Big East Basketball Rankings: Is Villanova still at the top after shaky start?

Big East basketball has had an…interesting start to this season. Let’s see where each team falls in our first power rankings of the 2018-19 campaign.

Many expected that Big East basketball would experience a down season this year. After just about every star from last season departed either due to graduation or the NBA draft this year, the talent level took a bit of a dip and that has been evident during the opening month of the year. And while the conference is obviously still one of the best in the nation (rated at No. 5 in KenPom’s conference ratings), the step back compared to prior years is evident.

This mostly deals with the fact that the top of the league no longer includes multiple national title contenders. Last season, for instance, both Villanova and Xavier were among the top-10 teams in the nation. As of now, there is only one team featured in our Busting Brackets weekly power rankings. There are, though, multiple teams waiting in the wings as potentially ranked teams down the road.

In my opinion, Big East basketball might not be as strong at the top as it has been in the past but it is just as deep. The conference should still send at least half of the league to the NCAA Tournament and that is simply the mark of a great conference. Even when the Big East is in a “down year”, many teams should still be representing the team in late March.

So, without any further ado, let’s dive into analyzing my first Big East basketball power rankings of the 2018-19 season. (Due to the fact that every team has played a different schedule, it is very difficult to place a lot of these teams and it is always easier to rank teams based on tiers. These rankings are extremely fluid at this point and will change tremendously seemingly by the way at this point. The positions should star to solidify a lot more as the year goes on. Additionally, all statistics from this piece are found via Sports-Reference and KenPom.