A look at the Big East power rankings for Week 14 of the college basketball season
The middle of the Big East continues to be difficult to sort out. Remember when (I said) Butler was one of the last two elite Big East teams, in the wake of a rash of point guard injuries for other top squads? Yeah, they lost twice this week. Xavier and Creighton continue to remain frisky, if upside-capped, with their star point guards out. Marquette has fallen back from the heights of its victory over #1 Villanova, and landed near the bubble. The rest of the conference remains capable of winning (besides DePaul) – and losing (definitely DePaul) – every game.
Read on as we try to sort through recent action in the Big East, and see the future of a group of truly unpredictable teams. It’s definitely a good conference – it’s just tough to tell who will be good on any given day of the week. It’s week 14 of the college basketball season – just five weeks away from March Madness – and version five of these rankings.
Already got in a few jokes at the expense of DePaul, so I’ll avoid editorializing too much here. The Blue Demons fell to Marquette at home in their only game, so they’ll remain at 10 here. Billy Garrett Jr. and company continue to slog through another difficult Big East campaign, with their only conference high note coming on a 1-point victory over Providence about a month ago.
KenPom pegs their best remaining chance at a second Big East win as their February 25 matchup against Seton Hall, at 25 percent. I implore you to join me in rooting for these kids in every game but those against your team. Futility is tough, and they’re out there competing each game.
The Friars fall victim to the numbers game this week. Their only matchup last week, a 66-57 loss to Villanova last Wednesday night, didn’t leave much space to move them up. And, the teams that had been grouped around them scored victories and a bit of upward mobility in this week’s rankings.
The Friars get a chance to score a solid win Wednesday night against Seton Hall, the type of win they’ll need if they’re going to make any sort of push for the NCAA tournament. Currently sitting at 67th in RPI and 62nd in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency rankings, Providence just doesn’t quite have the resume you’d normally associate with a tournament team. Their best wins this season remain Marquette and Rhode Island – two solid teams, but just within KenPom’s top 50. Ed Cooley’s squad has put together a nice rebound season after losing its top two players from last year, but they’ve got their work cut out for them to return to the postseason.