated among the Top 5 in the country at the position, are Big East-bound. Besides Seton Hall's Andre Barrett, Taliek Brown of St. John's Prep is headed to Connecticut while Omar Cook of Christ The King High will stay home to attend St. John's.