With perhaps the best trio of teams in any conference in the country and legendary names on the sidelines, the Big East Conference will be one of the most exciting conferences in the country to watch night in and night out. Throughout this article I’ll give my predictions for how the league standings shake out along with my picks for the all-conference teams and awards.
The Big East seems to have three concrete tiers separating the 11 teams, with the top tier consisting of three consensus top 15 teams leading the way: UConn, Marquette, and Creighton. My second tier consists of Villanova, Providence, Xavier, Butler, St. John’s, and Seton Hall, teams that will be a tough out each night, but don’t quite have the firepower of the top three. The cellar of the Big East once again contains Georgetown and DePaul, who combine to boast non-conference home losses to Holy Cross, Northern Illinois, Long Beach State, and PFW. The top of the Big East fared well in November and December though, including wins over UNC, Gonzaga, Alabama, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The conference’s signature win came in Honolulu during the Maui Invitational, when Marquette dominated Kansas from start to finish, winning 73-59 behind Oso Ighodaro’s 21 points. Now for my predictions on how the standings finish:
#1 UConn (15-5)
The Huskies can make a claim for the #1 spot in all of college basketball, and I believe their talent level and depth is just a step above that of Marquette and Creighton, enough to finish first in the conference. UConn goes eight deep most nights, and have a great mix of talent and experience, with freshman Stephon Castle coming back in the recent weeks and a duo of senior guards in the backcourt. Tristen Newton has taken control this season, with his averages across the board going up from last season’s title run. Cam Spencer might be the most vital piece of this team however, shooting 45.9% from three on the year while averaging 15.7 points. Sophomores Donovan Clingan and Alex Karaban are two more players who must be mentioned, coming back from their freshman seasons and thriving in much larger roles. I was able to watch a handful of games during UConn’s non-conference schedule, and they might just be as good as they were last season, when they finished as national champions. This will be the best team in the conference, but as we’ve seen in years prior, some of these arenas across the Big East are very tough to play in, and I think that’s why UConn will ultimately end up dropping 4-5 games.
#2 Marquette (14-6)
One of the teams I watched the most this fall was the Marquette Golden Eagles, due to both their stacked non-conference schedule and their core of exciting players to watch. The best player in the conference and maybe the best point guard in the country, Tyler Kolek, is the key to this team. Kolek can score, pass, and defend as good as any guard in the country, and some of the passes he makes amaze me even after watching them a second and third time. Kam Jones and Oso Ighodaro are two other all-conference caliber players in this team, and the latter of the two had his best game of the season during Marquette’s big win over Kansas. The Golden Eagles returned most of their core from a year ago and will once again be contenders in the Big East and in the national landscape this season.
#3 Creighton (14-6)
There isn’t much separating Creighton from Marquette and UConn, but the two blowout losses to Colorado State and UNLV raise some questions of this team and their reliance on the three-point shot. Creighton is one of the most efficient teams in the country overall but are also top ten in point distribution via the 3pt line, which we saw in the two games vs the Mountain West come back to bite them, going 5-19 and 8-29 from beyond the arc. Inconsistency may end up being the theme of this team, with 10-19 and 14-40 three-point shooting performances in wins against Oklahoma State and Nebraska sandwiched between these two losses. It will be a wait and see each night to see which Creighton shows up, but the three-headed monster of Baylor Scheierman (18.5ppg, 7.2rpg, 4.7apg), Ryan Kalkbrenner (16.1ppg, 6.8rpg, 2.3bpg), and Trey Alexander (15.6ppg, 6.2rpg, 4.5apg) can all light up the scoreboard on any given night.
#4 Villanova (13-7)
Villanova might be the only team in the country more inconsistent than Creighton, and a quick look at their non-conference results prove that. The Wildcats won three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, taking down Texas Tech, UNC, and Memphis during Thanksgiving week, but slipped up to Penn, St. Joseph’s and Drexel in the Big 5 Classic. Forward Eric Dixon has had a solid start to the season averaging 13.6 points and 7.0 rebounds, but head coach Kyle Neptune has to hope he gets more performances like the B4A games out of Dixon during the conference slate. I probably haven’t given up as much on Villanova as the general consensus, but I do think that a softer start schedule-wise to Big East play can give them a great boost of momentum for the rest of the regular season. Something key to watch for will be how Kyle Neptune coaches on the sidelines in close games down the stretch, as he doesn’t quite stack up experience-wise to that of Rick Pitino, Thad Matta, and Sean Miller among others.
#5 Providence (12-8)
Providence has started the Kim English era 9-2, and heads into Big East play with aspirations of reaching the tournament for the third straight season. Bryce Hopkins leads the Friars in scoring so far this season with 17.2 points per game and junior guard Devin Carter has upped his average to 15.5ppg this season. I haven’t had the opportunity to watch too much Providence games yet this season, but one thing I know for sure is that opposing teams do not look forward to playing at the Amica Mutual Pavilion (AMP). The Friars have lost three home games total over the last 2 1/2 seasons, and I don’t see that number getting much higher in Big East play this season. Look for the Friars to get off to a hot start in the conference, with their first three games coming at home.
#6 Xavier (11-9)
A tough non-conference schedule didn’t do Xavier justice, as the Musketeers fell to a 6-5 record including disappointing home losses to Oakland and Delaware. Transfer guard Quincy Olivari has quickly become a well-known name for Xavier fans though, lighting up cross-town rivals Cincinnati for 27 points and 6-8 from three in an 84-79 win. He shares the backcourt with Desmond Clause and Dayvion McKnight, and I think the experience in this backcourt is enough for a mid-table finish in conference and a possibility of an NCAA Tournament berth with enough quality wins, although those two bad losses in November could keep them out.
#7 Butler (10-10)
Butler has been one of the pleasant surprises of the college basketball season, with Thad Matta’s second season at the helm off to a 9-2 start. Pierre Brooks has gotten off to a fantastic start to the season, averaging 16.8ppg heading into conference play. The Bulldogs will be in a lot of games this season and are much improved from last year, but the lack of frontcourt quality and depth scares me, with names like Donovan Clingan, Oso Ighodaro, Bryce Hopkins, Eric Dixon, Joel Soriano, and Ryan Kalkbrenner lurking around the conference.
#8 St. John’s (10-10)
One of the teams garnering the most hype this offseason was St. John’s, as the hiring of Rick Pitino lit up the college basketball world. Pitino brought Daniss Jenkins with him, and recruited a slew of transfers to surround Joel Soriano, the lone returner from the Red Storm’s 2022-23 squad. The pieces haven’t completely fallen into place yet, but it’d be foolish to doubt Rick Pitino throughout the course of a college basketball season.
#9 Seton Hall (7-13)
Putting Seton Hall at 9th might be most confident pick out of the whole conference, as I think they’re a step behind the top eight, but nowhere close to the depths of Georgetown and DePaul. The Pirates just picked up their best win of the season this past weekend, beating Missouri 93-87 in Kansas City. Seton Hall avoided bad losses through the non-conference schedule, but I still don’t think their talent level matches St. John’s, Butler, or Xavier. The key for Seton Hall will be getting Al-Amir Dawes and Dylan Addae-Wusu back to their shooting splits from prior seasons.
#10 Georgetown (3-17)
Georgetown might have their best team since 2020-2021, but this team still isn’t at the level to be able to compete in the Big East. Ed Cooley on the sidelines gives me hope that the Hoyas can squeak out a couple of wins through 20 games, and a microwave scorer like Jayden Epps could steal a game by himself. This team is better than DePaul, but they likely won’t be favorites to win against any other Big East opponent. It’s very tough to look past a loss to Holy Cross, who ranks 357th out of 362 Division 1 teams on KenPom.
#11 DePaul (1-19)
With the performances DePaul has given us throughout the non-conference season, one win may be ambitious for the Blue Demons. I don’t think there’s too much to say about a team with losses to Long Beach State, Northern Illinois, and PFW and is going to have to play UConn, Marquette, and Creighton all twice over the next two months. Sophomore guard Elijah Fisher is the bright spot on this team for me, has great finishing ability and seemed to score at will in the game I watched versus Long Beach State.
My Predictions for the All-Conference Selections and Award Winners
First Team: Tyler Kolek (Marquette), Tristen Newton (UConn), Baylor Scheierman (Creighton), Joel Soriano (St. John’s), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)
Second Team: Quincy Olivari (Xavier), Cam Spencer (UConn), Alex Karaban (UConn), Eric Dixon (Villanova), Oso Ighodaro (Marquette)
Player of the Year: Tyler Kolek (Marquette)
Defensive Player of the Year: Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)
Newcomer of the Year: Cam Spencer (UConn)
Freshman of the Year: Stephon Castle (UConn)
Coach of the Year: Danny Hurley (UConn)
Breakout Player to Watch For: Lazar Djokovic (Xavier)
That might be the toughest set of all-conference teams I have to make this winter, and there’s probably 10+ guys I left out that I wouldn’t be surprised to see be on my list by March. The Big East can stake a claim for the best conference in the sport and will have quality basketball games all season long.