Big East What To Watch: Week 11

Who’s ready for another week of Big East basketball?

We’re bringing this to you bright and early on Monday because we’ve got an 11am Central Time start on FS1 thanks to Dr. Martin Luther King Day. The less said about the game that they chose to honor Dr. King, the better.

Let’s take a look at the big highlights of the week ahead!

Tuesday, January 17: #5 Connecticut Huskies at Seton Hall Pirates (6pm Central, SNY) — Seton Hall comes in at 6-2 in the league, which has them in third place right now.... but they’re also coming off a 22 point loss at Creighton back on the 11th. UConn is UConn-ing their way through the league as you would expect, and they just got Azzi Fudd back in the lineup late last week. That’s not a great thing for the Pirates who could really use a big time win right now, but with this one in South Orange, it’s a big chance for them.

Wednesday, January 18: #6 Connecticut Huskies at Seton Hall Pirates (5:30pm Central, FS1) — Adama Sanogo and UConn are coming off a stretch where they lost three of the four games they played against the other top four teams in the league. Seton Hall is 4-4 in the league, with all four losses coming against teams in the top five in the league and three of them were on the road. This one is at The Rock, and if the Pirates want to have any chance at thinking about thinking about an NCAA tournament bid, they have to take advantage of the Huskies on a skid and in their building.

Wednesday, January 18: #22 Providence Friars at #20 Marquette Golden Eagles (8pm Central, CBS Sports Network) — You’ve got the Milwaukee end of a double overtime thriller in Providence back in late December, so that’s worth throwing some eyeballs at. Oh, and there’s that whole 6-1, 6-2 half game difference between 2nd and 3rd place in the Big East standings thing, too. Providence is coming off their first loss of league play on Saturday, while MU beat UConn last week but got nicked by Xavier on Sunday.

Friday, January 20: #22 Villanova Wildcats at RV Creighton Bluejays (8pm Central, FS1) — We’ve got a late tip on FS1 here, so that’s big and cool for both of these squads. The Bluejays have posted three straight blowout wins coming into the week as they bounce back from their bad home loss to Providence. They’ll have to visit Butler earlier in the week before getting to this one, so we’ll see if they get in position to truly take advantage of the game against a ranked team. This is a rematch of Villanova’s only loss of league play so far, and that was a 21 point win at the Finn for the Bluejays. Can Maddy Siegrist and friends return the favor in Omaha?

Saturday, January 21: #25 Marquette Golden Eagles at Seton Hall Pirates (3pm Central, CBS Sports Network) — Take everything we said a minute ago about the earlier games in the week for both of these teams on the men’s side of the league, figure out what it means for both teams if they win or lose, and then project that forward for this one, which is SHU’s second game at home this week.

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

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