Big East Basketball What To Watch: Week Fourteen

Tuesday, February 6: #5 Xavier Musketeers at Butler Bulldogs (5:30pm Central, FS1) - This game actually ties back to Villanova. The Wildcats lost in Hinkle waaaaay back at the end of December. Now it’s Xavier’s turn in Indianapolis, and the Musketeers are already a game behind Villanova in the standings. It’s not to say that they couldn’t catch them for the regular season title without winning in Hinkle, but the Wildcats come to Cintas Center on February 17, and wouldn’t that game be more fun if it were for a tie in the standings?

Wednesday, February 7: St. John’s Red Storm at #1 Villanova Wildcats (6pm Central, CBS Sports Network) - Last week in the What To Watch, I ignored the St. John’s/Duke game because, I mean, come on. 0-11 St. John’s against the #4 team in the country? Who are we kidding here? A week ago, that was not one of the most important games in the league this week. And then the Red Storm beat the Blue Devils. That brings us to this, their next game: A road trip to Philadelphia to face Villanova in Wells Fargo Center. The argument here goes: If they can beat Duke (admittedly at home), then they can beat Villanova (yes, even though it’s on the road). I’m not saying bet the house on it, but you have to admit you’re VERY interested in how this one turns out.

Wednesday, February 7: Marquette Golden Eagles at Seton Hall Pirates (6pm Central, FS1) - WELLLLLL, Marquette has lost five of their last six games to drop to 4-7 in Big East play. That’s bad! Even worse: That string came after beating Seton Hall to give MU a signature win for the season. Now they turn around and head out to The Rock in desperate need of any win to essentially save their season. Meanwhile, the Pirates are probably still pissed off about losing badly to Marquette in Milwaukee, and no, that’s not a guess. Angel Delgado talked about giving MU their best shot in this one after beating Georgetown in their next game following the loss to the Golden Eagles. There’s a lot on the line, emotionally speaking.

Friday, February 9/Sunday, February 11: DePaul Blue Demons/Marquette Golden Eagles at Butler Bulldogs/Xavier Musketeers - I can’t draw lines between which women’s basketball game is more important here, so the entire weekend trip for DePaul and Marquette goes on the list. On Sunday, Marquette picked up a third loss in Big East play, leaving them in second place behind DePaul at 10-2. Both teams will go on the road this weekend, thus adding a certain amount of uncertainty to their results. If Marquette wants to even share the regular season title, they can’t lose another game until DePaul loses twice. The Marquette/Xavier game will be on FS2, while the other three will be on the Big East Digital Network.

Saturday, February 10: Butler Bulldogs at #1 Villanova Wildcats (11am Central, Fox) - Remember when I mentioned Villanova’s loss at Hinkle Fieldhouse? That’s VU’s only loss of the season so far, and this is the rematch. I don’t need to explain this further.

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