Player of the Week:
Eric Dixon (Villanova)
Villanova has been playing small ball the entire season with Dixon, 6’8”, being the tallest player in the starting lineup. Star guard Collin Gillespie went to the locker room after spraining his left ankle, which meant another Wildcat had to step up with UConn coming back into the game. Dixon came out and scored a career high 24 points along with 12 rebounds, destroying his previous career high of 15 points. He has progressed a great deal from the beginning of the season and will continue to do so earning valuable experience every night.
Who’s Hot
Providence Friars
Talk about a team that is rolling, the Friars continue to execute in tough games. After beating Marquette last week at home in a close game, they had to quickly turn around and play in back-to-back road games this week. First, they were able to come out on top by four points over Saint John’s. Then they went to Georgetown and won by 19 points. Jared Bynum is turning into an elite 6th man with two amazing games this week. Against Saint John’s he had 19 points and in the win over Georgetown he had career high 32 points. Bynum hit seven three pointers with a personal 13-0 run in the second half that put Providence up 59-41. Now 20-2 overall, the Friars sit alone in first place in the Big East.
Seton Hall Pirates
March is right around the corner and now is the time to turn it on. The Pirates picked up two much needed wins after losing their two-games last week. Bryce Aiken has been out with a concussion forcing Seton Hall to find other options on offense. Their most recent win came over Creighton with a final score of 74-55. In that game the Pirates had five different players score in double figures with Kadary Richmond leading the way with 14. They were strong defensively allowing Creighton’s top scorer to 10 points and held the team to 22.7% from the three.
Who’s Not
UConn Huskies
The Huskies dropped two games this week, one of which being at home against Creighton. In that game they scored only 55 points shooting 29% from the field. Despite the loss, Isaiah Whaley had career high 20 points, a guy who averages five points a game this season. Then they traveled on the road to play at Villanova, which is always a tough opportunity. The Huskies couldn’t contain Villanova allowing 85 points. In those two losses, UConn’s bench averaged eight points a game and will need to provide more for Dan Hurley down the road.
Xavier Musketeers
A ranked team at home playing against a bottom of the conference team, seems like an easy win, right? This is the Big East, anything is possible. The Musketeers dropped a game to DePaul by four points and DePaul is still without Big East leading scorer Javon Freeman-Liberty. Xavier allowed four Blue Demons to score double figures, one of which being Courvoisier McCauley who scored game and career high 21 points. He was averaging just around four points a game before this contest. Xavier was out played the entire game not being able to come back and maintain a lead late into the game.
Top Five Offenses
#5 Seton Hall
Every team in the Big East is deep with many veteran players. Seton Hall is a prime example of this with eight players averaging at least 7.2 points per game. Jared Rhoden is an elite player who was second on the team in scoring this year and now took on the role for being the go-to guy for this offense. The Pirates sit at third in the Big East with 75.9 points per game.
#4 UConn
After losing only James Bouknight and Josh Carlton from last season, UConn retained many of their top scorers. Their entire roster is composed of scorers from R.J. Role, Tyrese Martin, and Adama Sanogo are just a few of the talented bucket getters on this team. The biggest issue is the consistency of their scoring. If they can be more consistent and execute offensively, they have a big chance of winning the Big East this year.
#3 Saint John’s
A lot of the Red Storm’s offense comes in transition. They lead the Big East in scoring averaging just under 80 points a game. Julian Champagnie is arguably the highest ranked player for the NBA draft. He can score the basketball in so many ways most notably known for knocking down the triple and hitting highly contest jumpers.
#2 Marquette
Shaka Smart has done an elite job of finding ways to get offense rolling for the Golden Eagles. With the departure of leading scorers D.J. Carton and Dawson Garcia, coach Smart came in left with transfers and younger players to score the basketball. Transfer Darryl Morsell is averaging 13.5 points a game with multiple 20-point games. Their leading scorer, Justin Lewis, is one of the most improved players in the Big East who has been extremely hot recently. He’s averaging 20.7 points in his last six games scoring both inside and out.
#1 Villanova
The Wildcats may not be in the top five in points per game in the Big East, but they are by far the most fundamentally sound team. There’s a reason they are so successful and a big reason for that is the execution on the offensive side of the ball. As a team, the Wildcats are number one in the Big East and number seven in the nation with only 9.6 turnovers a game. They take care of the ball and take good shots. Jay Wright’s team will find a way to score even when shots aren’t falling from the outside.