Big East Big Five: Week 13

Well, almost halfway.  Villanova and St. John's are still stuck on eight games for the time being, but everyone else has played half of their 18 game slate now, and some teams have even played 10 games.

In any case, while we've got a handle on who the best three or four teams are right now, the race for the Big East regular season championship is still incredibly thick and tight right now.  The good news is that we've got three games this week that will help cast some light on who has the best track for that top spot when the conference tournament rolls around.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015: Seton Hall at DePaul (8pm Central, Fox Sports 1) - Here we've got two teams in the middle of the standings right now.  But both teams have something to prove against each other.  Seton Hall struggled in league games without Isaiah Whitehead, but the super frosh is back now and the Pirates looked awfully good in their win over Xavier on Saturday.  Meanwhile, DePaul's trying to maintain some semblance of success after opening up the conference schedule 3-0.  They're 5-5 now, and riding a three game losing streak.  They get SHU at home here, so perhaps the Blue Demons can turn things around.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015: Providence at #24 Georgetown (8pm Central, CBS Sports Network) - It's a heck of a week for the Hoyas, who occupy both of the final two men's game slots in this week's post.  Georgetown, who currently sits in second place with both one win and one loss more than league leader Villanova, will defend their second place spot against a Friars squad that's just half a game behind the Hoyas.  Worst case scenario, this game will be fun to watch just for the battle between two guys that have to be considered top candidates for Player of the Year: Providence's Kris Dunn and Georgetown's D`Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who was the preseason POY.

Saturday, February 7, 2015: #24 Georgetown at #7 Villanova (1pm Central, Fox) - And then, once they're done dealing with the team behind them in the standings, Georgetown heads up the highway to Philadelphia to tangle with the Wildcats team that's in front of them.  Sometimes these picks just leap up and make themselves obvious, that's the case here.  This is an interesting match up between the almost Spurs-esque Wildcats, who don't have a definitive star player this season and Georgetown, who are heavily dominated by both DSR and Joshua Smith.  Georgetown already picked up the win in Washington, D.C., so Villanova will want to pick up the win just to even out the tiebreaker situation.

The Big East Women's Basketball Game Of The Week

Friday, February 6, 2015: DePaul at Butler (10:30am Central, Free video streaming) - Before you ask, no, I can't figure out why this game is being played in the morning.  There's nothing on Butler's website, and the men's team is playing on Saturday afternoon.  In any case, DePaul is a half-game back of Seton Hall heading into this weekend's games, and you had better believe that Doug Bruno will have the Blue Demons fighting to get that regular season championship.  They're going to have to deal with a surprising Bulldogs squad that's just one game behind DePaul in third place in the league standings.  Butler had a rough go of it in the non-conference part of the schedule, but they've been on fire since conference play started.  The Bulldogs finished the month of January without taking a loss, but they did have their eight game winning streak snapped in their most recent game on Sunday.

The Worst American Athletic Conference Game Of The Week

Saturday, February 7, 2015: UCF at East Carolina (4pm Central, ESPN3) - If you can't get Houston or USF (both just 1-8 in AAC games) involved with each other, then you move up the standings a little bit.  That's where you find these two teams with a combined AAC record of 4-14.  To make things even better, the game is in Greenville, at ECU's complete joke of an arena, and on top of that, it's the only AAC game of the week that's not on national television.