INDIANAPOLIS – The Big East season has to start somewhere. Maybe even in the middle of a snowstorm. This isn’t the Sun Belt, after all.
Yes, Butler is in Providence for Saturday’s league opener. The white stuff is falling outside at a rate of almost an inch an hour, but this is the Big East. Hinkle Fieldhouse is packed with customers, as you expect winter to be like you expect a demolition derby. While everyone is taking off their ski hats and gloves, it’s time to reflect on the state of this conference as league play begins.
There were theories that the Big East might have lost a step. There is too much good and bad news.
Good news … it was a meeting about the 2016-2024 March Madness Cup. The league has won four of its eight national championships, with Villanova and UConn winning two each. Villanova reached its third Final Four, while Creighton and Xavier advanced to the Elite Eight. The Big East went 22-6 in the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024. Thank you UConn and friends.
The bad news … the conference didn’t get a single team past the first weekend of the tournament last March, just the third Big East-less Sweet 16 in 32 years.
Good news… As long as UConn is around, the Big East should have a voice at the table. The current Huskies are deep, talented, and look like a championship contender. And Storrs should know what they look like. They have played five ranked opponents in just 25 days, beating four of them, but failing to beat any of them at home. Ironically, the only home loss in five games was against Arizona. After all, UConn is ranked No. 5 in the latest AP poll at 4-1-25.
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The bad news … the rest of the conference is 1-10 against ranked opponents. The other member of the AP poll is St. John’s at No. 22. UConn, St. John’s and Villanova are the only Big Easters ranked in the top 49 of the current KenPom rankings. Creighton went from a top-25 finish to a 5-5 record. Marquette is 5-6 and has lost Big Ten games by 23 points to Indiana, 20 points to Wisconsin and Purdue and seven to Maryland. Those two perennials had a devil of a time against their neighbors. Creighton’s 71-50 drubbing of Nebraska was its worst against its in-state cousin in 30 years, while Marquette’s 96-76 drubbing of Wisconsin was the Badgers’ worst in a series since 1952.
So, is this league going backwards or not? Hold on, let’s check Providence and Butler. Seems like a close game. We’ll let them continue while they explore the Great East a bit.
Yes, UConn is a handful with high-quality wins over BYU, Illinois, Kansas and Florida, and Alex Karaban is the only player to average more than 29 minutes per game. “We have a wing, a point guard and two great centers,” coach Dan Hurley said. “When it’s all said and done and we’re healthy, I think it’s a really great group.”
St. John’s is 0-3 against ranked opponents in the first round, but if coach Rick Pitino can fix his defense, it could still be the power everyone has been hoping for. In a recent win over Ole Miss, the Red Storm had 20 turnovers and Zubi Ejiofor blocked eight shots. In Saturday’s 91-64 loss against Iona, Ejiofor had eight more rebounds and the Gaels didn’t shoot over 40% from the field. He is just the second Division I player to hit eight consecutive blocks in 11 years. It’s heading in the right direction.
“It starts with better perimeter defense, more focus on scouting. Zubi is obviously a good rim protector for our defense,” Pitino said. “We have to cut down on turnovers, but I like what I’m seeing. I like the improvement.”
Just look at Seton Hall. The Pirates went 7-25 last year. They have seven wins this season as of November 26. Now 10-1, the team picked to take last place in the Big East beat New Jersey Rutgers by 22 points. Seton Hall also has 11-point wins over NC State and Kansas State. The Pirates have had at least nine steals in every game this season. They are far from perfect, losing by two points to Southern California.
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More promising news: Villanova scored 20 assists on just three turnovers in Saturday’s 18-point win over Pittsburgh to improve to 8-2. DePaul rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Wichita State 8-3 for the first time in six years that it has beaten a non-conference opponent below 60 points in a row. Javier has won five straight and is off to an 8-3 start with a win over crosstown Cincinnati and the nation’s best passing-to-turnover ratio. Georgetown is 7-3.
So, on paper, multiples seem fine. But what does the league look like on the field? Let’s go back to see how Butler and Providence fared in the Big East opener…wait a minute. Are they still playing?
Right. And they didn’t stop until Butler won 113-110 in double overtime.
Can you believe a game with 223 total points, 30 lead changes, 20 ties and only 16 turnovers?
Can you believe the grueling battle of one possession for the last 23 minutes except for 12 seconds?
Can you believe that four different players scored at least 26 points, including Jason Edwards, who came off the bench for Providence and scored 32?
It was a hard-fought 2-hour-37-minute battle that could easily rank among the top 10 games of the season. If the Big East is a little torn right now, the conference opener certainly wasn’t.
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“I don’t follow a lot of other leagues. I know that’s two really, really good college basketball teams that competed there.” Butler coach Thad Matta said.
“This league is a beast,” said Providence coach Kim English, who didn’t want any consolation that participating in a similar epic might soothe the wounds of the final score. “No, no, no. Very, very, very disappointed.”
Matta predicted on the call-in show earlier in the week that the match would be a lot of fun for fans. “I didn’t let them down,” Matta said after the game.
“We did what we wanted to do today, and that was win the basketball game. It took 50 minutes to do that. This league…you gotta play, man. You gotta play the stretch we played today and do it over and over again.”
For a league eager to prove it hasn’t lost its bite, it’s hard to imagine a more exciting way to start the conference portion of the season. It was still snowing outside. Winter, cold, hard, merciless. It’s time for the Big East.
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