The Big East tournament has been held in Madison Square Garden every year since 1983, the longest-running show in college hoops. While being excluded from “Power 5” status, the conference is currently ranked second in my system and is going to be well-represented in the NCAA tournament. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use more publicity.
Villanova has been one of the most anonymous great teams in recent memory, however there’s rational explanation for this. They have a very balanced offense that doesn’t feature a go-to guy, and they don’t have a player highly placed on mock draft boards. And even though they dominated Big East play, finishing 16-2, the Wildcats aren’t overwhelming favorites here because of the collection of teams between 20 and 40 in my rankings.
Plus, St. John’s gets home-court advantage, although they may not get as much of a boost as they do for a regular-season Big East game. The Red Storm has only won the tournament three times at MSG and their last title came in 2000.
There’s almost no bid drama going on here. The Big East is projected to send six of its teams to the dance, and Xavier is currently the lowest projected seed with a nine. It would take one of the bottom four seeds to steal a bid, and their collective chances are about 1%.
Big East
All-kenpom.com: Daniel Ochefu, Villanova (kPOY); Darrun Hilliard, Villanova; Kris Dunn, Providence; JayVaughn Pinkston, Villanova; D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown.
March 11-14 at St. John’s.
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Villanova 100 91.7 67.5 51.7 2 Georgetown 100 80.3 42.1 13.8 5 St. John's 100 66.1 23.0 13.6 3 Butler 100 53.6 29.5 9.5 6 Xavier 100 46.4 24.0 7.1 4 Providence 100 33.9 7.7 3.3 10 Creighton 65.2 14.9 3.7 0.5 8 Seton Hall 60.1 5.7 1.3 0.4 9 Marquette 39.9 2.6 0.4 0.08 7 DePaul 34.8 4.8 0.7 0.06