Here's how the Big East tournament would look, if it were starting today.
Wednesday
#7 St. John's vs #10 Butler
#8 Seton Hall vs #9 DePaul
Thursday
#1 Villanova vs SHU/DPU
#4 Providence vs #5 Marquette
#2 Creighton vs SJU/BU
#3 Xavier vs #6 Georgetown
But everything is still in flux. Even Villanova, alone in first place for the first time since they lost to Creighton, is a long way from clinching a bye for Wednesday night. Everyone has almost a full rotation through the league to go and it will be interesting to see how the final standings shake out by the second week of March.
Monday, February 10: Providence at Georgetown (6pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - It's been an up and down Big East schedule for Providence. Lose two, win five, lose three of four. The second bunch put the Friars into the NCAA tournament picture, the third threatens to push them out of it. Georgetown has won three straight, starting with their monster win over Michigan State, and they need to keep that trend going to get themselves taken seriously in any postseason discussions.
Saturday, February 15: Xavier at Marquette (3pm Central, Fox) - Marquette and their fans are pretty sure that the Golden Eagles should have come away from Cincinnati with a win a little over a month ago. Now they get to go on big time fancy broadcast Fox and prove that they were right. Xavier recently snapped a two three game skid with a win at Providence, and they'll have to travel to visit Butler and Hinkle Fieldhouse before coming to Milwaukee for National Marquette Day.
Sunday, February 16: #6 Villanova at #18 Creighton (4pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - "Wragge again.... *ding*" still lingers in the minds of the Wildcats. It's their only loss of the conference schedule so far, and they were never even in the game. Now they travel to Omaha and have to face the CenturyLink Center crowd, who will no doubt be ready for another air raid from the senior with the appearance of a lumberjack.
Big East Women's Basketball Game of the Week
Saturday, February 15: Villanova at #24 St. John's (11am Central, CBS Sports Network) - Ah, a nice national television broadcast for the newly ranked top team in the Big East hosting the team that's currently sitting in third place. The Red Storm picked up a seven point win on their trip to Pennsylvania, but if the Wildcats could return the favor, it could go a long way towards pushing VU into the NCAA tournament. Either way, it's a good opportunity to take a look at Aliyyah Handford, who's making a solid case for Big East Player of the Year.
The Worst American Athletic Conference Game of the Week
Saturday, February 15: Central Florida at South Florida (12:30pm Central, ESPN News) - Honestly, I feel bad for including the Bulls here. They're not bad at all. Unfortunately, Temple, Houston, and Rutgers are all playing teams in the top half of the conference this week, so this is the closest to unwatchable that we can get. USF won in overtime in Orlando just 5 days ago, and I'm sure they are determined to defend the Sun Dome and the honor of the Sun Dolls as well.