For the first time ever , all 16 teams in the conference would have the chance to participate in the Big East Tournament . Under this new format , the teams finishing 9 through 16 in the regular season standings played first round games , while teams 5 through 8 received a bye to the second round . The top 4 teams during the regular season received a bye to the quarterfinals . The five-round tournament spanned five consecutive days , from Tuesday , March 10 , 2009 , through Saturday , March 14 , 2009 . A low-seeded team could have theoretically played all five days if it won its games in the first four rounds , but this did not turn out to be the case
Big East Tournament
2009 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
2008–09 Big East Conference men's basketball season