By Michael Gross

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UConn, St. John’s 

“Near Lock”

“Good Shape”

Nova

“Bubble”

Seton Hall, 

“Fringe Bubble”

Butler, Creighton

         The Big East is officially a multi-bid league as St. John’s sealed their bid to the NCAA Tournament as they survived in OT against Xavier. In reality it was the win over UConn over this past weekend that really locked them in.

“Good Shape”

          Villanova is in good position to be the Big East’s third NCAA Tournament team this year. They’ve won 3 in a row including a road win at recently surging Georgetown. They’ve won are now 3-4 in Q1 games and 7-4 in Q1/2 games with an additional loss to Creighton that is just on the wrong side of the Q2/3 cut line. They are in solid position as of now, but if they were to stumble against Marquette; that would change in a hurry. If they can beat Marquette and avenge their loss to Creighton this weekend; I think that would be enough to move them up to “Near Lock”.

“Bubble”

          A pretty disastrous week for Seton Hall has their NCAA Tournament prospects looking pretty bleak. First they were never close to beating Nova on the road. Then the Pirates lost in heartbreaking fashion to Creighton. I think in order for Seton Hall to get in they are going to have to pick off either UConn or St. John’s at the end of the regular season. For now, they need to beat Providence and Butler or else they might have to win both of the games against UConn and St. John’s. 

“Fringe Bubble”

         Butler has lost 4 in a row and it feels like their last chance to stay alive will be tomorrow when they host UConn.

         Creighton stopped their 3 game losing streak by rallying to beat Seton Hall. They probably need to beat both DePaul and Nova this week to have a chance moving forward.

         Xavier was unable to beat either UConn or St. John’s recently. Thus with resume metrics in the mid 80s, they are off the page. They probably need to win out to have a chance to make it.