Big East What To Watch: Week 16

There are some major games on the docket in the Big East this week.

There’s also a lot of “sure, that’s basketball” games. This is a byproduct of the leagues starting to come down to the end of the regular season, and sometimes it’s just hard to manufacture excitement about the 9th and 10th place teams squaring off, y’know? It barely matters for the standings much less for anything else. Would I still turn on the final five minutes of a close men’s basketball game between Butler and DePaul on Wednesday if I wasn’t going to be at one of the highlight games of the week? Yes, but that’s not really the point, is it? I’m one of the thousands of sickos who was watching St. John’s and DePaul in double overtime last week, so of course I’ll watch this week’s version of that game.

Anyway, on to the highlights!

Tuesday, February 21: #10 Marquette Golden Eagles at #19 Creighton Bluejays (7:30pm Central, FS1) — Marquette’s sole control of first place is on the line here, with the Bluejays trying to pull themselves into a tie with the Golden Eagles. MU can’t clinch a title, but they can clinch the season series sweep tiebreaker with a win over the Jays in the arena in the Big East that most sounds like it is actually a hospital.

Wednesday, February 22: #20 Providence Friars at #18 Connecticut Huskies (5:30pm Central, FS1) — This game has more national poll attention than it does impact on the standings, and that’s because the Huskies are three games behind the Friars as well as the other two teams tied for second in the Big East right now. Providence needs the win to stay in the conversation for the Big East regular season title, while the Huskies would like to have it to guarantee themselves at least a .500 record in league action.

Wednesday, February 22: RV Creighton Bluejays at RV Marquette Golden Eagles (7pm Central, FloSports) — Back-to-back nights, we get Creighton/Marquette with some pretty notable consequences, just in different cities. This time, Marquette gets to host the Bluejays after suffering a pretty ugly loss in Omaha in the first meeting this season. Heading into the week, Emma Ronsiek and Creighton are in third place in the Big East and at #20 in the NET, so this game is a big one for the fourth place Golden Eagles on a couple of levels.

Friday, February 24: #16 Xavier Musketeers at Seton Hall Pirates (6pm Central, FS1) — I’m including this one because 1) it’s Seton Hall’s only game of the week and 2) they need to win out to have a chance at the NCAA tournament at this point, and even that might be pushing it after losses in three of their last four. Also: Xavier is playing, and that means there are title implications in play here.

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

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