Marquette’s dominance, In-state showdowns among Big East storylines for the week
By John Makuch
5. Rough performance against the Big 12
The Big East does not always dominate against other conferences, and this year the Big 12 got the better of the Big East in the Big East-Big 12 battle. 7-4 was the final record in favor of the Big 12, but there were plenty of close games in this one.
Heading into the final four games of this slate, the Big 12 was up 5-3 in the series after a missed call in favor of TCU against Georgetown. Up left were some great ranked teams in the conference, and a strong Kansas State team.
Oklahoma stormed Providence out with a 72-51 blowout of the Friars, who had been having a very strong season up to that point. At the same time, Villanova was in an overtime thriller against Kansas State, but the Wildcats from Manhattan ended up taking that one 72-71. Seton Hall was also unable to handle Baylor in Waco in a rough one for The Hall 78-60.
These were all road matchups that the Big East ended up losing, and this was part of six consecutive losses from Big East teams to Big 12 opponents. Marquette did their thing and evened up the score just a little bit, taking down Texas in Milwaukee, 86-65.
This was the first time these conferences did not tie in this series since 2019, the first iteration where the Big East won 8-2. Now the Big 12 has their win in this battle, and even though this Big 12 is expanding there will still be another iteration next season. The score is evened up now, so revenge may be on the table in 2024.