The Big East men's basketball tournament is the championship tournament of the Big East Conference in men's basketball. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. As part of the 2013 deal in which seven schools left the original Big East Conference of 1979–2013 to form a new Big East Conference and the original conference became the American Athletic Conference, the new Big East retained the rights to the conference tournament. Venue Since 1983, the tournament has been held in Madison Square Garden, New York City. As such, the tournament is the longest-running conference tournament at any one site in all of college basketball. Madison Square Garden has a contract with the Big East Conference to host the tournament through 2028. Notable events The 2009 tournament featured a six-overtime game in the quarterfinals between the Connecticut Huskies and the Syracuse Orange, in which Syracuse prevailed, 127–117. The game, the second-longest in NCAA history, started on the evening of March 12 and ended nearly four hours later in the early morning of March 13. In 2011, Connecticut, led by Kemba Walker, became the first and only team in the Big East tournament ever to win five games in five consecutive days to win the championship. On March 12, 2020, the 2020 tournament was cancelled during halftime of a first round game due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference received an insurance payout of $10.5 million as a result of the tournament's cancellation. In 2021, Georgetown won four games in four days as an underdog in each contest, to win its record eighth title. Patrick Ewing became the first person to win the championship as both a player and a head coach. Only three players have achieved repeat Most Valuable Player honors: Georgetown's Patrick Ewing (1984–1985), Louisville's Peyton Siva (2012–2013), and Villanova's Josh Hart (2015, 2017). Seeding From 1980 through 2000, all Big East member schools qualified for the Big East tournament. The Big East limited participation to 12 schools from 2001 to 2008, but since 2009, all member schools again have qualified for the tournament. The conference has based tournament seeding strictly on conference record and tiebreakers except between 1996 and 1998 and between 2001 and 2003; during those years, the conference used a divisional structure which also affected seeding. 1980–1995 In 1980, with seven member schools, the #2 through #7 seeds played in