Big East Basketball Rankings: Villanova, Marquette creating distance

2. Marquette Golden Eagles

Record: 19-3 (8-1 Big East)

Easily one of the top teams in the country, Marquette absolutely belongs in the top two of the Big East. With an elite offensive leader in Markus Howard and a defense that deserves far more credit than it is getting, the Golden Eagles are an underrated national title contender. Marquette has lost just one game since mid-November and their play needs to be commended.

Looking ahead, though, the Golden Eagles still have both of their matchups with Villanova, who is next in this rankings, left. Those two games should be circled on everyone’s calendars as matchups between two of the better teams in the nation. Watch out for Marquette as a top-10 team.

1. Villanova Wildcats

Record: 17-4 (8-0 Big East)

Villanova is still undefeated in Big East play and therefore definitely deserves to be the top team in these Big East rankings. On the whole, the ‘Cats hold two bad losses to Furman and Penn but their entire resume is still fairly strong. Head coach Jay Wright‘s team can boast wins over 10 KenPom top-100 teams and therefore it is reasonable to think that ‘Nova will snag a protected seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Villanova is clearly starting to hit its stride this season but, as already mentioned, both of their games against Marquette are still left. Villanova and Marquette are so clearly the two top teams in the Big East that they should continue to dominate heading into their own matchups.

That concludes this edition of my Big East rankings. There is still almost no separation between the teams ranked 3-10 and therefore this was impossible. I hope that you enjoyed, though!