Big East Basketball What To Watch: Week Four

This is supposed to be the post-Feast Week lull, except it’s not much of a lull! Sure, there’s a lot of buy games on the slate this week, but there’s still an awful lot of great games to watch this week.

Tuesday, November 28: #16 Baylor Bears at #21 Xavier Musketeers (5:30pm Central, FS1) - It’s the first of two gigantic games this week for Xavier, and this is, somehow, the less important one. The Musketeers dipped a bit in the Associated Press poll this week after catching a #BEATEMDOWN from Arizona State on Friday. Xavier led by 13 in the first half and then lost by 16. This is what happens when Tra Holder goes nuts for 40 points. This game is their palate cleanser before a much bigger game on Saturday, and the Bears are coming in off of wins over Wisconsin and Creighton.

Thursday, November 30: #22 Texas Tech Red Raiders at Seton Hall Pirates (5:30pm Central, FS1) - When I originally started assembling this over the weekend, this game wasn’t in the lineup to be featured here. Then Texas Tech wandered into the top 25 thanks to Seton Hall, UCLA, Purude, and Arizona all dropping out, and suddenly this is a pretty big game for the Pirates. The Red Raiders had two buy games last week, but they got the attention for the top 25 after crushing Northwestern a week ago Sunday, and they are undefeated. SHU is bouncing back from a narrow loss to Rhode Island in the NIT Tip Off over the holiday weekend, and they did beat Vanderbilt on Friday to get themselves going forward again.

Friday, December 1: #25 Creighton Bluejays at #15 Gonzaga Bulldogs (9:15pm Central, ESPN2) - Nice job by Greg McDermott and his staff to round up a home-and-home with Gonzaga, and pretty slick job by them to organize it to start the moment that Gonzaga took a step backwards from making it to the national championship game. Verrrrrry savvy. This will end up as one of the best road games that the Big East plays in the non-conference portion of the schedule, and if the Jays are for as real as they’ve shown so far this season, it might turn into one of the best wins that the league racks up, too.

Saturday, December 2: #11 Cincinnati Bearcats at #21 Xavier Musketeers (11am Central, FS1) - Shoutout to whichever basketball and/or athletic department employee that figured out to get Baylor into Cintas Center in the same week as this year’s edition of the Crosstown Shootout. I’m not a historian, but I would have to figure that this year’s UC/XU game has to be in the top five best games in the all-time series, at least in terms of importance heading into it.

Saturday, December 2: Georgia Bulldogs at Marquette Golden Eagles (1pm Central, CBS Sports Network) - Well, this game got an awful lot more interesting on Sunday when Georgia beat #21 ranked Saint Mary’s in overtime in the third place game of the Wooden Legacy tournament. The two guys you’d expect to be great for the Bulldogs — Yante Maten and Derek Ogbeide -- combined for 26 points and 16 rebounds, but the big star of the game was Tyree Crump, who scored 17 points powered by 4-of-7 long range shooting. Georgia is 5-1 now, with the loss coming to a quality San Diego State team, so MU will have to be on their toes.

Saturday, December 2: #23 Marquette Golden Eagles at Green Bay Phoenix (1pm Central, ESPN3/WatchESPN) - HEY LOOK, IT’S A WOMEN’S BASKETBALL GAME! Toldja we were going to fit these in where appropriate. The Golden Eagles are ranked for the third week in a row, even though they lost to then-#12 Tennessee on Thursday. Green Bay, on the other hand, is 5-1 on the season with only a loss to a top 10 ranked Mississippi State team marring their record. In the newest AP Poll, they’re just one spot outside the top 25 and just 25 points shy of the bottom line in the poll. This is the only game of the week for the Phoenix, and they would definitely flip spots with Marquette if they win.

Saturday, December 2: Providence Friars at Rhode Island Rams (4pm Central, CBS Sports Network) - Yes, neither team is ranked here, but like the Marquette/Georgia game, it does involve a team coming off a win over a ranked foe. Well, kind of, at least. Rhody beat Seton Hall, but turned around and lost kind of badly to Virginia the very next day. URI has two losses on the season, but both are to KenPom top 50 squads. E.C. Matthews missed that Virginia game, though, and it would be to Providence’s benefit to get a W over the Rams before Matthews returned to action.

Sunday, December 3: Seton Hall Pirates at #17 Louisville Cardinals (3pm Central, ESPN2) - If tangling with a hot Texas Tech team wasn’t enough for Seton Hall this week, they’re headed to the [giggle] KFC YUM! Center over the weekend to take on the Cards. UL is 4-0 so far this season, but they’ve also been able to take advantage of a very very weak opening to their schedule to help get on the right track after Rick Pitino was removed as head coach right before the start of the season. Louisville will be coming off a road game against Purdue, so both teams could be a little desperate for a win come Sunday afternoon.

Here’s what’s going on when this week: