Big East Basketball Rankings: St. John’s, Marquette vie for the top spot

2. Marquette Golden Eagles

Record: 11-3 (0-1 Big East)

We have seen how dominant Marquette can be in front of their raucous crowd at the newly-constructed Fiserv Forum. During the first two months of the season, the Golden Eagles proved that with wins over Kansas State, Wisconsin, and Buffalo en route to their 10-0 home record in non-conference play. Yet…the team is just 1-3 when playing away from home and they have dropped both of their two true road games by at least 20 points. With that said, it is reasonable to wonder whether or not Marquette has what it takes to consistently win on the road.

And considering this is a team with Big East regular-season title aspirations, they need to figure out the answer to that in a hurry. It will simply be impossible for the Golden Eagles to win the conference without improvement on the road. Still, I am not ready to “jump ship” on Marquette because of how balanced they are this year compared to others.

1. St. John’s Red Storm

Record: 13-1 (1-1 Big East)

This team should be undefeated. As I stated many times during the first two months of the year, St. John’s non-conference schedule was abysmal and the team did not look all that impressive while compiling an undefeated record prior to Big East play. Yet, the team seemingly used being unranked in the AP poll as motivation to start out conference play with a bang. In their opener, the Johnnies dominated Seton Hall for the first 30 minutes before fumbling down the stretch and eventually dropping the game in controversial (and that is the understatement of the year) fashion. Considering the team’s lack of non-conference tests, their crunchtime struggles in this one were a bit expected.

But the team is learning quickly. After jumping out to an early lead at home against Marquette in their next game, the Red Storm did not allow their opponents to creep back in as they put the hammer down early. Behind hot second-half shooting from beyond the arc, the Johnnies took care of business at home by taking down the nationally-ranked Golden Eagles by 20 points. So even though they are just 1-1 in conference play, I am now a believer that head coach Chris Mullin will be able to guide this team to at least a top-three finish in the Big East.

That concludes this edition of my Big East power rankings. Considering how close all of these teams seem to be right now, though, these could be outdated by the time they are even posted (and the conference doesn’t even play a game tonight!). The Big East might now be the powerhouse it has been in recent years but it might be even more exciting night in and night out.