Big East Basketball: Xavier, Seton Hall rises, Villanova slides in latest power ranking
By John Makuch
2. Seton Hall Pirates
The Seton Hall Pirates have been the best story in not just the Big East, but arguably in the entire nation. After a very rough stretch of nonconference games, they found themselves defeating Marquette, a ranked Providence team, and the top-ranked team in the nation, the UConn Huskies in a 15-point victory. While they did lose to Creighton in that thriller, they have almost entered the top 25 as the top vote-getter outside the rankings.
While the loss is tough to swallow, it gained them a ton of respect as it showed they truly could compete with anybody. This has a lot to do with the great play of Big East Player of the Year candidate Kadary Richmond, and the great play of Jaden Bediako and Dre Davis. Their shooting is not their strength, but Al-Amir Dawes is also finding his stride a bit from behind the arc, and if he does this is a very dangerous team.
The Pirates are a team that can either hold this spot and truly contend under Shaheen Holloway, or come crashing back down to reality as they were not expected to do much this season. But these Pirates have a ton of talent and should be now given expectations as a top team in this Big East Conference. If they continue to take care of business, they can pick up a decent seed in both the Big East Tournament and in March Madness, and that is absolutely impressive in just the second year under Holloway.