Big East basketball: Mid-season recap, awards and Bracketology

Coach of the Year – Jay Wright of Villanova

Usually there’s a team who has exceeded expectations, but for the most part things have gone as expected. The Wildcats were expected to be good, but few thought they’d only have one loss on the season up to this point.

Coach on the hot seat – Chris Mullin of St. John’s

If he wasn’t an alum on the program, he’d be fired by now. Forget about making the tournament, getting to .500 hasn’t even happened yet. The Red Storm are currently winless in conference play, even getting swept by Georgetown. Making matters worse, the next three opponents are all ranked in the top 10.

The only positive in all of this is that seven of those 10 losses came by less than eight points, but this team won’t be favored in any of their remaining games. Add the ensuing drama off the court, and St. John’s may have to make a painful decision.

Evaluating Patrick Ewing of Georgetown

While the mocking of the non-conference schedule was the big story in the first couple of months, the former Knick great has shown himself well in his first full-time gig as a head coach. He nearly pulled off the upset in his first conference game against Butler, and has had a few a couple of popular soundbites while coaching on the sidelines.

It was a painful time having to replace John Thompson III in the off-season, but there’s plenty of positives to take away from this season for the Hoyas.