Bracketology 2020: Duke, Butler, Auburn among this week’s losers

Butler

The Bulldogs came into the week on the shortlist for best team in the country along with Baylor and Gonzaga, but now the narrative surrounding Butler has shifted significantly. The first big sign of trouble came when LaVall Jordan’s team lost to Seton Hall in Hinkle Fieldhouse.

That loss caused a shift in the Big East power rankings and served as the formal announcement that the Pirates are back. But then the Bulldogs fell on the road against DePaul, drawing further questions about the true potential of this Butler team.

Perhaps it is too much of a knee-jerk reaction to think these losses will have a huge effect on Butler. After all, the Big East is a notably deep conference and the Bulldogs are still sitting at 15-3 on the season. But if the defeats continue, they can kiss a #1 seed goodbye.

In fact, it may already be gone.

St. John’s

With defeats at the hands of a surging Seton Hall and a resurrected Providence team, the Johnnies plummeted into the depths of the Big East las week. The Red Storm was riding a high just a few weeks ago after taking down West Virginia and Arizona, but St. John’s is now 1-5 in league play.

Mike Anderson’s first season in the Big East has not gone according to plan, and things might get worse before they get better. The Red Storm take to the road for two games next week, traveling to Marquette and DePaul. A sweep would obviously be ideal, but if the Johnnies can only get one of those wins, they need to beat the Eagles.

Especially as the team struggles in the Big East, early losses to Vermont and Arizona State could come back to haunt St. John’s even if they’re able to climb back into a respectable place in the conference standings. An at-large bid is going to take some serious work from here on out.

Xavier

After losses to Seton Hall and Creighton, the Musketeers were already off to a difficult start in the Big East in January. With only one game last week, Travis Steele’s team needed to make the most of the opportunity to get their league record back into the good.

What they got instead was a 20-point beatdown from Marquette. Now, the Musketeers sit at 1-4 in the Big East, tied with DePaul and just a half-game ahead of last-place St. John’s. Their non-conference performance wasn’t much to write home about either, with wins over TCU and Cincinnati standing out as the best of the bunch.

For the moment, Xavier projects to be on the outside looking in, as far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned. But if they can hold court against Georgetown and then take down Creighton on the road, their fortunes could turn around quickly.

Such is life in the Big East, where big wins lurk around every corner.