Hlas column: Big Ten basketball fans shouldn't put down the Big East -- that's Charles Barkley's job

On Sunday night, Purdue and Illinois gave performances in the NCAA tourney that were worthy of their one-and-done Big Ten tournament appearances.

Which means they lost. No shame from Illinois, since it fell to a No. 1 seed in Kansas. But Purdue made Virginia Commonwealth look like a combination of Michael Jordan's Bulls and Bob Knight's best Hoosiers.

A good thing. Had Purdue advanced and the Big Ten had three teams remaining in the NCAAs to the Big East's two, the smugness emanating from the Midwest would have been insufferable.

Yes, the Big East got 11 teams into the tourney and advanced just two to the second week. It might have been as many as four, but two of Sunday's games matched Big East teams.

But the Big Ten should be the league dominating this event, not the Big East. Yet it doesn't, though Ohio State is perhaps more formidable than any team still standing.

With its vast resources that include its own television network, its huge enrollment numbers, and its large arenas, the Big Ten ought to be the bully of college basketball now and forever.

Six of the Big East's 16 members have enrollments of under 8,500 students. Only five have more than 20,000. Nine of the Big Ten's 12 schools have 39,000 or more students.

The Big Ten has one private school. The Big East has nine.

I expect to hear people tell me that the Big East has the all-powerful ESPN promoting it. That's true, yes. That's not a little thing. But it's not as big as you might think. The ACC and Big Ten and Big 12 are on ESPN, also, and people anywhere can see about any game, anytime, if they want to badly enough.

So everyone have a good laugh at the Big East. But it and the Big Ten have the same number of teams left in the Sweet 16. They have the same as the Mountain West, in fact.

There was much to like about the first week of the NCAAs, as usual. It was beautiful to see Virginia Commonwealth dispose of USC, Georgetown and Purdue in the space of five days. It's echoing the masses to say it, but wow, VCU was dynamite.

Seeing Butler add to its NCAA glories was fun. Seeing two mid-majors from one Virginia city (VCU and Richmond) go a combined 5-0 in the tourney was crazy. If you count BYU and San Diego State - and why wouldn't you? - five of the 16 survivors are mid-majors.

That's about as good as you can hope for from an underdog point-of-view, especially with old-money Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky clogging up matters.

Another upstart, Morehead State, bumped off Louisville last Thursday afternoon. By Saturday morning, Louisville Coach Rick Pitino was working in the CBS studio. Hey, a guy's gotta eat.

His team's season wasn't even cold yet, and Pitino had already left that misery (and his team) behind for something more enjoyable. It was a triumph of the human spirit.

How great was it to hear Charles Barkley, not exactly as well-versed in modern-day college basketball as Pitino, insist Florida State would beat Notre Dame before their game Sunday night?

Barkley didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but his ridiculing of the Big East was delightful given Pitino sat two seats away from him.

That was precious, but it was topped by watching and hearing Pitino show obvious irritation as he curtly dismissed Barkley's statements and guaranteed a Notre Dame win to the world.