2017 Championship Week Primer: Big East

Last year, Villanova spent most of the season being projected on the top line before suffering a swoon late in the regular season to fall down to the 2 line. Most people wrote off the Wildcats because of that, until...

At that point in the game where Villanova made the championship winning shot, the momentum had been with North Carolina as they had just made a strong comeback to tie the game with 4 seconds remaining. In my experience, more often than not, the team that stages that kind of comeback usually wins in overtime. The Wildcats headed off overtime with a last second shot that will go down in NCAA history.

Villanova won the Big East for the fourth year in a row. The next closest team was Butler a sizable three games behind the Wildcats. There was a four way tie for third between Creighton, Seton Hall, Providence, and Marquette. The last team without a losing record is Xavier, who has ravaged by injuries and collapsed down to the bubble's edge.

Villanova, along with Kansas, is as solid as a 1 seed as one can get. Elsewhere, Butler is on the 4 line currently, Creighton is a 7 seed, and then everyone else that could get into the tournament is on the bubble. Marquette, Seton Hall, and Providence are 10 seeds right now, hardly safe territory with six days to Selection Sunday, and Xavier is in more dangerous territory on the 11 line. Any of these teams can be shown the exit if they fall out of the Big East Tournament early and especially if other bubble teams make a run.

The Big East Tournament will feature all ten teams of the conference with the top six seeds getting a bye to the quarterfinals. The tournament will take place from March 8th to March 11th at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

First Round-Wednesday, March 8th
#9 Georgetown vs. #8 St. John's
#10 DePaul vs. #7 Xavier

Quarterfinals-Thursday, March 9th
#9 Georgetown vs. #1 Villanova
#5 Seton Hall vs. #4 Marquette
#7 Xavier vs. #2 Butler
#6 Creighton vs. #3 Providence

Semifinals-Friday, March 10th
#5 Seton Hall vs. #1 Villanova 
#3 Providence vs. #2 Butler

Championship-Saturday, March 11th
Butler was able to beat Villanova twice this season by eight points each, giving the Wildcats two of their three losses on the year. You don't usually see the better overall team get lose to the same team twice, especially since Butler finished only 10-6 in the league against non-Villanova opponents. Butler can certainly win again, but sometimes the third time's the charm and that is what I expect here.

Butler 65, Villanova 73