The Big East historically is one of the most prestigious conferences in basketball, filled with tradition, power and a legacy of massive success. This year is not that. Three teams are projected to enter the tournament, with disappointments all over the place. Eight will try to get in, and three try to maintain their spot.

St. John’s has repeated as regular season Big East champions, despite the general regression of the team as a whole. The Johnnies are lower in the rankings than last year’s team due to a weaker showing in out-of-conference play, but with an excellent 18-2 in-conference, the Red Storm have been on a heater for a long while. Rick Pitino’s squad is led by senior forward Zuby Ejiofor, who averages 16 points, 2 blocks, and 7.4 rebounds per game, all leading his team. A pair of seniors, forward Bryce Hopkins and guard Oziyah Sellers both are double digit scorers, with 13.3 and 10.7 points per game respectively. They relatively have a weak free throw shooting game with a percentage of 72.4, and they don’t shoot the three well, with a 33.8 shooting percentage. However, they have a very strong defense, ranking No. 17 in the nation in defensive rating, and that defense was more than enough to get that number one seed.

UConn has come back with a vengeance this year, with the Huskies having a very impressive out-of-conference resume, but their three losses in conference play gave St. John’s the title, leaving them as the second seed. Dan Hurley’s Huskies are led by a starting five that make up a vast majority of everything the Huskies do. These five include guard Solo Ball with 13.9 points per game, center Tarris Reed Jr. with 13.8 points per game, 2.1 blocks per game, and 8 rebounds a game, forward Alex Karaban with 12.9 points per game, guard Braylon Mullins with 12 points per game, and guard Silan Demary Jr. with 11.1 points per game and 1.6 steals per game. Despite averaging 78.1 points per game, UConn ranks  No. 12 in the nation in least points per game, and that consistency left them with only one loss through out-of-conference play. It lost three games in conference, two to teams most likely outside of the March Madness bubble, so it’ll need to get back into form if it wants to win the tournament.

Villanova also recovered nicely from a down stretch, earning the third seed thanks to a solid season overall. 15-5 in conference play, 24-7 as a whole, which puts Villanova in a prime position to make an upset or two to really impress the committee.  The revitalized Wildcats are led by one of the best guard duos in the country, Tyler Perkins and Acaden Lewis. Perkins averages 13.7 points per game, while Lewis averages 12.5 points per game, but also 5.3 assists and two steals as well. Alongside them are senior forward Duke Brennan, sophomore guard Bryce Lindsay, and senior Guard Devin Askew, all averaging more than 10 points per game. The small ball roster the Wildcats run leads to a very unique challenge for most teams, a game of speed. So far, the Wildcats have won those battles more often than not, but they’ll need to be careful, as close scraps could be a problem if they want to make a statement against the Huskies or the Johnnies.

Already, the Big East enters shaky ground with the fourth seed, having a 10-10 record in-conference, with that team being the Seton Hall Pirates, despite a very strong start to the year. Seton Hall relies on junior guard Adam Clark as their main star, averaging 12.4 points per game, 4.7 assists per game, and two steals per game. Senior forward Stephon Payne leads the team with 6.6 rebounds per game, and freshman forward Najai Hines is the team’s best defender with 2.1 blocks per game. Senior guard AJ Staton-McCray is the team’s second leading scorer with 12.1 points per game, but the Pirates’ biggest issue has been closing out games. They blew leads to DePaul, UConn, and St. John’s this season, and those wins would have likely given them a much bigger shot at making the tournament. The key for the Pirates is their composure deep into games, and if it breaks like it has before, or if it stays steady and Seton Hall could steal a bid away from a team like Auburn.

Creighton has massively disappointed their growing expectations this year, with the Bluejays being a lowly 15-16, leaving them in a must win position to get to their 27th tournament. McDermott’s squad is led by senior guard Josh Dix with 12.4 points per game. Their main floor general though is senior guard Nik Graves, with 10.4 points per game, 4.3 assists per game, and 1 steal per game. Their leading rebounder is junior forward Jasen Green with 5.9 rebounds per game, while the leading blocker is junior forward Owen Freeman with a dismal 0.8 blocks per game. The story of this team is that they needed former senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner for another year, because the Bluejays suffered massively this year without a center with a presence like him. However, a win on the road against UConn shows that this team could be something, and a run in the tournament ending with their first Big East title is needed if they want to get into March Madness.

The sixth seed is DePaul, significantly improving from their horrendous years in the 2010s and early 2020s to have a 16-15 record, their first winning record since 2009. Heading into Madison Square Garden, they have little to lose, so this team could play spoiler. The crux of this rise is guard CJ Gunn, who has 13.3 points per game. The floor general is guard Layden Blocker, who has 10.9 points per game, 3.4 assists per game, and 1.6 steals per game. Forward NJ Benson leads the board crashing with 7.8 rebounds a game, and has 0.8 blocks per game, a low amount for a team leader. DePaul really did need this season, as although they finished 8-12 in conference play, they’ll take the over .500 record considering how paltry their teams have been for nearly the past two decades. The Blue Demons have been a massive thorn in the side of teams like Creighton and Seton Hall, and they need to be more if they want any chance at their first conference title in decades.

Seventh is the other massive disappointment in Marquette, whose win over UConn in the final day of the season gave the Golden Eagles the seeding, despite their significantly lower record than expected, a miserable 12-19. Shaka’s best player despite the rough season for Marquette’s main leader is guard Nigel James Jr., who has 16.3 points per game and 4.8 assists per game, and is mainly the floor general for the Golden Eagles. Forward Ben Gold is their main rebounder with 5.6 rebounds per game, which shows that there is no true main rebounder on this team. Their main thief is guard Chase Ross, who has 14.3 points per game, but also 2.3 steals per game, with James Jr. having 1.9 steals per game, showing Marquette has some very good defenders in the backcourt. Marquette’s offense has been paltry this year, averaging 74.8 points per game, one of the lowest marks in the nation, and the main culprit to why Marquette has been atrocious this year, they just can’t find the hoop. Marquette’s defense has won them games, but their offense absolutely needs to step up if they want to get anywhere in New York City.

Eighth is Butler, a team that although had higher expectations, the Big East outside of the Big Three was scrappy and getting wins was very difficult, despite the lower quality. Hinkle’s Bulldogs have a strong dynamic duo that do so much for Butler, guard Finley Bizjack and forward Michael Ajayi. Bizjack averages 17.1 points per game, while Ajayi averages 16.3 points per game and 3.2 assists per game. No other Bulldogs average double digits, but overall the Bulldogs average 79.3 points per game, which showcases their offensive strength, which while outclassed, is still solid. Teams have been successful in shutting down their duo, so pieces like guards Jamie Kaiser Jr. and Jalen Jackson need to step up against Providence and the Johnnies to go on a run in MSG.

Ninth is Providence, and with their head coach being gone after this season, the Friars have not a lot to play for but hoping to finish the season on a high note, considering they beat both Butler and St. John’s already. Providence has been led by a very strong offense with guard Jaylen Sellers being their best scorer with 18.1 points per game. The other main scorers are guard Jason Edwards with 16.5 points per game, guard Stefan Vaaks with 15.2 points per game, and forward Jamier Jones with 12.2 points per game. Providence’s main issue, the main reason why they are 14-17, is the fact that their defense has been atrocious and has lost them games that their offense could have won, and if players are taller than the Friars, they can have issues due to their guard based attack. Variety needs to be the spice of life for the Friars in New York City if they want to go far and potentially play spoiler to teams they have beat before.

Tenth is Xavier, another massive disappointment who flopped as soon as conference play started, with Xavier being one of the most promising teams to make it in the tournament before conference play. Richard Pitino’s Musketeers are led by forward Tre Carroll, who has 18 points per game, 1.2 blocks per game, and shoots an excellent 50.8 percent from the field. Forward Filip Borovicanin has been excellent as well, averaging 10.5 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, and 4.2 assists per game, all leading the team. Guard Roddie Anderson III, who averages 10.5 points per game, also averages 1.3 steals per game, the most for this team, and one fifth of the team’s average of 6.5 steals per game. Xavier’s main weakness is that their offense has not been great at all, and neither has their defense, considering they average 78.4 points per game, and allow an average of 80 points per game. Xavier needs to play better if they want to get past Marquette, a team that did beat the Musketeers earlier in the season.

Finally, at eleventh and last, is Georgetown. The Hoyas showed a lot of promise before conference play started, and then it all went downhill from there, finishing 6-14 and losing the tiebreaker to Xavier. The Hoyas’ hopes rides on guard KJ Lewis, whose 14.9 points per game and 2.1 steals per game lead Georgetown in critical ways. Guard Malik Mack is the main floor general who averages 13.7 points per game and 4.2 assists per game, being a critical piece for a team who desperately needs offense, only averaging 74.5 points per game, 246th in the nation. Center Vince Iwuchukwu is their best rebounder with six rebounds a game, but it’s not a role that Georgetown has for one player, as two others average more than five rebounds a game. Although the Hoyas have a great defense, only allowing 73.9 points per game, their offense needs to get going for the Hoyas to do anything in New York. They split the season series with first round opponent DePaul, a sign that they could be facing Villanova instead of the Blue Demons, but Georgetown needs to play their best basketball to replicate their 2021 Big East tournament title.

This year for the Big East is not complicated. There are three favorites and the rest are fighting for their tournament lives. With how much is going on, I predict a UConn victory because of their much more consistent play against the best of the best. While this year’s tournament won’t present the quantity of excellence that many have come to expect from MSG’s conference tournament, with how little teams have to lose this year, maybe this year might be even more interesting in ways different from most years in this conference.