Big East What To Watch: Week Two

It’s a big week for Big East basketball!

We’ve got the Gavitt Tipoff Games on the men’s side along with the start of Feast Week events for both the men and the women. Feast Week always means a slightly disjointed What To Watch, as we won’t talk about the potential games that we could see. Most of the time, those potential games are some of if not the best games of the week, but that’s the way it goes. Keep your head on a swivel to figure out what’s the best thing to be watching at any given moment, and we’ll update the schedules at the bottom of the page once Feast Week matchups lock into place.

Here we go!

Monday, November 14: #5 Connecticut Huskies vs #3 Texas Longhorns (5:30pm Central, FS1) — C’mon, a top 10 battle? I don’t have to explain this one harder than that. This will be UConn’s second game of the season after easily handling Northeastern, so it’s a big immediate test of whether or not the Huskies are a championship contending squad this season. The Longhorns might be without sophomore point guard Rori Harmon, who missed their opener and was listed as day-to-day at the time.

Monday, November 14: Seton Hall Pirates vs RV Princeton Tigers (6pm Central, FloSports) — Here’s an interesting measuring stick for Tony Bozzella’s squad. They were effectively not challenged at all in their first two games of the year, including going into The RAC and stomping Rutgers in that rivalry contest. They’ll return home to face a Princeton squad that might not actually be ranked when the game rolls around because they lost at home to Villanova, 69-59. If you think Seton Hall can be an NCAA tournament team this year, then they kiiiiinda have to be able to do things that Villanova does, with the caveat that this is slightly easier since it’ll be a home game.

Tuesday, November 15: Georgetown Hoyas vs Northwestern Wildcats (5:30pm Central, FS1) — Georgetown has made it to this point of the year undefeated. It was close, as they needed OT to end up with a 10 point win over Coppin State. Here they get a Northwestern squad for their first KenPom top 100 game of the season, and thus their first scheduled challenge of the year. The Hoyas have not defeated a KenPom top 100 team, or a Power Six, or however you want to designate this point, since December 11, 2021. That’s 21 straight losses..... and they’re projected to extend that streak to 22.

Tuesday, November 15: #20 Creighton Bluejays vs #22 Nebraska Cornhuskers (6pm Central, FloSports) — Sweet Mary, mother of God, what got into Jim Flanery when he was setting up this schedule to start the season? Road against a ranked South Dakota State squad, road against a South Dakota squad earning preseason votes, and now the home opener is a massive in-state rivalry game made even larger by both teams coming in ranked. Sweet Christmas, my guy, take a breather once in a while. For what it’s worth, the Bluejays are obviously battle tested right now in their 2-0 start while the Huskers sailed through two easy home dates heading into this one.

Tuesday, November 15: Marquette Golden Eagles at RV Purdue Boilermakers (7:30pm Central, FS1) — Teams playing ranked teams always gets notice for the What To Watch, and heck, teams playing teams just earning votes in the AP poll should really be in there, too. That makes this a big test for the Golden Eagles, and literally a big test as they’ll have to contend with 7’4” Canadian Zach Edey if they want to steal a victory out of Mackey Arena.

Wednesday, November 16: RV Seton Hall Pirates at RV Iowa Hawkeyes (6:30pm Central, FS1) — Another road trip against a team earning votes in the preseason poll. The Pirates have cleaned up easily against Monmouth and Saint Peter’s to start the Shaheen Holloway tenure in South Orange, while the Hawkeyes did the same with Bethune Cookman and North Carolina A&T. Iowa could be a contender for the Big Ten regular season title, so stealing a win in Iowa City could be huge for both Seton Hall and the Big East.

Friday, November 18: RV Xavier Musketeers vs #12 Indiana Hoosiers (5pm Central, FS1) — If only one side getting AP votes is worth mentioning, then both sides is definitely worth a highlight. Sean Miller’s first two games back at Xavier went into the books as relatively easy wins, and they’ll tangle with Fairfield at home on Tuesday before the Hoosiers come to town for this Gavitt Games clash. Indiana is the favorite in the Big Ten this year, and this will be their first game in over a week after starting out 2-0.

Friday, November 18: RV Villanova Wildcats vs RV Michigan State Spartans (7pm Central, FS1) — Two questions to answer before this game arrives at the end of the week: Will Villanova still be ranked and will the Spartans still be earning AP votes at all? The Wildcats lost at Temple this past Friday, while Michigan State fell to Gonzaga in a neutral site game on board a naval ship. No shame in losing that game for Sparty, especially by just one point, but maaaaaybe the voters who liked them as a top 25 team change their minds? Meanwhile, how much do you ding Villanova for losing to a middle of the AAC Owls team when they didn’t have super freshman Cam Whitmore available yet?

Saturday, November 19: Providence Friars vs RV Miami Hurricanes (3pm Central, ESPN News) — This one comes to you from Mohegan Sun Casino as part of the Hall of Fame Tip Off. Ed Cooley’s Friars escaped from their opener with Rider with a win when one of the Broncs tripped and lost the chance for a last second shot to win, and then the Friars needed a 20-3 run early in the second half to rally from a 41-40 deficit against Northeastern before eventually winning by 24. That’s not the kind of start you want to see if you’re the reigning Big East regular season champions*, but it is the start they have. They’ll face Stonehill on Tuesday before going over to the casino to face a Canes team that earned preseason AP votes but also struggled at least a little bit with Lafayette and UNC Greensboro in their first two wins. Getting a win against a likely NCAA tournament team would be a big deal for the Friars right now.

Saturday, November 19: Marquette Golden Eagles vs #3 Texas Longhorns (4pm Central, FloSports) — Can you imagine how much tape Megan Duffy and her staff are going to crunch between Monday and Saturday? It’s incredibly great that they get a live look at how UConn handles what Texas is running right before they have to play the Longhorns in the first game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. This will, of course, be a massive uphill battle for the Golden Eagles to topple a top five team, but it’s also a massive opportunity to make a national statement.

Sunday, November 20: #5 Connecticut Huskies vs #10 NC State Wolfpack (Noon Central, FS1) — C’mon, a top 10 battle? I don’t have to explain this one harder than that. Yes, this is Geno Auriemma’s only other game of the week. Nice week, coach. At least both games are at home? There’s a real chance that the Huskies could be 1-2 by week’s end, and it wouldn’t even be that much of a knock on them to lose twice to two top ten teams, even with both games at home. As I write this on Sunday morning, NC State is 2-0 with a Sunday game still to be played plus a Wednesday date with Charlotte before heading up to the Nutmeg State for this showdown.

Sunday, November 20: RV DePaul Blue Demons vs RV Miami Hurricanes (4pm Central, FloSports) — DePaul is not going be be holding AP votes when the poll comes out on Monday afternoon. (UPDATE: YES THEY ARE, BECAUSE AT LEAST ONE VOTER IS NOT PAYING ATTENTION.) That’s what happens when you go on the road and lose to Northern Illinois, a squad that was picked to finish fifth in the MAC this season. Doug Bruno’s Blue Demons led by as many as 11 in the first half of that contest, lost the lead early in the third quarter, and then gave up an 11-5 run in the final three minutes to lose 86-79. The Canes, on the other hand, are 2-0 and picked to finish sixth in the ACC. Interesting note: Head coach Katie Meier is currently serving a three game suspension as the NCAA looks into a thing or two. Barring something wild happening, she’ll be back on the sidelines for this one, which will be Miami’s first road game of the season.

Here’s the full men’s basketball schedule for the week!

Here’s the full women’s basketball schedule for the week!