We break down the Week 18 action leading into the Big East conference tournament in Madison Square Garden.
Well, we’re here. Conference play in the Big East ended, and all that’s left is the postseason. The Big East tournament starts on Wednesday, with the bottom four seeds — Georgetown-St. John’s, and DePaul-Xavier — squaring off to see who advances to the next round.
While conference play has ended, there’s still a ton to sort out. The Big East can potentially put seven teams in the NCAA Tournament, which would set a record for overall percentage of a conference’s teams in the Big Dance. But several of those bids hang on a knife edge, with one bad turn in the conference tournament or the wrong team getting an auto-bid changing everything. Let’s round up the seasons for the sure things, and look to see how the bubble teams can make their way into the Tournament.
Georgetown got blown out in their final game of the season against Villanova. While it would always have been tough to beat the Wildcats, the Hoyas were at home for Senior Day. An idealist would hope they could have put up more of a fight.
Instead, the arena was nearly empty, and the people that were there chanted for John Thompson’s job. It’s an awkward situation. Most fans and observers think the school needs a change, after missing three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. But Thompson seems to have the support of university officials, and if you squint hard enough, the ingredients are there for a turnaround. We’ll see next year, especially with the arrival of true point guard Tremont Waters.
For this year, they’ll be lucky to get past St. John’s in Madison Square Garden.
DePaul has just about finished another season as the Big East’s punching bag. The Blue Demons will finish with two regular season conference wins, and will almost certainly fall in the first round to Xavier on Wednesday. They have nothing to play for, and Xavier just beat them in Chicago by 12.
There’s some hope for the future. They’ll be bringing in a 4-star point guard next year in Justin Roberts to lead the offense, and round out the recruiting class with 3-star power forward Jaylen Butz and depth on the wing with Paul Read. Eli Cain played well as a secondary option in his sophomore year, and enough of the rotation players will still be around so that DePaul won’t be completely gutted.
It’s tough to see them really turning it around, though. DePaul perpetually remains at least a year away from being two years away.