In this first year of the new conference, Villanova looks like the early favorite, but the new Big East looks balanced from top to bottom and a fun run of league games, starting this week, are ahead for the next 2 ½ months. Here’s a run through all ten teams…
Big East basketball has gotten more than its share of news lately, as the league’s seven Catholic universities have decided to leave the league and protect themselves from football-driven realignment. For now, on the basketball floor, we still have another unwieldy 16-team conference race to look forward to, and the Big East has six teams in the Top 25, with three in the Top 10. The conference got a signature win today when Louisville beat Kentucky. With Big East games beginning on New Year’s night, let’s break down the conference landscape.
Big East basketball will get the TV spotlight over the next couple days in a series of games against the SEC, as they play their conference challenge. Since the Big East is one of the leagues we haven’t done a November check-in on, now looks like as good a time as any to touch base with the conference elite. And what I find interesting is that what might see the same phenomena on the basketball court that we’ve seen on the gridiron, and its Notre Dame significantly outperforming expectations. I’m not sure when the Fighting Irish became an under-the-radar school, but it certainly happened in football and all indications are that we might see the same in basketball.
Has anyone noticed that Marquette is right on the heels of Syracuse in the Big East race? Not only that, but that the Golden Eagles are the only team within a game of the frontrunning Orange? Marquette has quietly rattled off six straight wins, including a come-from-behind effort at Villanova on Saturday. When Georgetown was […]
Syracuse is setting the tone in the Big East and the nation as a whole with their undefeated season, but in the rugged Big East there are six solid teams giving the Orange chase. Today the Notebook breaks down the “Secondary Six” as we’ll call them. The group is comprised of Cincinnati & UConn (who […]
Last year the Big East dominated college basketball conversation all season and put 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament. Ten of them flamed out, but the fact UConn won the national title saved the conference’s reputation and it’s again got one team on top of the polls (Syracuse), another in the top five (Louisville) and […]