#BIGEASTwbb Tournament Bracket Takes Shape On Final Day
2020 Tournament Bracket as of 3.1.20
NEW YORK – The BIG EAST women’s basketball regular season concluded on Sunday as the standings included an unprecedented five-way tie for third place. Seeding for the 2020 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by Jeep, which is set for March 6-9 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, was set for the top eight teams. Georgetown and Xavier ended in a stalemate after splitting the regular-season series and finishing with identical series-by-series records against the rest of the league. By Conference rule, the next step to tiebreak the squads is “team NCAA RPI as of games played through the final day of the regular season”, which will be released Monday morning by the national office. The Hoyas entered the day with a 14-spot lead over the Musketeers in the NCAA RPI; Georgetown (248) fell at No. 41 Creighton and Xavier (262) lost at No. 58 St. John’s on Sunday afternoon. Should Georgetown and Xavier be tied in the RPI, a coin flip by the BIG EAST office would be the final step in determining seeding.
Results solidified seeds throughout the day on Sunday, beginning with the 1 p.m. matchups which saw Villanova rally from a double-digit deficit to defeat Providence 74-63, and Seton Hall score a wire-to-wire 66-53 win over Butler. The loss for the Bulldogs locked Marquette into the No. 2 seed, which the Golden Eagles further solidified with a 90-83 win over top-seed and 16
th-ranked DePaul in the nationally televised game of the day (FS2). MU, which was picked ninth in the BIG EAST Preseason Poll, finished league play 13-5 for a two-game lead ahead of the third-place teams. The Blue Demons finished 15-3 for the fourth time and atop the conference standings for the sixth time.
After Creighton cruised by Georgetown 95-78 to clinch a first-round bye, the pressure moved to St. John’s, which would lock up the three-seed with a win over Xavier or fall all the way to seven with a loss. The Red Storm never trailed in the contest and went on to knock off the Musketeers 74-37 to lock up the No. 3 seed.
Butler, Creighton, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova all finished 11-7 in the standings. The record against each other in the five-team “mini-conference” was used to seed the tie, with St. John’s going 6-2 against the other four to claim the No. 3 seed. Seton Hall and Butler followed at 4-4 with the Pirates sweeping the Bulldogs to break that further tie and clinch the No. 4 seed and move BU to No. 5, while Creighton and Villanova followed at 3-5, with the Bluejays sweeping the Wildcats to clinch the final first-round bye as the No. 6 seed, and sending VU to the first round as the No. 7 seed.
Providence followed that group with a 3-15 BIG EAST record and clinched the No. 8 seed outright. The Friars will face the No. 9 seed which will be either Georgetown or Xavier, which finished 2-16. Providence split with both the Hoyas and Musketeers during the regular season, but scored a win over St. John’s to earn the edge in the standings.
BIG EAST Tournament action tips off on Friday, March 6, at 11 a.m. CT when the eighth-seeded Friars face the nine seed in either Georgetown or Xavier. No. seed 7 Villanova will face the 10 seed at 1:30 p.m., with both first round games streaming on the BIG EAST Digital Network presented by SoFi. Action continues in the quarterfinals on March 7, with No. 1 seed DePaul facing the 8-9 winner at noon, followed by No. 4 seed Seton Hall against No. 5 seed Butler at 2:30 p.m. The night session tips at 6 p.m. when No. 2 seed Marquette faces the 7-10 victor, followed by the 8:30 p.m. nightcap which sees No. 3 seed St. John’s against No. 6 seed Creighton. All quarterfinal matches will air nationally on FS2. The quarterfinal’s early session winners will meet in the semifinals on March 8, beginning at 5 p.m. and followed at 7:30 p.m., with both games airing on FS1. Coverage remains on FS1 for the title game, set for March 9 at 7 p.m. The winner of the BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament receives the conference’s automatic bid into the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
2020 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by Jeep
All times local – Central
First Round – March 6
Game 1: #9 Georgetown/Xavier* vs. #8 Providence, 11 a.m. (BEDN)
Game 2: #10 Georgetown/Xavier* vs. #7 Villanova, 1:30 p.m. (BEDN)
Quarterfinals – March 7
Game 3: #1 DePaul vs Game 1 winner, Noon (FS2)
Game 4: #5 Butler vs. #4 Seton Hall, 2:30 p.m. (FS2)
Game 5: #2 Marquette vs. Game 2 winner, 6 p.m. (FS2)
Game 6: #6 Creighton vs. #3 St. John’s, 8:30 p.m. (FS2)
Semifinals – March 8
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 5 p.m. (FS1)
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 7:30 p.m. (FS1)
Final – March 9
Game 9: Semifinal winners, 7 p.m. (FS1)
*will be determined by the NCAA RPI on March 2