Big East What To Watch: Week Six

Well, we can’t really say that Big East men’s basketball took some time off for Christmas, as we got a Sunday game between Providence and DePaul. Still, we don’t get another game in the league until Wednesday, so all of the other nine teams in the conference were off for a pretty big stretch. There also appears to be a lack of interest in scheduling games in conjunction with New Year’s, as both Eve and Day are off days in the Big East. That gives us just two game days this week, and with Villanova going on a pause because of Jay Wright another another assistant testing positive for COVID-19, we only have seven games to keep an eye on for this version of What To Watch.

Tuesday, December 29: #18 DePaul Blue Demons at #4 Connecticut Huskies (5:30pm Central, SNY) — Last week, we highlighted Geno Auriemma’s squad facing off against one of the three other teams in the Big East that were still unbeaten in league play. UConn won that one, 90-52. This week, we point out that the Huskies are facing one of the other two teams from that three-pack, and this time it’s a ranked DePaul squad. The Blue Demons are coming in off a nine point win at Creighton back on December 22nd, and DePaul has already knocked off a top 10 team this season. Granted, that was at home at Wintrust Arena while this one will be at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs. Can DePaul turn the league race into a competitive one by handing the Huskies their first conference game loss since they were sent out to the AAC?

Wednesday, December 30: Seton Hall Pirates at RV Xavier Musketeers (6pm Central, FS1) — The Pirates are 5-1 with just an overtime loss to Providence marring their record since a shaky start to the season. Xavier just suffered their first loss of the season back on the 23rd, giving up a 20-3 run to Creighton to fall far enough behind the Jays that they were unable to fully catch up by the end of the game. It’s an opportunity for Seton Hall to show that they’re more like the team they’ve been since December 6th, and a chance for the Musketeers to prove that the hiccup in Omaha was just a close game on the road against a top 10 opponent.

Wednesday, December 30: DePaul Blue Demons at Connecticut Huskies (8pm Central, CBS Sports Network) — It’s the battle of the last winless teams in the league! What an odd difference from the women’s programs, huh? Obviously both DePaul and UConn have won games overall this season, but they’re both 0-1 in Big East action. Everyone else has won at least one conference game so far, and the loser in this one will be the last team in the league to still have that goose egg in the win column. With a 20 game league schedule, that’s hardly a marker of the end of the campaign, but, y’know, no one wants to be last, either. That goes double for UConn in their first season back as a member of the Big East.

Saturday, January 2: Marquette Golden Eagles at Georgetown Hoyas (6:30pm Central, CBS Sports Network) — Hey, I’m gonna go out on a limb here: If Marquette thinks they’re the kind of team that can beat top 10 ranked teams like they’ve done twice so far this season and not the kind of team that loses three straight games immediately after beating a top 10 ranked team on the road, then they kinda need to beat the Hoyas. Patrick Ewing’s squad is the only team in the Big East outside the top 100 in KenPom (they’re #109), and they struggled with UMBC and lost to Navy. I’m not saying they have to wreck ‘em — it’s a road game in an environment that they’ve never played at before — but this is the kind of game that NCAA tournament caliber teams figure out a way to win at the very least.

Here’s the full Big East men’s basketball schedule for the week as we know it right now. If you see something that’s not accurate, drop us a line at anon.eagle@gmail.com or @AnonymousEagle on Twitter!