When the Big East underwent a transformational face-lift in 2013, questions arose regarding whether or not the conference would be able to retain its status as one of the premier leagues in college basketball. For the first two seasons as a non-football conference, the shortcomings of the Big East appeared to confirm the doubts of critics.
But in year three of a basketball-driven era, the Big East is experiencing a resurgence that has the conference on the verge of top-tier status, with a legitimate national title contender with the Villanova Wildcats leading the charge.
Villanova arrived at Allstate Arena on Tuesday night playing as the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in school history, matched up against a DePaul team that had delivered one of the biggest upsets of the college basketball season one week earlier against No. 11 Providence. The Wildcats responded to the hype like a team poised to make a deep postseason run; with a dominant performance that oozed maturity, confidence and focus.
“I was concerned, just because it was the first time that we ever had to go through that,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said following the Wildcats’ 86-59 victory. “Everyone was trying to talk about being No. 1, and we were trying to talk about DePaul. We have a really mature team. I thought we knew our scouting report really well, and that shows our level of concentration.”
With its performance on Tuesday, Villanova removed any doubt that it belongs among the top teams in the country, something that DePaul head coach Dave Leitao is quick to acknowledge.
“They are a program with a brand, and those guys believe whole-heartedly in that brand,” Leitao said. “Not that they don’t have their share of issues. But for 40 minutes, they play as well as anybody in the country. Their record shows it, their record in the league shows it and their ranking as the No. 1 team in the country shows it.”
While the Wildcats are clearly the headliner of a revamped Big East, they are far from the only team bolstering the conference’s case to be considered among the best in college basketball.
Xavier is sitting at 20-3 and knocking on the door of a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Barring a late-season collapse, Providence and Seton Hall will be making appearances at the Big Dance. And with a strong push down the stretch, Butler and Creighton will likely to make the tournament as well.
Every season since the fateful 2013 conference realignment that saw the Big East lose perennial powerhouses Syracuse, Louisville and Connecticut, the conference has made small steps to improve its national stature.
In 2014, just four Big East teams made the tournament. The following year, that number increased to six. This season, the conference must take one crucial final step: finding success in the postseason.
This new era of Big East basketball has seen just one team make it past the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. That team was Xavier in 2015, which fell to Arizona in the regional semifinals.
The team leading this Big East resurgence is the conference member that has been at the forefront of these postseason struggles. Villanova has been eliminated in the Round of 32 in back-to-back years, including as a No. 1 seed in 2015.
In a college basketball season where parity has become a mainstay, it appears that no team will be safe come March. This could prove to be a double-edged sword for the conference, with Villanova and Xavier prone to another letdown, and other Big East schools in a position to play Cinderella.
“It’s one of those years where if you look at the top 20, anybody could beat anybody,” Wright said. “The tournament will be wide open this year.”
Villanova does have one important factor working in its favor, though, and that is momentum. With four double-digit victories since a Jan. 24 overtime loss to Providence, there may not be a hotter team in college basketball.
“We have to look for one team that really starts to get better down the stretch and becomes that team like Kentucky or Duke was last year,” Wright said. “That’s what our goal is, to just keep getting better and not worry about being No. 1, 2 or 3. And maybe we can be that team that, at the end, is playing its best.”
