Big East Basketball: 5 biggest questions entering 2019 NCAA Tournament

VILLANOVA, PA - FEBRUARY 27: Theo John #4, Joey Hauser #22, Sam Hauser #10, and Sacar Anim #2 of the Marquette Golden Eagles look on against the Villanova Wildcats in the second half at Finneran Pavilion on February 27, 2019 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Villanova Wildcats defeated the Marquette Golden Eagles 67-61. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 16: The Villanova Wildcats celebrate the 74-72 win over the Seton Hall Pirates during the Big East Championship Game to claim the Big East title at Madison Square Garden on March 16, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Even with just four teams in the Big Dance, Big East Basketball should still make an impact in the NCAA Tournament. What are the top questions to ask of the league?

For this article, we here at Busting Brackets decided to take a few writers from out staff and ask five burning questions regarding the Big East Basketball teams playing in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Here are the guys who taking part of our roundtable.

Marcus Washington – @mtcwithmook

Connor Hope – @CondorianFM

Brian Foley – @briandfoley

Zac Voynow – @zacvoynow

*Sports Illustrated Realtime Brackets is the first bracket game that lets college basketball fans switch their picks, in exchange for points, between and during live tournament games to keep their brackets alive all month long. Sign up now!

1. How should the Big East overall feel about getting four bids this season?

Connor Hope

Usually, I would say four bids is terrible for a Power Conference, but the Big East gives me more to like than to dislike. Unlike the Pac-12, which has no end in sight, this year was clearly a rebuilding year from the Big East from the start, and the prospects for the league look good. They should be looking at five bids or more next season, which means this year’s 4 bids are not anything to be ashamed of.

Marcus Washington

On the surface they should be happy to have almost half the conference in the NCAA tournament. But there were some lost opportunities. Georgetown’s non-conference schedule meant they would be one or two wins away from getting in. Xavier and Creighton had opportunities in their non-conference schedule but couldn’t take advantage against ranked teams. Five or six teams would’ve been viewed as a success on the same level as the Big Ten and the ACC in terms of the number of bids.

Brian Foley

Fortunate. St. John’s late-season slide absolutely tanked their metrics to a point where it looked like they might not get in, but in the end, the five wins over VCU, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Marquette (twice) were enough to overcome the team’s Jekyll and Hyde nature. Still, before the year, the Big East likely would have signed up four bids following last season’s mass exodus of top-tier talent, and with five teams in the NIT, the conference was still relatively close to putting half their teams in the tourney again.

Zac Voynow

The Big East neither overachieved or underperformed this season. While 4 teams make the NCAA Tournament, a few more were in consideration until the last week or two, which is definitely a good sign for the conference moving forward. Overall, four teams is solid, but next year they should hope to improve that number to five or six.

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