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It was only a few weeks ago that Dan Hurley sat at a table inside Madison Square Garden and proclaimed the Big East “is the best conference” in the country in men’s basketball, and called out other leagues that “claim” to be the best without “championship trophies.”
It didn’t take a detective — Nancy Drew, Columbo or Hercule Poirot — to figure out who he was talking about. The Big Ten hasn’t won an NCAA championship in a quarter of a century, while the Big East has won four of the last eight.
But as the calendar flips to December, the Big East hardly looks like the nation’s best conference during the start of the 2024-25 college basketball season.
The league has zero teams — zero — in the Top 10 of the KenPom rankings, while the loaded SEC and Big 12 each have four.
The Big East has two teams in the KenPom Top 20 — Marquette at No. 11 and St. John’s at 20.
UConn?
The two-time defending national champions (5-3) stand at No. 24 on KenPom and could drop from the AP Top 25 after losing three straight games at the Maui Invitational prior to Saturday night’s 99-45 blowout of Maryland Eastern Shore.
“Our performance in Maui shocked the college basketball world and the sports world and obviously a lot went on there,” Hurley, the Jersey City native and former Seton Hall guard, said Saturday night.
Of the Maui experience, where UConn finished eighth among eight teams, Hurley added: “The psyche from the monster that the staff and players have created is jarring. It was a humbling week and knocked us on our butts pretty good.”
Hurley drew criticism from various quarters for his treatment of the officials in Maui — where he was given a technical foul in overtime of the Memphis game that contributed to his team’s first loss.
From back on the mainland, Monmouth coach King Rice noticed Hurley’s struggles and tried to sympathize.
“Danny lost [three] in a row and his job is hard,” Rice said Saturday after his team earned its first win of the season over Seton Hall. “Okay? So please support your group. Love on your kids. Okay, if the coach makes a tough decision to play too hard of a schedule, be mad at him. Keep supporting the kids.”
UConn’s early-season struggles after losing four starters to the NBA have certainly been shocking, but they aren’t the only Big East team that has gotten slapped around early.
Creighton, picked second in the league, is 5-3 and ranked No. 50 by KenPom. The Bluejays lost three straight — to in-state rival Nebraska, San Diego State (by 18) and AP No. 20 Texas A&M — before rebounding to beat Notre Dame Saturday in the seventh-place game of the Players Festival in Las Vegas.
Xavier, picked third in the Big East, is 6-1 but is coming off a 25-point beatdown by Michigan last week.
Then there’s Seton Hall, which was picked 10th in the Big East and has lost to local rivals Fordham, Hofstra and previously winless Monmouth while featuring one of the most anemic offenses in all of college basketball. The Pirates stand at No. 127 on KenPom.
“As the coach, that’s on me,” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said Saturday after his team lost to Monmouth for the first time in 16 meetings. “The one thing I’ll do, I’ll never throw my players under the bus, so anything that happens is on me, period.”
Villanova?
The Wildcats were picked seventh in the league and stand at 4-4 with losses to unbeaten Columbia and St. Joes, along with Maryland and Virginia, raising questions about whether Kyle Neptune will survive into his fourth season as Jay Wright’s successor.
Providence started the season 5-0 before dropping three straight and finishing eighth in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Despite all this doom and gloom, there have been some bright spots in the Big East.
No. 10-ranked Marquette (8-0) is undefeated with wins over Maryland, then-No. 6 Purdue and Georgia.
Butler is 6-1 coming off winning the Arizona Tip-Off with victories over Northwestern and No. 25 Mississippi State.
Under first-year coach Chris Holtmann, the former Butler coach, DePaul is a perfect 7-0.
The league also boasts several stud freshmen with NBA potential, most notably UConn wing Liam McNeeley and Georgetown forward Thomas Sorber. Those two figure to battle it out for Big East Freshman of the Year honors.
Still, with the way things are going in the league, there won’t be a ton of opportunities for wins over ranked opponents once league play starts.
The next couple of weeks could be critical. The Big 12-Big East Battle begins this week and Butler (at KenPom No. 5 Houston), Marquette (at No. 6 Iowa State) and Creighton (vs. No. 7 Kansas) all have huge opportunities for big-time non-conference wins.
UConn can show it’s back on the right track when it faces KenPom No. 23 Baylor on Wednesday night in Gampel Pavilion. After that, Hurley’s group travels to KenPom No. 35 Texas (6-1) on Sunday before playing KenPom No. 3 Gonzaga (7-1) Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden.
“I don’t think [Baylor] is a must-win game in game 9 of the season but it’s an opportunity to play in Gampel where we play great and are very comfortable and we know were gonna have a great crowd,” Hurley said. “We also know we’re playing a top-level team so it’s a big game for us and it’s a big game for them.”
Big 12-BIG EAST Battle Schedule
December 3
Cincinnati at Villanova
BYU at Providence
December 4
Baylor at Connecticut
Kansas at Creighton
DePaul at Texas Tech
Marquette at Iowa State
December 6
Georgetown at West Virginia
Xavier at TCU
December 7
Kansas State at St. John’s
Butler at Houston
December 8
Oklahoma State at Seton Hall
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.
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