There once was a time. A time when society moved people primarily by sea and by rail, a time when sports like boxing and horse racing were big deals. When baseball was truly America’s favorite game.

And during that time college basketball was king at Madison Square Garden. In an age when the Knicks were in their infancy and the Rangers were beginning a long Stanley Cup drought, the sport of big time college hoops was a marquee event with multiple doubleheaders throughout the season bringing in the best teams from around the country(by train in those days) to take on the best New York had to offer. NYU, Manhattan, LIU, CCNY, and St. John’s were all New York schools that were considered to be major players of the sport back then.

And it would all cumulate in the National Invitation Tournament, then the preeminent postseason basketball tournament that would be played in its entirety at the Garden. For fans of this sport, there was no better place to be than New York at the time.

Years have passed, the NIT is a shell of its former self, and Garden college hoops isn’t close to what it used to be. The city’s only remaining big time college hoops school – St. John’s – has struggled like never before this past decade and rarely does a college hoops game at the Garden elicit a big response from the national sports scene anymore.

Save for a few days in March when the Big East holds its annual postseason tournament. For five days, the conference’s sixteen teams duke it out for a bid in the NCAA Tournament. Sure, with the Big East being a power conference there are going to be many (perhaps eight or more teams) heading into the field of sixty five from this tournament anyway. But for this one week, the Garden’s image as a college basketball mecca returns reminding many of its glory days with several matchups featuring teams ranked among the nation’s elite.

So today, off I go to New York(Andrew joins me during the second round on Wednesday) in a style that is unprecedented in USRT history. To mark the time of the Garden’s hoops heyday (and because it’s something we haven’t done before) we’re heading out by train from Buffalo’s Exchange Street Station and taking the Maple Leaf to Penn Station in New York City. Then it’s out to Nassau County via Long Island Railroad to our accomodations. And from Tuesday to Saturday it will be nothing but hoops! Quadrupleheaders at the Garden for three days straight on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with the semifinal doubleheader on Friday night and the Championship game on Saturday evening. Then it’s back to Buffalo via Amtrak on Sunday.

For a look at the Big East Conference tournament bracket click here.

Other items of note:

Our road trip warrior friend Gary Herman(half of the GATK duo) of New York has found a little time between work and going to 400 sporting events in a year to put together his own sports travel blog. Check it out here! Yep, there are people nuttier than we are.