Big East Basketball Rankings: Marquette holds strong, middle muddles

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 12: Markus Howard #0 of the Marquette Golden Eagles reacts with Joey Hauser #22 of the Marquette Golden Eagles after scoring against the DePaul Blue Demons at Wintrust Arena on February 12, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /

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PHILADELPHIA, PA – FEBRUARY 03: Georgetown Hoyas react. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

6. Georgetown Hoyas

Georgetown has been one of the better teams in the conference so far this season as they sit at 6-7 in league play. And while Jessie Govan has obviously been great, the biggest reason for the rise this season has been the play of Georgetown’s youngsters. By this point, everyone should already know the name “Mac McClung” given his insane number of highlight-reel plays but he might be just the third-best freshman on his own team. This is due to the fact that James Akinjo and Josh LeBlanc have also been quite impressive throughout this season in their own rights.

With regards to postseason opportunities, Georgetown is currently sitting on the outside looking in when it comes to reaching the NCAA Tournament. On the whole, the Hoyas have a better record than most teams but their metrics are substantially lower and their weak non-conference strength of schedule does not help. If, though, Georgetown is able to close this season by winning four of their last five games and reaching a 10-8 conference record, the committee should definitely take a look at their resume.

5. Butler Bulldogs

Butler is one of the most bubblicious teams in the Big East right now. In fact, the Dawgs represent the cutline for many bracketologists (including myself) across the country as one of the Last Four In/First Four Out teams at the moment. And while they certainly missed a couple of big opportunities at St. John’s and at Marquette recently, they still belong in the conference. Butler owns a fair amount of quality wins, solid predictive metric rankings, and looks poised to potentially finish conference play at 9-9.

Kamar Baldwin is the clear leader of the team right now but he is also getting help from the shooters around him. Most notably, Paul Jorgensen and Sean McDermott are playing at a high level right now and their shooting really takes the team to the next level. In order to make the Big Dance, Butler will likely need to finish at 4-2 (including the BET) and that will only happen with some improvements on the defensive end of the floor.

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