Villanova’s still in the driver’s seat for the top position in the Big East

It was a tough conclusion to the Villanova-Marquette game, the Wildcats’ first Big East loss of the season.

Don’t sweat it though, the ‘Cats are still No. 1 in the Big East standings and they’ll get another crack at their conference-title challengers at the end of the month, when the Golden Eagles head to the Pavilion.

For what was supposed to be an “off year” for the ‘Cats, it’s been a fun 11-game start to conference play. Just before the weekend, Matt DeMarinis of the Creighton news site White and Blue Review decided to take a look back at the Big East since conference realignment.

Each Big East team had played exactly 100 Big East games at the time of this tweet:

Although Villanova was dealt a loss in its 101st game, dropping to 87-14 (86.1 win percentage) since realignment, it is still very much ahead of the rest of the conference. The Xavier Musketeers are in second, while No. 3-7 are very close to each other. Georgetown isn’t too far behind at No. 8, while St. John’s and DePaul round out the list as the caboose. What are your predictions in regards to how the conference will look in 99 more games? Do you expect any movement or changes for when this list is revisited after 200 Big East games?

In the mean time, here are your daily links for Tuesday:

Poll Attacks: Why would some AP voters punish Villanova for a 66-65 loss on the road to a higher-ranked team? - CBSSports.com
Despite a loss to Marquette, the ‘Cats moved up on the latest polls.

Big East Player of the Year Power Rankings Week 5 - Big East Coast Bias
It’s getting tougher and tougher to catch number one while at the bottom it is turning into a line at the DMV. Just another week in the Big East Coast Bias Conference Player of the Year Power Rankings.

College basketball: 10 biggest takeaways from the hoops weekend that was - SBNation.com
Duke’s really good, Houston’s really good, Gonzaga’s really good, and more.

Even During What Was Supposed To Be A Down Season Villanova Keeps Doing The Wright Stuff
“When you lose as many guys as they have and even your leading scorers are asked to other things, they continue to do it...Villanova doesn’t beat itself. You have to beat them. They’re just very fundamentally sound. This is a really good basketball team. You don’t start 10-0 in this league unless you’re special.” — Creighton HC Greg McDermott on ‘Nova. (Published pre-Marquette game, but still very good stuff.)