Big East Basketball Rankings: Villanova rising, Creighton struggling

VILLANOVA, PA - NOVEMBER 06: Jermaine Samuels #23, Phil Booth #5, Eric Paschall #4, Collin Gillespie #2, and Dylan Painter #42 of the Villanova Wildcats huddle prior to the game against the Morgan State Bears at Finneran Pavilion on November 6, 2018 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Wildcats defeated the Bears 100-77. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

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CINCINNATI, OH – DECEMBER 08: Goodin and Scruggs look on. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Xavier, despite several disappointing non-conference performances, has seemingly turned a bit of a corner in Big East play to this point. With a 3-2 record that includes back-to-back home wins over Georgetown and Butler, the Musketeers are all alone in third place in the league. With that said, though, their weak non-conference is holding back their positioning in these rankings.

From a resume perspective, the Musketeers secured only one KenPom top-100 win in non-conference play (neutral-site over Illinois – No. 83) and are ranked outside of the top-50 in every metric used by the NCAA Tournament committee. Because of this, it seems like Xavier will miss the Big Dance for just the third time this century.

Statistically, Xavier has been led by a balanced offensive attack that does not feature a true star. Paul Scruggs and Naji Marshall are the leading scorers on the team and have the potential to emerge as stars as the season continues. Should one of them start to post 15+ per game in conference play, the Musketeers will continue to consistently win games.

For the time being, though, Xavier is rated as the seventh-best team in the conference both offensively and defensively.

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