Big East Basketball: How elite is the conference nationally?

All nine Big East basketball teams that were in action on Saturday defeated their respective opponents.

When conference realignment shook up the college basketball world back in 2013, the Big East was taken off the national scale and was overshadowed by the Power Five leagues. The 10-team “basketball-only” conference lost name-brand programs like Cincinnati, Louisville, UConn, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and added rising programs like Butler, Creighton and Xavier to replace them.

According to many, the Big East was dead.

Three seasons later, the conference not only has a National Championship thanks to the Villanova Wildcats, but they have thrown the “Power Five conference” term out the window.

So far in the 2016-17 season, the Big East has four teams ranked in the top 25 of the AP Poll with two in the top 10. The top six teams in the league (Creighton, Villanova, Butler, Providence, Seton Hall and Xavier) are currently 59-7 (!). And even teams like Georgetown and Marquette, who have four and three losses respectively, have shown NCAA Tournament potential.

Saturday was a perfect example of how impressive the Big East has been so far in the 2016-17 season. Seven teams were in action, and all seven were victorious.

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Providence used a 31-0 run to blow out the best team in the Northeast Conference, Wagner. Georgetown earned another quality win against their old Big East rival Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, winning 78-71. Eli Cain dropped 31 points in DePaul’s blowout win, 101-61, over Chicago State. Creighton held off a late Oral Roberts run to remain undefeated. Xavier pulled off a victory over Wake Forest in the Skip Prosser Classic. Seton Hall played an ugly game but still blew out Delaware at the Prudential Center. And finally, in the biggest result of the day, Butler knocked off ninth ranked Indiana at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

We all knew how good Creighton, Xavier and Villanova were expected to be coming into the season, but the Bulldogs have turned into a stunning success. Butler has victories over Cincinnati, Indiana, Arizona, Vanderbilt and Utah. How about that resume?

Even Providence was not projected to be this good. The Friars lost Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, but their culture, coaching and player development has them sitting at 9-2 overall. And even the games they lost, Virginia and Ohio State, the Friars were right in the game and weren’t overwhelmed by the level of competition.

While Butler and Providence have been overlooked, the most underrated team in the league may be the Seton Hall Pirates. After watching Kevin Willard’s team up close against Columbia and Delaware, their roster has all the pieces to be an NCAA Tournament team. They don’t have an elite offense, but they have experience, a very solid defense and Angel Delgado, a player that is averaging a double double (14.3 points and 11.4 rebounds).

The Big East currently has the third best winning percentage in the country (behind the Big 12 and ACC). However, they have the highest conference RPI through one month of play. In fact, they have beaten more ranked teams as a league than any other conference in the country.

So how elite is the Big East on the national stage? I would currently consider the league the second best conference in the country behind the ACC. The Big 12 is obviously in the mix, but teams like Iowa State and Oklahoma lost key pieces that hurt their chances of advancing to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Next: Three takeaways from Kentucky's thrilling win over UNC

The Big East must continue to prove itself on the biggest stage in March. But this conference doesn’t deserve to be overlooked any longer.

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