With the Big East wrapping up their regular season on Saturday, it’s officially time to start preparing for their four-day conference tournament beginning Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
The readmission of UConn has now given the conference 11 teams, which adds a bit of a new wrinkle to the tournament structure. Now, only the top-five seeds will get a bye into the quarterfinals, putting increasing pressure on the middle-tier teams to finish strong.
Here’s a quick look at the standings as we sit today, in addition to their current odds of winning the conference tournament.
- Villanova 11-3 (+125)
- Creighton 13-6 (+175)
- Connecticut 10-6 (+500)
- Seton Hall 10-8 (+800)
- St. John’s 9-9 (+4000)
- Xavier 6-6 (+500)
- Georgetown 7-8 (+20000)
- Providence 8-10 (+4000)
- Butler 8-11 (+10000)
- Marquette 7-11 (+8000)
- DePaul 2-13 (+50000)
As you can see, there’s quite the logjam in the middle of the conference, which even further adds to the drama and parity as we head into next week.
Although Villanova and Creighton are clearly in a class of their own, both have endured plenty of struggles down the stretch of the season, as losses to the likes of Butler, St. John’s, and Providence have once again proved how wide open this conference really is.
Given Creighton’s issues of late, I can’t imagine taking the BlueJays given how poor the price is, so if you want to go chalk, Jay Wright’s Cats would be the play, but nonetheless, I’d be looking for deeper plays given the strength of this league is its depth.
Here are the two teams I’d be eyeing.
Hurley’s Huskies
After a brief seven-year hiatus, UConn is finally back where it belongs in the Big East.
Head coach Dan Hurley has done a phenomenal job with this group of Huskies so far in 2021, as he’s instilled a winning culture back into a program that has been on the college basketball periphery as of late.
Well on track to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016, they currently project somewhere around a 7 or 8 seed as we stand today.
Led by sophomore guard James Bouknight (averaging over 20 points per game), I love the Huskies odds to take home the Big East championship, as this team is peaking at exactly the right time.
At a modest 5:1 to win the conference, this is a perfect buy spot for bettors.
New York’s Team
And last but not least, we have the pride of New York, the St. John’s Red Storm.
Currently fifth in the Big East at an even 9-9, head coach Mike Anderson has rejuvenated/revived a St. John’s program (much like Hurley at UConn) just a year removed from a dismal 5-13 conference campaign.
Playing their best basketball of the season, the Johnnies boast impressive wins over Villanova, Connecticut, and Xavier.
+4000 is a great price for a team with this kind of offensive upside and defensive tenacity, as they lead the Big East in both points per game, and turnovers forced.
If the bracket sets up in their favor, and they can avoid a team like Creighton whom they match up poorly against (0-2 on the year), the Red Storm could be well worth a flyer in this spot.
