Sports

Big East might be too big for own good

It would be easy to dismiss Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun’s postgame rant as the in-the-moment grousing of a losing coach who is not, and never will be, accustomed to losing.

Calhoun had just seen his Huskies get folded, spindled and mutilated by a St. John’s team that did to UConn what UConn has historically done to other teams.

St. John’s beat the Huskies on the glass, beat them up and down the court, beat them into submission. Once St. John’s forged ahead 66-45 with 11:53 remaining, the Huskies rolled over. The final score of 89-72 was kind to UConn.

Calhoun congratulated the Johnnies, then used a question about the strength of the Big East to deliver a king’s speech.

“The Big East has too many good teams, is too big and 18 [conference] games . . . is way too many games to play,” Calhoun said. “And when we add two more schools, that’s going to be fun — a 20-game schedule.”

If the season ended yesterday, a record 10 Big East teams would make the tournament, according to CollegeRPI.com. That’s two more teams than the league placed last season and in 2007-08 — granted, the tournament has expanded from 65 to 68 teams starting this season.

St. John’s (14-9, 6-5 Big East) has an RPI of 19 and has played the nation’s toughest schedule, according to CollegeRPI.com. The Red Storm are one of five teams tied for seventh in the standings.

Maybe Calhoun, who has won a couple of national championships and can receive mail at the Naismith Hall of Fame, wasn’t just blowing off steam. Maybe the Big East is getting too big for its own good.

“It’s too big just because it’s too big,” Jerry Palm, the guru behind CollegeRPI.com, told The Post. “It’s not because of the depth, it’s because you’re depending so much on your schedule.

“You don’t get a home-and-home with everyone, so who do you get twice? Who do you play on the road and at home?”

The Big East, like every conference, must bend to the wishes of the TV gorilla, and the conference does its best to give each team three home-and-home series that are in line with their projected success.

St. John’s, for example, which was voted sixth in the coaches’ preseason poll, drew Georgetown, an upper-tier squad that was picked fourth, Notre Dame, a middle-tier squad that was picked seventh, and Cincinnati, a projected lower-tier team that was voted 12th.

The Johnnies split with Georgetown and Notre Dame. They lost 53-51 to the Bearcats earlier this season and play at Cincinnati tomorrow in what could be a bubble-popper game.

“For some teams like Cincinnati, St. John’s and Marquette, that might be true to some degree because somebody’s got to finish 10th or 11th,” Palm said in regard to the league’s size. “If you weren’t good enough out of conference, you might not be able to make up for [a] rough stretch in conference.”

The teams at the top also are vulnerable. Just a few weeks ago, Palm had Pittsburgh and Syracuse getting No. 1 seeds and Connecticut getting a No. 2 seed. Now Pittsburgh is the only possible No. 1 seed out of the Big East; Notre Dame is a projected No. 2; Connecticut, Georgetown and Villanova are possible No. 3 seeds. Syracuse likely would be a No. 4 seed and St. John’s a No. 7.

“If they were in a league that wasn’t quite as good, they could be competing for a No. 1 seed,” Palm said. “But remember, a couple of years ago, they had three No. 1 seeds.”

Palm said he expects the Big East to do reasonably well in this year’s tournament. He probably is right. There is no great team in the nation. At the end of the day, the Big East teams that don’t get as high a seed as they had hoped still will have the benefit of having played tournament-caliber opponents almost every night.

“It’s high-risk, high-reward,” Palm said.

That’s the Big East.

lenn.robbins@nypost.com