Big East Standings, Schedule, Predictions, and Weekly Pick’em Contest (Week of 3/4)

By this time next week, we will be done with the regular season and gearing up for the Big East Tournament. Time has flown, and we’ve made it to the final week of the regular season! It’s a tight race in our Pick’Em Contest and a tight race for positioning within the conference and seeding for the conference tournament.

The rules are simple, just pick who you think will win each of the games from this week using this link. We’ll keep a cumulative score of your predictions and release them each week. Whoever gets the most number of correct picks at the end of the season wins a prize! You will have until the first game tips off on Tuesday to get your picks in, in order for all of them to count. Any late submission will result in the picks made for finished games or the ones in progress being forfeited, but the remaining ones after them will count. (The timestamps never lie!) For scoring and contest purposes, your most recent answer form will be used. Make sure you put your VU Hoops account name, so we know who’s who!

This is a free contest. May the best VU Hoopster win!

Here is a scoresheet of everyone’s picks from this past week. (Updated!)

Game of the Week: Villanova at Seton Hall--Saturday, March 9, at 12 p.m. ET on FOX

The last time these two teams met, the Wildcats ran the Pirates out of the Wells Fargo Center in a lopsided 28-point victory, where the ‘Cats drained 17 three-pointers. To say Seton Hall struggled is an understatement. As a team, the Pirates turned the ball over 18 times and shot just 34.6 percent on the floor for the entire game. Myles Powell had just three points and amassed seven turnovers. It looked like Radnor High might have been able to give the uninspired Pirates a run for their money that day. Now, the series heads to the Prudential Center and has been a hot ticket since the 2018-19 schedules were announced. As Seton Hall has shown in the past, no matter how good or bad the team is doing--and no matter how badly the ‘Cats beat them in the Pavilion or Wells Fargo Center--the Pirates seem to always give ‘Nova a game at the Rock. Powell remains to be a cornerstone for the Pirates, and ‘Nova will look to repeat its defensive effort in containing him. Outside of Powell, the Pirates don’t really have any other consistent sources for scoring. It’ll likely be closer than a 28-point margin of victory and Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard won’t have to bench his starting five, but it should still be Villanova’s day. My Pick: Villanova 71, Seton Hall 64

...and here’s two more games to watch for:

Marquette at Seton Hall--Wednesday March 6, at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1

While you’re not rooting for Villanova Basketball, Wildcat fans should be rooting for any other team to beat the Marquette Golden Eagles. ‘Nova is a game behind Marquette, and if Villanova wins the final game against Seton Hall--and St. John’s is able to lock down third place--the Wildcats will receive the top seed for the Big East Tournament after applying tiebreaker rules. The Golden Eagles can also drop their next two games and that would give ‘Nova the top spot, but that’s highly unlikely. Marquette is a favorite to win both of its remaining games, but the road game at Seton Hall is probably the biggest chance at an upset opposed to the Georgetown game, since the Golden Eagles have been undefeated at home. Seton Hall gave the Golden Eagles a good fight the last time out, only losing by four in Milwaukee. The Pirates are desperate to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive and a win against Marquette would be huge for that resume. Seton Hall has its back against the wall with the toughest week in the Big East to close out the regular season. After a rough double overtime loss to Georgetown, it’ll be coming at Marquette and ‘Nova with everything its got. My Pick: Seton Hall 72, Marquette 70

St. John’s at Xavier--Saturday, March 9, at 5 p.m. ET on FOX

Combined with Marquette losing a game, in order for ‘Nova to secure the top seed in the Big East, the Red Storm must finish in third place. On paper, St. John’s should beat Xavier. However, the Johnnies had confirmed and showed their weakness this past week, when they played the Musketeers for the first time--they struggle against formidable big men and teams that can out-rebound them. Entering Sunday morning, St. John’s and Xavier are currently tied in third place. (Although St. John’s has a game against DePaul at noon on Sunday.) The Red Storm will be heading into one of the toughest places to play. It’ll be the regular season finale, so Cintas will be rocking even more. We’ll see how the Johnnies do against DePaul later on Sunday, but they’ve been fantastic in “revenge” games. St. John’s is 3-1 when playing against Big East opponents it lost to in the first meeting. The only team it couldn’t beat in a rematch was Providence, as the Red Storm loss by an even bigger margin the second time around. Can St. John’s win on the road? My Pick: Xavier 73, St. John’s 71

The schedule of the rest of the games coming up this week, all times ET:

Tuesday, March 5
Xavier at Butler, at 6 p.m. on FS1

Wednesday, March 6
Providence at Creighton, at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network
Georgetown at DePaul, at 8:30 p.m. on FS1

Saturday, March 9
Butler at Providence, at 12 p.m. on FSN
Georgetown at Marquette, at 2:30 p.m. on FOX
DePaul at Creighton, at 8 p.m. on FS1

Quick picks for the last six games (in order as above):

Butler
Creighton
Georgetown
Providence
Marquette
Creighton