Georgetown, Xavier Finalize #BIGEASTwbb Tournament Bracket
2020 BIG EAST BRACKET
NEW YORK – Just over 12 hours after the top eight seeds were determined for the upcoming BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by Jeep, the final two squads learned their spots as Georgetown is the No. 9 seed and Xavier is the No. 10 seed. The NCAA RPI including yesterday’s games was used to tiebreak the Hoyas and Musketeers, who exhausted other tiebreakers and remained deadlocked – they split the season series with each other and had identical series-by-series records against the rest of the league. Monday morning’s RPI had Georgetown at No. 247 and Xavier at No. 264. The BIG EAST Tournament is set for March 6-9 at Wintrust Arena in downtown Chicago.
RPI as a tiebreaker was added to the BIG EAST women’s basketball policies prior to the 2014-15 season, with this being the first time it was used to break teams in a stalemate.
Ninth-seeded Georgetown (5-24, 2-16 BIG EAST) will tip off the BIG EAST Tournament this Friday, at 11 a.m. CT when they face eighth-seeded Providence (12-18, 3-15). No. 10 seed Xavier (3-26, 2-16) will follow at 1:30 p.m. against No. 7 seed Villanova (17-12, 11-7). Both first round games will stream live on the BIG EAST Digital Network presented by SoFi.
An unprecedented five-way tie for third place sent the Wildcats all the way down to the seven seed despite an 11-7 BIG EAST record. 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.
FS2 will cover Quarterfinal Saturday beginning at noon CT when top-seeded and regular-season champion DePaul (25-5, 15-3) faces the winner of the 8-9 matchup with the Hoyas and Friars. The first of two matchups of 11-7 teams follows when fourth-seeded Seton Hall (18-11, 11-7) faces fifth-seeded Butler (19-10, 11-7) at 2:30 p.m. The evening session tips off at 6 p.m., when No. 2 seed Marquette (22-7, 13-5) squares off with the winner of the Villanova-Xavier game, before the nightcap rounds out with No. 3 seed St. John’s (18-11, 11-7) against No. 6 seed Creighton (19-10, 11-7) at 8:30 p.m.
Quarterfinal winners advance to Sunday’s semifinals, with the early session victors playing at 5 p.m., followed by the evening winners at 7:30 p.m. FS1 will provide coverage of both semifinals, and will continue onto Monday’s title game, where the semifinal winners will meet at 7 p.m. The winner of the 2020 BIG EAST Tournament secures the conference’s automatic berth into the 2020 NCAA Tournament. DePaul is the reigning champion, having won the last two BIG EAST Tournaments at Wintrust Arena.
2020 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by Jeep
All times local – Central
First Round – March 6
Game 1: #9 Georgetown vs. #8 Providence, 11 a.m. (BEDN)
Game 2: #10 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)