Big East Basketball: 10 key questions looming for 2021-22 season

Big East basketball had an interesting go of things in 2020-21. Four teams managed to make the 2021 NCAA Tournament with the Villanova Wildcats and Creighton Bluejays both making it to the Sweet 16 before falling to their respective opponents.

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the odds for a lot of teams in 2020-21. For example, the Xavier Musketeers started out the season 8-0 before having to shut things down due to Covid-19. They went 5-8 to finish 13-8 on the year after that.

Still, the conference saw three players share the Big East Player of the Year award with Collin Gillespie, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Sandro Mamukelashvili all taking home a share of the honors. Just one of those names returns in Gillespie as the Wildcats look to continue their reign in the Big East.

Things shouldn’t be so easy for them seeing that the Butler Bulldogs and Xavier return a bulk of their production from a season ago looking to avenge things. Add in some new faces in the St. John’s Red Storm’s rotation for the league’s returning leading scorer in Julian Champagnie and now there’s even more room for excitement.

Then there’s last season’s surprise: the Georgetown Hoyas. They took home the conference tournament crown, spoiling an automatic bid for another squad in the process.

As things return to normal in the college basketball ranks in 2021-22, here’s a look at what to expect. Take a look at 10 questions heading into another season of Big East basketball.