After a first month of the season centered on non-conference games, the second part of the season begins this week, that of conference games. For four months, until the conference tournaments at the end of the season which precede the “March Madness”, the various programs of the country will indeed face the teams of their respective conferences.
USA Basketball offers you for the occasion a preview of each conference of the “Power Six”, the six major conferences of the NCAA first division: ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12.
After’Atlantic Coast Conferencewe continue in alphabetical order: focus on the Big East today.
A high-level conference for years, driven by the dominance of Villanova. But the Wildcats, present in the “Final Four” last season, started life without Jay Wright this season, and that requires a transition period.
As a result, the hierarchy redefines itself organically, and henceforth, Connecticut and Creighton appear as the two leaders of the conference, with a large homogeneous peloton behind them. Not the most talented of conferences, the Big East is on the other hand probably the most open, and therefore the most interesting to follow.
The teams
– Providence Friars (#1 in the conference in 2021/22)
– Villanova Wildcats (#2 in 2021/22)
– Connecticut Huskies (#3 in 2021/22)
– Creighton Bluejays (#4 in 2021/22)
– Marquette Golden Eagles (#5 in 2021/22)
– Seton Hall Pirates (#6 in 2021/22)
– St. John’s Red Storm (#7 in 2021/22)
– Xavier Musketeers (#8 in 2021/22)
– Butler Bulldogs (#9 in 2021/22)
– DePaul Bue Demons (#10 in 2021/22)
– Georgetown Hoyas (#11 in 2021/22)
Challenges
– No obvious favourites? It’s the first observation that jumps out at you when talking about the Big East this season: it’s a very open and competitive conference, with no clear favorites. This is partly explained by the blow of less well of the usual headliner of the conference for years, Villanova, which we will discuss in more detail below. But this can also be explained, more simply, by the rise in power of several programs. So teams like Connecticut and Creightoneven xavier and St. John’s seem to have clearly passed a collective milestone this season, compared to last year. This promises an exciting and contested regular season, in which blowouts are likely to be rare, and upsets likely to be frequent.
– In Villanova, the post-Jay Wright era begins. For the first time since 2001, the huge Jay Wright is not on the bench for the Wildcats. He’s his assistant Kyle Neptune who took over from this season, to lead the program into this new era. And so far, this first season without the iconic coach has been rather complicated: three wins in eight games to start, including a series of four straight losses, before winning with difficulty against Oklahoma. In short, at the time of starting the conference matches, Villanova has no certainties and no longer appears as the ogre of the Big East, as has been the case for ten years. The good news, however, is that the Wildcats can now take on star freshman Cam Whitmore, who started his season last week after missing the first month with a thumb injury.
– The last chance season for Patrick Ewing? No coach in this conference is under more pressure this season than the former Knicks legend. Indeed, since his arrival on the sound bench alma mater in 2017, the former “Beast From The East” is struggling to inject positive momentum into her Hoyas. The balance sheet speaks for itself: 72 wins for 89 defeats at the time of writing these lines. Last season particularly left its mark, since georgetown won only 6 of his 31 matches, even ending the exercise with a terrible series of… 21 losses in a row!!! And if Patrick Ewing assured at the start of the school year that he was confident about his team’s ability to bounce back this season, we are still waiting to see confirmation on the field, while the Hoyas point to 4 wins for 5 losses after the month of the season, before attacking the conference games.
– Shaheen Holloway takes it to the next level. Former player (from 1996 to 2000) then assistant (from 2010 to 2018) at Seton Hall, Shaheen Holloway has risen in rank this season: he is now the coach of the Pirates. Hired in the spring, the 46-year-old technician had served since 2018 as coach of Saint Peter’s, the surprise program of “March Madness”, author of a fantastic “run” to the gates of the “Final Four” (eliminated by North Carolina in the “Elite Eight”), after having eliminated Kentucky and Purdue in particular. Now back at home, the Queens native has taken it to the next level, in a major conference in the country. Given the quality of his work at Saint Peter’s, there is no doubt that he will continue to work well on the South Orange campus in New Jersey.
Player to watch: Ryan Nembhard
Little brother of Andrew, the executioner of the Lakers and Warriors, the leader of Creighton is one of the stars of the Big East conference this season. After an interesting “freshman” season but cut short due to a broken wrist (11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists), the Canadian is improving this season, posting better efficiency than last year (12.4 points and 5.6 assists after 9 games), at the helm of a team that has been among the ten best in the country since the start of the season.
Reliable manager on “pick-and-roll” like his brother, “dragster” at heart with good circle finishes in his arsenal, he still needs to progress in outside shooting (31% in career) to truly become a elite point guard of the university championship.
Prediction: Connecticut
Villanova entangled in what appears to be a transitional season, the top of the Big East should come down to a two-man race between Connecticut and Creighton, while the rest of the conference is clearly a cut below.
Our pick falls on the Huskies, whose momentum heading into conference play is relentless after winning their first nine games. In addition, their workforce seems a little denser than that of the Bluejays. In this particularly open Big East conference this season, Dan Hurley’s men are therefore clearly the favorites for the title at the moment, even if they are obviously not immune to a major injury, or more simply of an air pocket.
