Bracketology 2020 Losers: League play leads to early casualties

Big East

After this wacky week in the Big East, it’s hard to feel too sure about anyone outside of Butler. The Bulldogs made it out unscathed last week, but only two other teams could make that claim. Seton Hall was one of them, which isn’t terribly unexpected given all the preseason hype surrounding the Pirates. The shocker was the Ed Cooley’s Providence team won both of its games and rekindled the quiet whispers surrounding the Friars’ tournament hopes.

Each of the other seven teams in the league all took at least one loss. Safest amongst them is Villanova, who will likely retain a high-ranking despite falling to Marquette on the road, thanks to their midweek win over Xavier. Next would be Creighton, who beat that same Marquette team before losing to Butler over the weekend. With the Musketeers winning on Sunday, all four of these teams ended at 1-1 on the week.

That Xavier win came against St. John’s, who lost games on either side of New Year’s Day. The Johnnies also fell to Butler earlier in the week. Joining the Red Storm in their joyless week was Georgetown and DePaul. Both the Hoyas and the Demons lost to Seton Hall and Providence. The pain was intensified for DePaul, though, as both of their defeats came at Wintrust Arena.

As it stands, no fewer than six Big East teams can already make a very strong case for their inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, the others keep adding conflicting information into their resumes, making it difficult to predict what will happen from one night to the next. And that’s what will make this conference race among the most exciting in the country.

Another league guaranteed to get a healthy handful of bids is the Big Ten, where one recent #1 team had a massively difficult week.