For the most part, the Big East has stayed pretty consistent ever since the field of the conference shrunk down to only 10 teams. For the most part, we’ve seen the same team come out on top of the big east during the regular season, whether it’s a competitive Seton Hall or Xavier team, or the always powerful Villanova Wildcats.
The Big East Conference is the best it has ever been, and arguably the best college basketball conference in the country right now. Throughout the past few years there has been a stranglehold on the top four spots in the standing by Villanova, Seton Hall, Marquette, and Creighton. Every so often another team will pop up in the top of the Big East, but these four have had control of the conference the whole time. Villanova has won the last three Big East Tournaments, and four of the last five, with Seton Hall upsetting the Wildcats in 2016. The Big East isn’t exactly known for its big time recruits, and that shows in the gritty style of play seen throughout the conference. That grit is exactly what makes the Big East the best conference, as any team can beat anyone else on any given day.
For some, It was unpredictable. To be able to see what this Big East is producing seems like a Cinderella story, yet to be finished. What we would have to wait for until March we are getting now in the early months of conference play. For the majority this is a surprise. But for some, it’s something they’ve seen coming for a while now, including college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein.
Last year we were given a preview of the parity in the Big East, as Seton Hall entered the year picked to finish eighth in the Big East by the media, promptly finishing second in the conference and losing in the tournament championship game en route to a fourth straight march madness appearance.
The Big East is set up to have a tremendous season in 19-20. Strong cores return at Marquette, Seton Hall, Creighton, Providence, Georgetown, and Xavier plus an elite recruiting class at Villanova.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 12, 2019
What we saw last year, does not even come close to what we’ve seen this year. Depaul, who went 12-1 in non conference play to open the season has had a rough start to their schedule within the Big East, losing 9 of their first ten matchups of the year, with that one win coming against a ranked Butler squad. Their non conference play was enough to speak volumes to the team’s potential, with huge wins against Iowa and Texas Tech. Keep in mind that this team was also projected to sit at the bottom of the Big East, where they now reside.
What was once a team on the verge of shattering the Top-25, is now sitting at the bottom of the conference. On the other side, the team currently sitting atop the standings had a rough start to the season before getting back on track. Seton Hall started the year out 6-4, including 2 straight road losses and a disappointing 19 point second half collapse against Oregon in the opening game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Now sitting at 16-5, while starting 8-1 in conference the Pirates have turned their season around and put themselves in a position to make some noise come March.
While some of this can’t be explained, there are some situations that will have fanbase’s pointing at if their team flops at some point. For Georgetown, it started well before the season got rolling with stud James Akinjo and Josh LeBlanc stepping away from the team, along with assault charges being placed on other players. Marquette also had some offseason departures, as the Hauser brothers went to look for a new place to call home. But arguably, the worst has swung over Seton Hall.
It all started when Junior center Sandro Mamukelshvili fractured his wrist in a game in Ames, Iowa against the Cyclones. The very next game All-American Myles Powell suffered a concussion in the opening minutes against in-state rival Rutgers. The pirates would lose both of those games, but oddly enough, they were tasked to take on Maryland, who was ranked 7 in the country. Not only did the pirates win the game without their top two scorers, it would ignite a 10-game winning streak.
With the last half of the Big East schedule coming up teams are getting ready for the final stretch of a gauntlet of a schedule. Last year at the end of the season the Big East had 9 teams with a record over .500, and every team is over that mark so far this season. The Big East cannibalizes itself, with teams taking each other down and ruining one another’s resume for at large bids. But at the end of the year the grind that is a season of Big East basketball will leave a handful of teams ready to battle with the best the rest of the country has to offer.