If I hear one more person say “major conference tournaments don’t matter,” I’m going to lash out in defiance.

They – particularly the Big East, whose tournament has the tradition, excitement and drama that others lack – matter because they give us some of the best basketball that has ever been played.

They offer us teams and coaches who know each other inside and out, players whose pride is on the line, and fans who have bragging rights on the line, their heads full of memories of tournaments past.

Last night, the Big East tournament offered us a game that will be remembered for decades when Syracuse outlasted UConn in six overtimes. (The video is of the full ESPN highlights, which are worth watching in their entirety, but if not that, at least in part.)

I was in the news room, actually waiting to see if we could get the result of the game in our late edition. If Eric Devendorf’s 3 at the end of regulation had counted, the result would have been in the print edition and I would have gone home.

Instead, I stood there with the two other people left in the building and watched in amazement for six overtimes that saw big play after big play and everyone but the mascots and cheerleaders coming in off the bench.

If conference tournaments didn’t matter, I wouldn’t have cared, and neither would anyone else across the country or in the Garden.

How about you? How many overtimes did you watch?