Big East Roundup: Could Villanova Lock Up a First Round Bye?

With little more than a week to go in the regular season — Villanova finishes up their schedule on Tuesday, March 4, while most of the rest of the Big East continues play through the rest of that week — it’s time to take a look at the conference standings.

Each team in the Big East has played at least 16 of the 20 games on their schedule, and seeding heading into the conference tournament is taking a clear picture, although there’s still some room for jostling.

St. John’s paces the conference with an immaculate 15-2 record, one of those two losses coming to none other than the Villanova Wildcats. Their next closest competitor, Creighton, sits at 12-4 with a game in hand, but would need a Herculean effort (and unmitigated disaster for St. John’s) in order to supplant the Red Storm.

Marquette (11-5) and Connecticut (10-6) both have a chance at supplanting the Blue Jays for the No. 2 spot, but don’t have enough time left in the season to climb any higher.

Villanova’s Situation

Just ahead of Villanova (9-8) sits Xavier (10-7), the current No. 5 seed. As such, the Musketeers are the last team in line for a first round bye in the conference tournament. Missing out on a tournament bye could end up a blessing in disguise for Villanova, giving them another chance to pad their résumé with an easy game against the No. 11 seed. However, because the Wildcats are neck and neck with Xavier on the NCAA Tournament bubble, they’ll probably need to slip past the Musketeers in the standings through some combination of wins and losses in order to feel better about their chances of an at-large bid.

Villanova could climb as high as the No. 3 seed if they win out and the teams in front of them start losing, but that isn’t particularly likely.

Bringing up the rear are Georgetown (7-9), the last team with a real shot of supplanting Villanova and Butler (6-10). The Wildcats will play one game apiece against the Hoyas and Bulldogs, giving them what should be easy wins… although they lost to Georgetown earlier this season and will now need to beat them on the road.

Providence, also at 6-10, slots in next, while Seton Hall (2-14) is finally out of the conference basement after knocking off UConn at home, slipping past DePaul (2-15) by virtue of a game in hand.

Buckle up, Villanova fans. It’s crunch time.

Big East Standings as of Tuesday, Feb. 25