With the Big East regular season concluding and the greatest conference tournament of them all in front of us, Mike from Card Chronicle and Sean from Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician have been gracious enough to talk some hoops with me.

Gentlemen,

I'm glad you could join me to discuss one of the best seasons of conference play anyone is ever going to see. Everything is overanalyzed today, with people too quick to declare something the worst or best ever, but I don't hesitate - at this juncture, with the potential for Final Four dominance or disappointment still on the horizon - to say this was one fantastic collection of teams. It makes me physically ill when anyone even suggests another conference is superior, and anyone who would want to discredit computers could do so by pointing out their laughable computation that not only was the ACC superior to the Big East this year, but so was the Big Ten. My eyes tell me otherwise, and I expect the rest of March to do the same.

All-Big East honors have been announced, and while there's room to nitpick here or there, I think the coaches did a great job of honoring the best six players in the conference. I have no idea who I would eliminate from that half dozen, and if anyone tries to make an argument for Luke Harangody not being there - he of the 25 and 13 in league play - I'll react in the same way Mike would if someone tried to disprove Terrence Williams' selection. Notre Dame had some rough patches this year, but you do not want to see where things would have been without him. So the first question I ask you, regardless of whom receives the honor tomorrow, is who do you think is Player of the Year?

I think the numbers are the for Harangody, but since he won last year and the Irish finished a full eight games behind the league champion, that probably knocks him out (although he would be a worthy repeat winner, an argument I'd be glad to make for you if you're interested). If I was voting and stripped of homer abilities, I think I'd go with DeJuan Blair. He had some games with foul trouble where the Panthers managed just fine without him, but the way he mauled Harangody and Thabeet (twice) was extremely impressive. He also collected a truly staggering 25.1% of available offensive rebounds over the course of the season, putting him seven points ahead of his nearest competitor across all of college basketball. This helped him to have the highest offensive rating of any player in the conference, regardless of the percentage of possessions used (Blair was tenth in that category, for what it is worth).

My second question would be to ask "Who is your favorite in New York?" I think my choice comes down to the fact I hate to pick against the Panthers in the Garden with their recent history there. There are of course a lot of other viable options, especially when you consider how hungry UConn would be for revenge, or that Louisville has already proven they can beat them. Maybe a team like Notre Dame or Georgetown finally puts it all together in time for a deep run, but I think the format is not very conducive to that happening. I'll take Pitt, but I feel like this is one gigantic, very talented crapshoot.

I've already rambled enough to start this, so I'll leave you both to talk about your thoughts on this truly great season of basketball, and the two extremely exciting brackets ahead of us this postseason.