Official Big East Tournament Bracket

[scoscox]

Bracket-matrix has BU at second 10 and still somehow not on one bracket. Lowest is a 6 and now starting to see a lot of 7,8, and 9s, but mostly 9-11 and a few 12s that are dragging us down a little. ESPN 10 and CBSSports 9.
Where they end up depends a lot on how other teams play in their conference tourneys, but to say no way they're a 7-8 might be a bit harsh. Not wrong but stretching it a little since some have us there. I'd put us at a 10 if we lose first round, 7 second round loss and play Nova tough, 6 lose to X close in the final and 5 if we win it all. The close matters, because I'm thinking that the strong finish will have us trending up and a blow out loss will diminish that though process and drop us a seed line for each of my predictions.

How everyone else ends up is farther than I want to dig into, because the ones, twos, and threes are all one loss/win away from moving up or down a line or two with when, who, and how they win/lose across the board this year.

I'd be a little more conservative in my projections, but Butler has been playing well to end the season. At least in my opinion they're playing better.

[XtoDC]

I think teams are a lot more locked into certain seed positions than everyone else seems to think. My guess is the committee already has most of the protected seeds penciled in with certain scenarios in play where they would swap teams. It is probably more of an if scenario A happens (could be Xavier winning the Big East or some other team losing early) Xavier is in South region as 2 seed, if scenario B occurs Xavier is in West region as 2 seed. Location is such an important factor for those top teams and they already have so many good wins that there isn't as much fluctuation like what could happen with teams around the bubble.

[gtmoBlue]

Aww, is it Christmas...again?

Prediction:

Rd 1
DePaul over G'twn
Marquette over St John's

Rd2
Nova over DePaul
Providence over Butler
Marquette over Xavier
Creighton over Seton Hall

Rd3
Prov over Nova
Cr8n over Marq

Finals
Creighton over Providence

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

who ya pickin'?

Xavier.

I think the Musketeers can beat the Wildcats again, and I'm rooting for them to do so. In fact, most of the Flyer Faithful have been rooting for Xavier to win all but one of their games this season, as Xavier's considerable success has had a beneficial effect on Dayton's SOS and RPI Ranking.

Ditto for the other way around – RPI # 21 Dayton remains the second-best of Xavier’s 26 wins: RPI Breakdown – Xavier Musketeers

Earlier this morning, Yahoo’s Pat Forde also picked Xavier to win: Forde Minutes: Picks and Predictions for Conference Tournament Season

BIG EAST

Dates: Wednesday-Saturday, in New York.

Top Seed: Villanova. The Wildcats have been a rock of consistent excellence, going 35-4 in Big East play over the past two seasons (including winning last year’s tourney). This year’s team doesn’t shoot it as well as the 2014-15 group, but it defends better. Jay Wright getting deserved consideration for national Coach of the Year honors.

Top Challenger: Xavier. Speaking of Coach of the Year candidates: Chris Mack has his best team in seven seasons at his alma mater, one capable of making the school’s first Final Four. Explosive Musketeers have put 90 or more points on the board seven times this season, including twice in their last three games.

Live Long Shot: Seton Hall. Not a huge long shot as the No. 3 seed. The Pirates are hot, having won nine of their last 11. The only two losses in that span are to Butler, and the Bulldogs are on the other side of the bracket. Seton Hall could get another chance at upsetting Xavier in the semis, having knocked off the Musketeers on Feb. 28.

Coach Who Loves This Tourney: Ed Cooley of Providence is 4-1 over his last two, winning the 2014 tourney as a No. 3 seed.

Coach Who Hates It: John Thompson III is 3-5 in the last five years, and hasn’t made a final since 2010. This has been the annual set-up to the bigger disappointment to come in the NCAAs – though the Hoyas appear to have pre-empted that flop by currently sitting well outside the field of 68.

Pomeroy Conference Rank: Fourth of 32.

Minutes Pick: Xavier. If it comes down to a Xavier-Villanova rubber match for the title, we’ll see if the Wildcats can contain Sumner. He’s a tough matchup for a team with decent but not overwhelming perimeter athleticism.

[milksteak]

Aww, is it Christmas...again?

Prediction:

Rd 1
DePaul over G'twn
Marquette over St John's

Rd2
Nova over DePaul
Providence over Butler
Marquette over Xavier
Creighton over Seton Hall

Rd3
Prov over Nova
Cr8n over Marq

Finals
Creighton over Providence

[JohnW22]

Aww, is it Christmas...again?

Prediction:

Rd 1
DePaul over G'twn
Marquette over St John's

Rd2
Nova over DePaul
Providence over Butler
Marquette over Xavier
Creighton over Seton Hall

Rd3
Prov over Nova
Cr8n over Marq

Finals
Creighton over Providence

Nothing suprises me in conference tournaments. The teams that know they need these games to make the tournament play a little harder too most the time

[stever20]

I think teams are a lot more locked into certain seed positions than everyone else seems to think. My guess is the committee already has most of the protected seeds penciled in with certain scenarios in play where they would swap teams. It is probably more of an if scenario A happens (could be Xavier winning the Big East or some other team losing early) Xavier is in South region as 2 seed, if scenario B occurs Xavier is in West region as 2 seed. Location is such an important factor for those top teams and they already have so many good wins that there isn't as much fluctuation like what could happen with teams around the bubble.

I don't know about that. I mean take Oklahoma for instance. They play Iowa St, West Virginia, and Kansas possibly. They win all 3 of those, it's impossible to see them not moving up to a 1 seed if they aren't already. Or UVA- they could get Miami and UNC back to back.

If anything, this year could be moreso than normal. The difference from 3-9 isn't anywhere large as it normally is. So therefore it stands to reason that the tournaments will play a much larger role than maybe they normally do. 2 years ago Nova lost 1st rd to SH and was still the #5 overall seed. they had 4 losses. #6 Michigan had 8 losses, #9 Duke 8, #8 Wisconsin 7, #7 Kansas 9. That's not the case this season at all. Everyone in the top 11 has between 4 and 7 losses(with only 1 team, WVU with 7 losses).

[stever20]

starting with the projections:
Wed:
7pm #9 seed, 196 KP 187 RPI DePaul 3-15 9-21 vs #8 seed, 70 KP 104 RPI Georgetown 7-11 14-17- KP Geo 77-68 79%
930pm #10 seed, 236 KP 233 RPI St John's 1-17 8-23 vs #7 seed, 101 KP 106 RPI Marquette 8-10 19-12- KP Marq 76-69 75%

what is interesting is neutral win for Georgetown and road win for Marquette could get those teams real close to top 100.