Christmas may be over but the BIG EAST is about to bestow the best gift for the hoops fan as conference play is set to tip off this week with a trio of games slated for Wednesday followed by a pair of contests on Thursday.
The highlight of the Thursday schedule will feature No. 23 Seton Hall hosting No. 25 Creighton at Prudential Center.
A battle of first-year coaches will get things started when LaVall Jordan leads his 10-3 Butler Bulldogs into Washington D.C. to take on Patrick Ewing and his surprising 10-1 Georgetown Hoyas Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
“Right now I feel good where we are,” said Jordan, whose team is coming off a 107-46 dismantling of Western Illinois. “We finished the non-conference season on a high note vs. Western Illinois. We’re a team that’s improved and defensively we’ve been pretty solid for the most part.”
Butler, which is led by Kelan Martin’s 17.9 points per game, split the season series with the Hoyas last season, needing overtime to pull out a victory at Georgetown.
“Looking at Georgetown, they’re going to be a tough opponent,” Jordan said. “They got length and size at every position which will be a tough matchup for us. (Junior center) Jessie Govan on the inside is putting up all-conference-type numbers at this point and starting on the road is always a tough test. We know it’s going to be a battle.”
Govan is averaging a double-double with 19.0 points and a conference-best 12.1 rebounds.
Jordan said he expects to have senior Tyler Wideman back in the fold after the senior forward had his wisdom teeth extracted recently. The game vs. the Hoyas is only the beginning of a rough stretch for the Bulldogs as they face four straight nationally-ranked teams after Thursday with contests vs. No. 1 Villanova on Saturday, Dec. 30, followed by road games at No. 6 Xavier on Jan. 2 and at No. 23 Seton Hall on Jan. 6 before going back home to entertain No. 25 Creighton on Jan. 9.
For Ewing, it will mark his first foray into BIG EAST play since his playing days in the 1980s.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Ewing said. “We’re still working on ourselves, working on our confidence and working on our state of mind. Our goal is to see where we lie at the end of the season. As the BIG EAST goes, it’s going to take an entire team to win. (Against Butler) it’s going to be a hard-fought game. They play extremely hard and we play extremely hard and they are led by an outstanding senior forward in (Kelan) Martin so it’s going to be a tough ball game.”
Top-ranked Villanova will be the first conference foe to check out DePaul’s new home, the Wintrust Arena when the 12-0 Wildcats visit 7-5 DePaul Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. Villanova swept the season series from the Blue Demons last season and it will also be the second straight season in which DePaul will open conference play against the Wildcats.
“I’ve wondered why we continue to be the sacrificial lamb for the perennial BIG EAST champions to start off the BIG EAST season,” mused DePaul head coach Dave Leitao. “We play Villanova, which for anybody at any time is a major challenge. They make you shake your head because they are probably the most efficient team I’ve seen in many, many years and that’s on both ends of the court. They know how to play off another team’s mistakes and they have any one of a half a dozen guys who can take advantage of you on the offensive end. They’re very difficult to prepare for.”
Villanova, which comes in off a 95-71 win over Hofstra, boasts five double-digit scorers led by Jalen Brunson’s 18.1 points per game. But despite his team’s lofty status, Villanova head coach Jay Wright is not taking an improving DePaul team lightly.
“We’re psyched about starting the BIG EAST season,” Wright said. “(We’re) going against DePaul, a very much-improved team. They have benefitted from Dave Leitao’s building of the program. They have inserted a shooter in (Max) Strus and in (6-11 Marin) Maric they got a really skilled big guy. They also got guys like (Tre’Darius) McCallum and (Eli) Cain who have been part of that program and have just gotten better and better every year. They have a new arena, sure they’re going to have a great crowd and I’m sure (it’s going to be) a very difficult matchup for us.”
The final game on Wednesday will see No. 6 Xavier head to Milwaukee to take on Marquette at 8:30 p.m. The Golden Eagles swept the season series from the Musketeers last season with Marquette winning by 22 at home.
“I feel like we’re an improving young team,” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said of his 9-3 Golden Eagles. “We challenged ourselves in the non-conference season and throughout the non-conference we had some really good performances. We showed growth on both ends of the floor but there were other times where we showed we still have some room to improve. So we’re excited to head into BIG EAST play and we have nothing but the utmost respect for Xavier. Offensively they’re so lethal, they can hurt you in so many ways and they’re tough-minded and physical on the defensive end.”
Marquette boasts the top two scorers in the conference in Markus Howard (21.8 ppg.) and Andrew Rowsey (20.7). Xavier (12-1) is paced by senior Trevon Bluiett, whose 19.8 points per outing ranks fourth in the BIG EAST.
Thursday’s marquee matchup will pit the 23rd-ranked Seton Hall Pirates against the No. 25 Creighton Bluejays. Tip time is 6:30 p.m. at the Prudential Center in Newark. The Pirates (11-2) are coming off a 74-62 victory over Manhattan while the 10-2 Bluejays most recently pummeled USC Upstate, 116-62.
“I’ve been really pleased with the way we’ve played so far,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “We challenged ourselves with a tough non-conference schedule and I thought our guys did a great job of accepting the challenge.”
The next challenge for the Pirates will be how to stop Creighton scoring machine Marcus Foster, who is fifth in the league in scoring with a healthy 19.5 points per game average.
“What makes Marcus so hard to defend is the pace in which he plays offensively,” Willard said. “You don’t really have a chance to just stick one guy on him because of the pace he plays at. He really gets down the floor, he spaces you out and then when he gets (the ball) he really attacks you. It’s really going to have to be a team effort on him and (Khyri) Thomas.”
The later game on Thursday will see Ed Cooley’s 9-4 Providence Friars head to Queens to take on Chris Mullin’s 10-2 St. John’s Red Storm at 7 p.m. at Carnesecca Arena. The two teams split the season series a year ago with each team winning on the road.
Cooley said after a rugged non-conference slate, he is looking forward to opening conference play.
“Every game in our league will be a monster,” Cooley said. “We’re excited about it but nervous at the same time.”