March 7th Big East Tournament Matchups

Greatest time of the year everybody, Conference Championship Week, followed by the always mysterious and stressful Selection Sunday, and then of course the NCAA Tourney. Just as they do every year, the Big East teams are headed to New York City to get ready to play at the world’s most famous arena. We open up on Wednesday night with the 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 matchups, which include Marquette v. DePaul and St. John’s v. Georgetown

#8 Georgetown Hoyas vs. #9 St. John’s Red Storm

For starters, I never realized how underrated St. John’s nickname was until I just typed it, completely bad ass. Now all they need is a creepy mascot to go with it, unless they already do and I am just completely misinformed. The Red Storm have had an interesting year to say the least, from Lovett’s departure, to starting 0-11 in the Big East, to taking down Duke and Villanova, and now with Shamorie Ponds’ injury. Georgetown on the other hand has had a better year than many, including myself would’ve predicted. First year coach, Patrick Ewing, has done a very good job with this team lead by the duo of Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson. Essentially a home game for St. John’s, as it is every year, but with Ponds more than likely not being 100% here, I’m leaning towards the Hoyas surviving and moving on. However, the Red Storm did take down Butler without their leading scorer so expect them to put up a fight in this one. The winner will be moving on to face regular season conference champ, Xavier, on the following day.

#7 Marquette vs. #10 DePaul

There is a lot more riding here in this 9:30 matchup for Marquette than DePaul. They are coming off a big Senior Day victory over Creighton and find themselves on the bubble for an NCAA berth. A win here would put them at 19 for the year and give them a shot at Villanova, a win there would make it pretty tough to keep them out. However, DePaul did defeat Marquette just a few weeks back and will be looking to spoil any of their hopes this Wednesday. The Blue Demons are led by transfer Max Strus and big man Marin Maric, who helped them also take down Providence on the road, along with victories over both teams playing in the earlier game that day. I think the trio of Sam Hauser, Markus Howard and Andrew Rowsey take care of business here and move on to face their March destiny and the mighty Wildcats of Villanova on Thursday.

A lot of big games taking place this week at MSG for Big East teams, whether it’s Bubble Watch for Marquette, Providence and Butler, or for seeding purposes for X, Nova, Creighton and Seton Hall. All of these teams are looking to get rolling at the most important time of the year.