For the 42nd consecutive year, the men’s Big East Basketball Conference Tournament will tip off in Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous arena. Underneath the bright lights of New York City, the Big East will push to send as many teams to the Big Dance as possible.
The Favorite:
UConn
On the heels of their 2023 National Championship, the UConn Huskies had a dominant regular season in the Big East, winning the regular season conference crown by four games. UConn finished Big East play with a 18-2 record, only losing to Creighton and Seton Hall. The Huskies’ only other loss of the season was a four point loss to Kansas in Lawrence.
The Huskies lead the league in both offensive scoring average (81.1 ppg) and scoring defense (64 ppg). They also have the highest field goal shooting percentage and three point shooting percentage. UConn dominates the conference in almost every major statistical category. The combination of Tristan Newton, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban is lethal.
Contenders:
Creighton
The Creighton Bluejays have had a very solid campaign during the Big East regular season, and they are coming into MSG hot, having won seven of their last eight games. The 23-8 Blue Jays have the 7 foot Ryan Kalkbrenner as a cheat code on both sides of the ball. He averages 3.0 blocked shots per game and 7.3 rebounds. Offensively, he averages 17.1 points per game. Marquette was the only Big East Team to hold him under double digit scoring. The Bluejays offense relies heavily on their three point shooting. They lead the league in three point field goals made by a large margin, and average 10.7 per game. Creighton looks poised to make a deep run in the tournament.
Marquette
The Marquette Golden Eagles finished the season with the same regular season and Big East record as Creighton (23-8, 14-6). The big question around Marquette is whether first team all Big East guard Tyler Kolek will be able to play. Kolek suffered an oblique injury in a win over Providence at the end of February and missed the rest of the regular season.
Shaka Smart’s Marquette teams are so great at doing all of the little things right. Their passing mechanics are extremely crisp. The Golden Eagles are efficient in taking care of the ball. They have a +4.97 turnover margin, three whole points better than the next Big East team (St. Johns).
Dark Horse/Badly need to win:
St. John’s, Villanova, and Seton Hall are all listed at different points of the last four in and the first four out on various different bracketology projections. Their Big East tournament games will make or break their chance at the Big Dance. It depends on other results across the country, but a first round exit for any of these teams could be detrimental.
St. Johns
The Rick Patino tenure at St. John’s provides quite the content. Whether it be him ripping his players in a press conference to showing up in the all white suite, Patino knows how to make a statement. St. John’s is a team that is hard to figure out. They have a 19-12 overall record and went 11-9 in Big East play, but have been streaky the whole season. They are currently on their longest winning streak, five straight games, but many of those came against the bottom feeders of the conference. St. John’s will play Seton Hall in the first round of this tournament, a game they absolutely can not lose.
Villanova
The shift from Jay Wright to Kyle Neptune has been a hard adjustment for some Villanova fans. After winning two National Championships in the last decade, Villanova is now looking at the possibility of missing two straight NCAA tournaments. The Wildcats are coming off a loss to Creighton where they almost clawed back from a 26 point deficit, but a Creighton buzzer beater secured the loss. Villanova is still a team that does the fundamentals well, they lead the league in free throw shooting percentage, but some players have struggled to step up. Eric Dickson has been fantastic for the Wild Cats, but he can only do so much by himself.
Seton Hall
At 20-11 overall and 11-9 in the Big East, Seton Hall is an interesting team. They are fairly balanced on both sides of the court and beat UConn and played Creighton close. Their coach Shaheen Holloway has a solid track record in postseason play- we all remember his magical Cinderella run as the coach of St. Peter’s.
My Prediction: UConn over Creighton
I find it very hard to imagine a scenario where UConn is not playing Saturday night. The Huskies have been too dominant all season to stall out before the most important stretch of the season. Creighton, who is the only team to blow out UConn this season, is very capable of giving the Huskies a test. If the Bluejays are hitting their threes, they can beat anyone in the country.
However, UConn got burned by Creighton’s three point shooting already, and I know Dan Hurley will be drilling his team with defensive adjustments before the matchup. I am picking UConn to win their second straight Big East Tournament on their way to a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.