Big East Basketball: Looking back on the 2016-2017 season

Highlighted by Xavier reaching the Elite Eight, Big East basketball had a very solid 16-17 campaign. Let’s take a look at how everybody fared.

After being one of the top conferences in the country all season long, the Big East was rewarded with a handful of NCAA Tournament invitations. Although their total record in the tournament (6-7) was not the greatest, this was in large part due to being seeded as the underdog in many of the matchups.

Xavier, Seton Hall, and Marquette were all lower seeded teams in their first round games while Creighton also entered their opener as the underdog against Rhode Island. As Providence played in the First Four, they were evenly matched up with USC before falling to the Trojans.

Villanova was definitely a disappointment, having lost only three games in the regular season and entering the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed before losing their second game. The Wildcats received a very difficult second round matchup in the Wisconsin Badgers, and it came back to haunt them.

Regardless, the Big East was able to get two teams into the Sweet 16 (Butler and Xavier), and Xavier was able to get past Arizona in order to reach the Elite Eight. On the whole, the Big East had a successful season, but let’s take a look at each team and how their seasons turned out.

The order of teams in this article is according to their finish in the Big East.