Here are my picks for the Big East Tournament. I’m going with chalk except that I have Butler over Providence in the first round.

Wednesday, March 11

4:00 - Butler over Providence by 1
6:30 - Marquette over Xavier by 4
9:00 - DePaul over Georgetown by 5

Thursday, March 12

noon - St. John’s over Butler by 15
2:30 - Seton Hall over Creighton by 1
7:00 - UConn over Marquette by 12
9:30 - Villanova over DePaul by 2

Friday, March 13

5:30 - St. John’s over Seton Hall by 13
8:00 - UConn over Villanova by 9

Saturday, March 14

6:30 - St. John’s over UConn by 2

(03-10-2026 06:54 PM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  Here are my picks for the Big East Tournament. I’m going with chalk except that I have Butler over Providence in the first round.

Wednesday, March 11

4:00 - Butler over Providence by 1
6:30 - Marquette over Xavier by 4
9:00 - DePaul over Georgetown by 5

Thursday, March 12

noon - St. John’s over Butler by 15
2:30 - Seton Hall over Creighton by 1
7:00 - UConn over Marquette by 12
9:30 - Villanova over DePaul by 2

Friday, March 13

5:30 - St. John’s over Seton Hall by 13
8:00 - UConn over Villanova by 9

Saturday, March 14

6:30 - St. John’s over UConn by 2

I'll go with:

Providence over Butler by 3
Marquette over X by 5 (more if Carroll is hurt)
DePaul over Georgetown by 8

SJU over Providence by 12
Seton Hall over Creighton by 4
UConn over Marquette by 10
Nova over DePaul by 8

SJU over Seton Hall by 6
UConn over Nova by 12

UConn over SJU by 6

I think that Carroll will play. I think that Pitino held him out of the last game of the season to insure that he would be ready for the tournament.

I also think that there will be a surprise in there somewhere. It’s been that kind of a season in the Big East. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out who it will come from.

(03-10-2026 06:54 PM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  Here are my picks for the Big East Tournament. I’m going with chalk except that I have Butler over Providence in the first round.

Wednesday, March 11

4:00 - Butler over Providence by 1
6:30 - Marquette over Xavier by 4
9:00 - DePaul over Georgetown by 5

Thursday, March 12

noon - St. John’s over Butler by 15
2:30 - Seton Hall over Creighton by 1
7:00 - UConn over Marquette by 12
9:30 - Villanova over DePaul by 2

Friday, March 13

5:30 - St. John’s over Seton Hall by 13
8:00 - UConn over Villanova by 9

Saturday, March 14

6:30 - St. John’s over UConn by 2

I could probably get some pretty long odds on these picks.

Butler over Providence by 5
Marquette over Xavier by 6
DePaul over Georgetown by 5

Butler over St. John's by 1
Seton Hall over Creighton by 5
UConn over Marquette by 4
Villanova over Depaul by 5

Butler over Seton Hall by 4
Nova over UConn by 3

Nova over Butler by 6

I can’t see Nova doing that without Matt Hodge. But it would be great fun if they did!

My picks

Providence over Butler by 10
Xavier over Marquette by 10 with 11:39 left.

(03-11-2026 07:04 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  My picks

Providence over Butler by 10
Xavier over Marquette by 10 with 11:39 left.

Hahaha!

Nice to see that Tre Carroll is playing for X although he doesn’t seem to be at his best.

(03-10-2026 11:39 PM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  I can’t see Nova doing that without Matt Hodge. But it would be great fun if they did!

They just beat DePaul without Hodge so I think they will be OK in the conference tourney. Upsetting UConn will be a different story though

Xavier-Marquette was a great game. Marquette came up just short but I thought they were going to pull out the W for a bit towards the end. Think the difference maker may have been when James picked Anderson's pocket just to have Anderson swipe it back when James tries to pass it off for an easy bucket that would have put Marquette up. Great recovery that may have totally changed the outcome. Instead of being down 1, Carroll scored a bucket on the other end to put them up 3.

Thanks, Nameless. I don’t get Peacock, so I wasn’t able to watch any of today’s games. The box score suggests that Marquette’s freshmen, James & Stevens struggled - along with Ben Gold shooting ooorly.

I had a perfect day. I picked all 3 games the wrong way.

I don’t know how Georgetown did what they did last night without their leading scorer.

Well, I have some idea. They completely dominated DePaul down low. Iwuchukwu and Halaifonua combined for 24 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 assists. Wow! The other thing they did was that they held DePaul to 34% shooting from the floor. And, oh, by the way, Georgetown hit 16 of 18 FTs, outscoring DePaul (7-11) by 9 from the line, which more than covered the margin of victory.

So, what are their chances today against Villanova? Each team is missing a key player to injury. Until their 1-point win over Providence on Saturday, Georgetown had lost 7 in a row. But now they’ve put together back-to-back wins. Georgetown seems to have reinvented itself. The dominance down low was the same against Providence as it was last night. Iwuchukwu and Halaifonua combined for 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks in that game. Villanova is vulnerable down lawn. Without Hodge, Brennan has very little help down low. On paper, this should be Villanova’s game to win and they’ve been playing surprisingly well without Hodge. They don’t seem to have missed him. However, this may be the game where his absence hurts them.

Georgetown tops DePaul 63-56 in what must have been a blah game (I don't get Peacock and did not see).

Tough way for the Blue Demons, who finish 16-16, to end an otherwise solid year. DePaul shot poorly against GU.

Stat of note: GU hits 16 of 18 free throws.

Happy for the Hoyas, now 15-17. Georgetown plays Nova tonight at 8:30 CST on FS1.

Go, Hoyas.

(03-12-2026 09:53 AM)Bill Marsh Wrote:  I don’t know how Georgetown did what they did last night without their leading scorer.

Well, I have some idea. They completely dominated DePaul down low. Iwuchukwu and Halaifonua combined for 24 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 assists. Wow! The other thing they did was that they held DePaul to 34% shooting from the floor. And, oh, by the way, Georgetown hit 16 of 18 FTs, outscoring DePaul (7-11) by 9 from the line, which more than covered the margin of victory.

So, what are their chances today against Villanova? Each team is missing a key player to injury. Until their 1-point win over Providence on Saturday, Georgetown had lost 7 in a row. But now they’ve put together back-to-back wins. Georgetown seems to have reinvented itself. The dominance down low was the same against Providence as it was last night. Iwuchukwu and Halaifonua combined for 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks in that game. Villanova is vulnerable down lawn. Without Hodge, Brennan has very little help down low. On paper, this should be Villanova’s game to win and they’ve been playing surprisingly well without Hodge. They don’t seem to have missed him. However, this may be the game where his absence hurts them.

Likely one of the 10 best one-two center punches in the country.

St. John’s has really brought it today! 15 minutes into the game they have 9 offensive rebounds to 1 for PC and have forced 6 PC TOs while only turning the ball over 3 times themselves. The result is 29 shots for SJU to 18 first PC. In addition, they have held the Friars to 37% shooting. They really came to play today. Pitino sure did his job getting them ready for this game.

It’s worth noting that the Friars played a 4:00 game yesterday, so they had to be ready to play this game only 18 hours after the last game ended. That seems pretty unfair, regardless of who the team is. Why not schedule the Creighton-Seton Hall game at noon? Neither of those teams played the night before.

I’m not making an excuse for Providence. This blow out may be as much about St. John’s being motivated to seek revenge for the flagrant foul + the brawl in the last game. Nonetheless, I think that the scheduling issue is worth highlighting as a problem in its own right.

Providence was down by 21 at the half but came out fired up to start the second half, and cut the lead to 12. But after that it’s been just a complete beat down.

Seton Hall is a really good defensive team. They held Creighton, a good shooting team to 35% from the field and 24% from 3.

UConn is on its game tonight.

I nominate myself as the winner of the Worst Picks Ever award for the Big East Tournament