Big East What To Watch: Week 14

For a moment, I was looking at this week’s Big East basketball schedules and it was starting to look like maaaybe there weren’t really that many intriguing games on deck. Then I realized that we’re past the halfway point or further even for everyone in the league, and things are Starting To Get Important relative to fighting to avoid playing on the opening night of the conference tournament. As it happens, there’s more than a couple of games that fit the bill of “oh, well, that’s important to the 5th place/6th place cut line right now.”

Plus a ranked on ranked game in the men’s division! That’s actually nationally important!

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Let’s get into it!

Wednesday, February 4: Seton Hall Pirates at RV Villanova Wildcats (5:30pm Central, Peacock) — Seton Hall has stemmed the tide of a complete collapse with a massive rally second half against Xavier and fending off a challenge from Marquette. However, the four game losing streak might have broken their NCAA hopes unless they can match it with quality wins, and at The Finn against a Nova team seemingly ticketed for the Dance is exactly that. Kevin Willard’s Wildcats can’t exactly afford to cough up a loss here, not with the Torvik Wins Above Bubble bracket slotting them in as a #8 seed.

Wednesday, February 4: Georgetown Hoyas at Creighton Bluejays (6pm Central, ESPN+) — This is one half of an important week for Jim Flanery’s Bluejays as they come off a very good road win over Seton Hall on Sunday. They’re a game behind St. John’s for fifth place (and thus one of the byes in the first round of the Big East tournament) in the league, and a game ahead of the Hoyas team as well. Creating space between themselves and Georgetown is as easy as winning at Sokol right here.

Wednesday, February 4: Creighton Bluejays at Georgetown Hoyas (6:30pm Central, Peacock) — The Bluejays needed overtime to down Georgetown at home, and they’re just 1-3 since then, needing a miracle break against Xavier to get the win and getting absolutely run over by both UConn (fine) and Marquette (uh oh) in the losses. There’s not much of a hope for the NCAA tournament in Omaha any more, but a loss here would probably finish them off…. and if that’s the case…. are we seeing the beginning of the end for Greg McDermott as head coach at Creighton?

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Friday, February 6: #3 Connecticut Huskies at #22 St. John’s Red Storm (7pm Central, Fox) — This will be the first of two meetings this season between the two teams that were considered to be the top two teams in the conference heading into the year. To this point, they’ve separated themselves atop the standings at 11-0 and 9-1, and with the Johnnies holding the loss, the onus is on them to win at home here to create a race for the regular season title down the stretch.

Saturday, February 7: Butler Bulldogs at #1 Connecticut Huskies (11am Central, FS1) — Presuming that Sarah Strong’s squad gets through a road game against last place DePaul just fine on Wednesday, UConn could be playing to clinch a spot in the top five of the league in this game and thus avoid the opening day tripleheader of the conference tournament. That would be with six games left in the conference slate for the Huskies, and I say “could” because it’s possible that they get help on Wednesday from Georgetown to clinch it anyway.

Saturday, February 7: Butler Bulldogs at Marquette Golden Eagles (1pm Central, FS1) — Butler followed up their home win over Marquette by getting trampled at The Garden by St. John’s and then getting shunted into the Negative Zone by Georgetown. Five points in the final 6+ minutes after cutting a margin to four! At home! How much will the National Marquette Day crowd gas up the Golden Eagles at Fiserv Forum here?

Saturday, February 7: Seton Hall Pirates at St. John’s Red Storm (1pm Central, ESPN+) — This is the only game of the week for Savannah Catalon’s Pirates and they come in having lost two of the last three. One was to UConn, but the other was to Creighton at home. St. John’s is trying to stay in the top five of the Big East standings (and thus out of the conference tournament opening tripleheader) with just a one game lead over Creighton right now, so they can make a lot of noise with a win here. Oh, and Seton Hall’s next game, as they try to maintain a hold on third place in the league? Marquette, the team they are currently tied with in the standings.

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Saturday, February 7: DePaul Blue Demons at Providence Friars (3pm Central, FS1) — The Friars have lost six of seven and host Butler and DePaul this week. Think of this one as the second half of the Kim English Keep Your Job Challenge. Difficulty Level: Hard.

Saturday, February 7: Seton Hall Pirates at Creighton Bluejays (5pm Central, Peacock) — All the stuff I said earlier about Budd Clark’s Pirates and Josh Dix’s Bluejays? Goes double here, especially with it being the second of two road games this week for the Pirates.

Sunday, February 8: Marquette Golden Eagles at Creighton Bluejays (12pm Central, FS1) — Here’s the other half of an important week for Creighton, as they get Cara Consuegra’s inconsistent (but tied for third!) Golden Eagles in Omaha. If the Jays want to make a play to get one of those five first round byes in the conference tournament, they could do a lot worse than closing the current three-game gap with MU right here. Meanwhile, Halle Vice and Marquette still haven’t found a way to start playing clean basketball for 40 straight minutes, and they have to get through a home game against Providence before making this trip to somewhere in middle America.

Here’s the full Big East men’s basketball schedule for the week, with all times Central, as always.

Here’s the full Big East women’s basketball schedule for the week, with all times Central, as always.

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