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