Big East What To Watch: Week 17

It’s the final edition of the What To Watch for the year!

Big East women’s basketball wraps up their regular season on Monday night, while men’s basketball finishes up on Saturday. On the women’s side, nine of the 11 Big East tournament seeds have been locked into place already, and the only ones that haven’t are between Marquette and St. John’s as the #4 and the #5 seeds.... who play each other in the quarterfinals anyway.

Many things are up for grabs, although Marquette has secured at least a share of the Big East regular season championship. Lots of things can help Marquette secure the solo title between now and Saturday, and there’s a lot of twists and turns that the seeding for that tournament can take between now and Saturday as well.

By the way, because Monday is the final game day on the women’s schedule, you’re seeing this post first thing on Monday morning. That also means the rankings you’re seeing below are from last week’s Associated Press poll. As long as you’re still seeing this paragraph, the rankings haven’t been updated yet, and we’ll get to it as soon as we can.

Let’s get into the highlights!

Monday, February 27: St. John’s Red Storm at Providence Friars/DePaul Blue Demons at RV Marquette Golden Eagles (6pm Central, FloSports/8pm Central, FS1) — I’m listing these as one item, because they could decide who is the #4 and who is the #5 seed in the Big East tournament. Marquette and St. John’s are both 12-7, so one win and one loss settles the seeding. If they both win or both lose, I think St. John’s will hold the tiebreaker by way of both teams’ record against Creighton.

Monday, February 27: #15 Villanova Wildcats at Seton Hall Pirates/Xavier Musketeers at #4 Connecticut Huskies (6pm Central, FS1/6pm Central, CBS Sports Network) — With UConn at 17-2 and Villanova at 16-3, it is still possible for Villanova to grab a share of the title, at least mathematically speaking. It will require 0-19 Xavier to beat the Huskies on the road, mind you, because UConn has to take a third loss to end up tying with Villanova. But still!

Tuesday, February 28: #10 Marquette Golden Eagles at Butler Bulldogs (5:30pm Central, FS1) — If Tyler Kolek and Marquette win, they become the outright Big East champions.

Wednesday, March 1: #16 Xavier Musketeers at #20 Providence Friars (5:30pm Central, FS1) — If Butler wins on Tuesday, one of these two 13-5 teams will automatically be eliminated from sharing the title with Marquette because someone has to lose this game. Worst case scenario, the winner most likely ends up as the #2 seed in the conference tournament, as they would then have a one game lead on both the loser and Creighton.

Friday, March 3: Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament First Round (10am/12:30pm/3pm Central, SNY) — It’s a tripleheader of daytime basketball, count your blessings and fire up the Fox Sports app to watch them.

Saturday, March 4: Seton Hall Pirates at #20 Providence Friars/Butler Bulldogs at #16 Xavier Musketeers (11am Central, Fox/6pm Central, FS1) — If Butler wins on Tuesday, one of these two teams will need to win their game on Saturday to have a shot at tying Marquette for the regular season title. We just don’t know which one it is, and if it’s Xavier, they’re going to need St. John’s to win earlier in the day to keep the door propped open for them until the evening.

Saturday, March 4: Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals (11am Central, FS1; 1:30pm/6pm/8:30pm Central, FS2) — If you need something to watch in between all of the other college basketball on Saturday, fire over to the quarterfinals.

Saturday, March 4: St. John’s Red Storm at #10 Marquette Golden Eagles (1pm Central, Fox) — If Butler wins on Tuesday, Marquette can still secure an outright Big East championship by winning this game. If Marquette wins on Tuesday, this game will be MU’s coronation party in their home regular season finale.

Sunday, March 5: Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament Semifinals (2pm/4:30pm Central, FS1) — As long as UConn wins their quarterfinal game, their semifinal opponent will be one of the two teams that beat them in the regular season. Guaranteed entertainment value right there.

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

Here’s the full women’s schedule for the week, including everything through the semifinals of the Big East tournament!