6. The battle for the Big East
We already mentioned Georgetown giving Connecticut a run for their money while Butler massively struggle against the #2 Huskies. The early indications are that Connecticut is the team to beat in the Big East, but what about the rest of the league? There aren’t a ton of ranked teams like in recent years or in other power leagues, but there’s plenty of intrigue in the Big East race.
Providence scored a double-overtime home win over Marquette on Tuesday night, toppling the only other ranked team in the conference. The Friars also have a road win at Seton Hall, with both of those programs seemingly reloading a bit this season after great performances last year. Another early team to watch is Xavier, who already have conference wins over Georgetown and Seton Hall and played Duke, Gonzaga, and Indiana close in losses earlier in the year.
On the other hand, Creighton and Villanova have both been very disappointing, but can we count them out of this conference’s race? The Bluejays are desperately missing big man Ryan Kalkbrenner and have now lost six straight games, including last Friday’s road loss to the aforementioned Marquette. The Wildcats have been playing better in recent weeks with freshman star Cam Whitmore finally healthy and have yet to play a conference game in head coach Kyle Neptune’s first season. Can they put losses to Temple, Portland, and others behind them?
St. John’s looks solid early but has played a very weak schedule while DePaul is seemingly still rebuilding, likely to join Butler and Georgetown at the bottom of the league’s standings. The play of Marquette has been impressive early while Providence and Xavier both look better than expected here in late December. This is Connecticut’s conference to win right now, but there are half a dozen other teams to watch for upset potential or as potential March Madness teams.