Is there any better time of year than those first two days of the NCAA Tournament? Forty eight hours of down-to-the-wire games, buzzer-beaters, upsets and general mayhem.
It’s why millions flock to their TVs, why brackets are filled out and, for some, sick days are used (wink, wink). It’s a time on the basketball calendar when no one is safe (we’re looking at you, No. 1 seed Virginia) and when teams who seemingly don’t have a prayer of contending rise up and seize their moment. (That’s you, UMBC).
But all of that mayhem is still almost two months away. So why wait for all those dance cards to be filled when the BIG EAST Conference gives you doses of March-tasting basketball on a nightly basis?
We are barely a third of the way through the regular season - 33 conference games have been played so far heading into Friday night’s contest between Creighton and Butler - and 16 of those matchups have been decided by six points or less. That’s just a tad under 50 percent. Not even the first two days of the NCAA Tournament can contest those numbers.
It certainly makes for entertaining nights at any one of the BIG EAST’s arenas this season.
Going into Friday’s action only Villanova and Marquette, at 3-0 apiece, have emerged unscathed in tight-game scenarios as the Wildcats have defeated DePaul (73-68), Providence (65-59) and St. John’s (76-71) so far this season while the Golden Eagles have taken down Creighton (106-104 in OT), Seton Hall (70-66) and Georgetown (74-71).
So why all the early-season drama? A very balanced conference as opposed to past seasons.
“I just think there is tremendous parity in our league,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “While Villanova and Marquette are off to great starts they’ve certainly had some near misses. The rest of us have just played in really competitive games. (It) doesn’t seem to matter where you play them, the games have been really, really tight and it comes down to one play here and one play there.”
Villanova, as has been its custom since the reconfiguration of the BIG EAST, is once again leading the league with a flawless 6-0 conference record with Marquette just an eyelash behind at 6-1. But here’s where it gets really interesting, or agita-inducing if you’re a head coach - the other eight remaining BIG EAST teams all have four losses and just one win separates two-win teams Creighton, Providence and Georgetown from the quartet of three-win teams St. John’s, Seton Hall, Xavier, Butler and surprising DePaul.
Part of the reason for the parity in the conference is each team, with the exception of Marquette, suffered extensive losses to graduation or the NBA draft after last season and it’s taking time for the league’s future stars to learn the ropes in a premier conference.
“I think all the teams are extremely balanced and when you lose the amount of seniors that this conference did, not only seniors but high-level players, (Xavier’s) Trevon Bluiett, J.P. Macura, Villanova’s guys (Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Omari Spellman and Donte DiVincenzo), my guys (Angel Delgado, Desi Rodriguez and Khadeen Carrington) and Creighton’s guys (Marcus Foster and Khyri Thomas), it takes a little time for that next group to kind of find and learn what it takes to win,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “And I think what you’re seeing now when all the games are all extremely close. They’re all extremely well played, the teams are playing extremely hard but you have guys out there that weren’t put in positions last year to have to make a defensive stop, to get a defensive rebound or make an offensive play. And I think that’s kind of what you’re seeing throughout the league right now, really top to bottom.”
Villanova head coach Jay Wright peered into his crystal ball prior to the season and said he saw a more balanced BIG EAST coming this year. But he doesn’t expect it to remain that way as January gives way to February.
“I said in the beginning of the year that the parity in our league is the most it’s been this year,” Wright said. “What it looks like right now is not what it’s going to look like at the end. I think there will be some teams that separate themselves and get up to the top. I think both us and Marquette know, (with) as many wins as we’ve had, we could have lost a lot of those games. So we know how close it is. So I don’t think it’s going to look like this at the end of the year.”
But with all 10 conference opponents making it a habit of beating up on each other every night, do the mounting loss totals spell trouble for possible NCAA Tournament at-large bids for member teams?
“I think that’s a fair question,” said Providence head coach Ed Cooley, who has led the Friars to five straight tournament appearances. “Losing 19 of your (conference’s) top 30 scorers hurts. But with that said, there is the promise of the league moving forward. There’s a lot of young players, a lot of talented players that are learning how to play (and) learning how to be in new roles. The only team that is probably not in new roles is one of our better teams and that’s Marquette because they have all those guys back. So will it hurt us? I don’t know. There are still a lot of games yet to be played and there are still a lot of games left to be played across the country. At the end of the day 68 teams need to be fielded and if the BIG EAST has some of the top 68 teams in the country then we’ll be rewarded with an at-large bid if we don’t win the conference championship.”
Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski thinks the BIG EAST will be represented quite nicely once Selection Sunday rolls around on St. Patrick’s Day.
“We’re a league that should have a number of teams in the NCAA Tournament,” Wojo said. “We played a really good non-conference schedule against some of the teams people consider the best. And the games that we’ve played in conference, the teams we’re playing are every bit as good if not better than those teams. We have to take it one game at a time, but in terms of overall health, our league is a really good one and there are a lot of games left to be played. (But) I think at the end in March we’re going to have great representation.”
McDermott thinks “there are still six or seven teams that are good enough to get into the NCAA Tournament,” which would be in line with the six the BIG EAST sent to last season’s dance.
And while the nightly battles and records hovering around .500 in the conference might be a cause for alarm for some, Wright sees it as a period in which the BIG EAST is not rebuilding as some might think, but reloading on the fly.
“There are a lot of great players that have moved on and if you look at a lot of these teams this year most of the teams have everyone coming back next year,” Wright said. “So you have maybe not a rebuilding (year) but a transition year for a lot of our programs. I think all of these teams are going to be much stronger by the end of this season and I think all of them are going to be great next year.”