Big East Conference
March 9-12. All games at New York.
kPOY: Josh Hart, Villanova.

The Big East tournament gets underway on Wednesday with two games at Madison Square Garden.

Outside of the jubilation that comes with winning a conference tournament, there’s not much at stake in this event. Five teams are projected to be in the NCAA tournament field and none of them are in danger of missing out. That leaves Creighton as the most realistic bid thief. The Bluejays were a slightly surprising 9-9 in league play and could do some work in the NIT if they don’t check off the necessary box at MSG. Creighton ranks just inside the top 50 in adjusted defensive efficiency and the defense ranked fourth in the league during conference play, making this the best defense that Greg McDermott has coached since he arrived at Creighton.

But the undisputed favorite is Villanova. For the third-consecutive season, the Wildcats won the Big East regular season with a 16-2 record. And for the second straight season they led the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

               Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 1 Villanova    100  86.8  67.3  46.9
 2 Xavier       100  83.2  52.0  24.1
 3 Seton Hall   100  58.9  27.5  10.5
 5 Butler       100  58.8  17.9   7.9
 6 Creighton    100  41.1  15.9   4.8
 4 Providence   100  41.2   9.9   3.5
 8 Georgetown  79.4  12.3   4.8   1.4
 7 Marquette   75.0  14.9   4.3   0.8
10 St. John's  25.0   1.9   0.2   0.02
 9 DePaul      20.6   0.9   0.1   0.01
 

Big East tourney records (since 1999)

Creighton   3- 2
Xavier      3- 2
Georgetown 19-16
Villanova  16-16
Marquette   9-10
St. John’s 10-12
Seton Hall 11-16
Providence  6-15
DePaul      2- 8
Butler      0- 2