Big East Basketball: Villanova’s breakout, Creighton’s upset among latest storylines
By John Makuch
4. Villanova has arrived
During Feast Week, The Villanova Wildcats reigned victorious in the Battle 4 Atlantis for the third time in program history. As the usual Big East representative in this tournament, Villanova handled business mostly with ease throughout this bracket.
They kicked things off with a win over Texas Tech 85-69 in quite dominant fashion, but the win that impressed was the ability to take down North Carolina and how they controlled that game for the most part.
Eric Dixon had himself quite a three-game stretch, and against UNC he put up 34 points off 11-19 shooting with 10 rebounds on the day. Dixon showed that he could be one of the best bigs in the entire nation after winning this duel against the great Armando Bacot. Dixon’s athleticism, ability to finish under the basket well, and of course his outside shot, all help to make up such a great big man in today’s game.
They took care of Memphis 79-63 and staved off a potential comeback that included a 21-0 run by the Tigers, but the Wildcats still came out with a double-digit victory to take home the trophy. After these three straight wins, Villanova should find themselves in that Top 25 and have shown they are going to be fierce competitors in this Big East Conference.
Their non-conference slate still includes the likes of UCLA and Kansas State, but Villanova has already shown here they can handle some of the top programs in the entire nation.