Big East Big Five: Week Six

We've reached the second full week of December, so we're hitting the time of the season where most schools are in finals week. As such, there's very few midweek games. Luckily, some schools are making up for it by scheduling some great games for the weekend. Unfortunately, there's not five great games to talk about, only four. Instead of struggling to try to talk about how great Evansville is (the best KenPom team of the rest of the list), we'll make up for a lack of high profile games by adding the most ridiculous game of the week to the list this week.

Last Week: 3-2
Overall: 14-11

Monday, December 9: Manchester at Butler (7pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - So this is the part of the show where you ask "Who the hell is Manchester?" That's a fair question, and one I asked while looking at this week's candidates for the Big Five. Manchester is a Division 3 school, and believe it or not, this glorified exhibition is going to be on TV and everything. Not only are the Spartans a D3 team, they're a BAD D3 team, with a record of 1-7 so far this season. In their defense, one of the losses was to Wright State.

Saturday, December 14: Butler vs Purdue (5pm Central, Big Ten Network) - While I just finished shaming the Bulldogs for playing this game, I have to praise them for continuing to play in the Crossroads Classic, the traditional doubleheader involving these two teams, plus Indiana and Notre Dame. Unfortunately, this is the one year where we, as Marquette fans, only have a rooting interest in one of the games, unless you count rooting for a meteor strike as an interest.

Saturday, December 14: Cincinnati at Xavier (7pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - Ah, the Crosstown Classic. Even though we kicked Cincinnati out of the conference, we still get to use the Classic in the Big Five. As a bonus, now we don't even have to go through the ridiculous show of pretending to cheer for Cincinnati in it.

Sunday, December 15: #2/#3 Syracuse at St. John's (11am Central, Fox Sports 1) - So, technically, this is a home game for the Red Storm, but given the ridiculous "NEW YORK'S COLLEGE TEAM" advertising campaign, how much of the crowd will be wearing Syracuse orange?

Sunday, December 15: La Salle at #10/#14 Villanova (1:30pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - I really like having Villanova in the Big East. Their yearly series with the other four Division 1 teams in the Philadelphia area makes for excellent fodder for the Big Five, and it's made even better when it's an Explorers team that's coming off of an NCAA tournament appearance, even if they are 5-4 so far this season.