February is all done now and with the start of March comes visions of tournaments dancing in the heads of players, coaches and fans alike.
Conference tournaments come first, of course, but everyone this time of year has their eye on the big prize – a ticket to the Big Dance. Since the realignment of the BIG EAST to start the 2013-14 season, the conference has sent no less than four teams (in 2013-14) and as many as six teams (in 2014-15) to the NCAA Tournament. And you might remember that a certain BIG EAST team ran the table and won the whole thing last season.
But what about this year? How many teams can the conference hope to send off into March Madness this time around? If you’re big into the whole science of bracketology – and really, who isn’t this time of year? - the BIG EAST just may be looking at a new high with seven teams looking to crash the party.
In the latest projections by Joe Lunardi of ESPN, Jerry Palm of CBS and Stewart Mandel of FOX, Villanova (now there’s a stretch), Butler, Creighton, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette and Xavier are expected to hear their names called on Selection Sunday – the most of any conference outside of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is projected to land nine bids. The Big 10 is also looking at seven bids while the Big-12 is looking at six, the Pac-12 five and the SEC getting four.
So do seven bids sound high for the BIG EAST or is it just about right? Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski doesn’t think seven is shooting too high and he was not shy about sharing his thoughts on the subject.
“Our conference stacks up against any league. I think we’re a league that deserves seven teams in the NCAA Tournament,” Wojo said. “If you look at our conference’s body of work from the beginning of the basketball season until now, we have the most competitive conference and the double round-robin adds to that. The fact that we’ve had so many teams in our league that had built up terrific resumes, our league is as competitive as can be.”
Wojo has done his homework. In the non-conference season this year, the BIG EAST posted a robust 98-29 record with Villanova and Creighton each going 13-0, Butler compiling an 11-1 mark, Seton Hall logging a 10-2 record, Providence and Xavier tallying 10-3 marks, Marquette going 9-3, Georgetown sporting a 9-4 record and DePaul adding a 7-6 mark. Only a young St. John’s team didn’t post a winning record in the non-con season, going 6-7 overall.
Included in those 98 non-conference victories were a host of quality wins by over pedigree programs such as Purdue, Notre Dame and Virginia (by Villanova), Arizona, Cincinnati and Indiana (by Butler), Wisconsin (by Creighton) and South Carolina (by Seton Hall).
Due to such victories, as well as having up to four teams in the Top 25 for a good portion of the season, the BIG EAST’s conference RPI is third in the nation behind the ACC and Big 12.
“Out of conference we all certainly did the job and we’ve all been beating up on each other throughout the conference season,” Xavier head coach Chris Mack said. “This league is not for the faint of heart and I’ve said it before, you need to quickly turn the page and not get too high over the highs and not get too low over the lows.”
Mack is correct in that the conference does beat each other up on a nightly basis, but because of the depth of strong teams in the conference, many teams in the BIG EAST own lofty RPI rankings. Villanova is tops at No. 2 in the nation while Butler (10th), Creighton (24th), Xavier (27th), Seton Hall (48th), Providence (53rd) and Marquette (69th) are all in the top 70.
“Nobody is escaping with an unbalanced schedule and you have to put your hard hat on every day,” Wojciechowski said. “I wish there were more people talking about the fact that we should get seven teams at least in the NCAA Tournament.”
There still may be some work to do for a couple of teams to get themselves off the NCAA Tournament bubble once and for all. Xavier, for one, has dropped five straight, due mostly to the loss of Edmond Sumner (for the season with a torn ACL) and Trevon Bluiett (for two games with an ankle injury). But the Musketeers have Marquette at home Wednesday night before closing out the regular season at DePaul Saturday.
And then, of course, there is the BIG EAST Tournament beginning next week at Madison Square Garden, which will provide any remaining bubble dwellers ample opportunities to seal that NCAA Tournament invitation.
So seven teams coming out of the BIG EAST? Why not? March is for dreaming and when you’re as brawny a conference as the BIG EAST, you should dare to dream big.
“It speaks to the depth of our league, it’s as good a league as there is in college basketball,” Mack said. “I think we all know that.”