Marquette Secures 4th Seed in Big East Tournament
Villanova will be the No. 1 seed in the 2017 BIG EAST Tournament from March 8-11 at Madison Square Garden. The Wildcats won their fourth straight BIG EAST regular-season title by compiling a 15-3 league mark. Villanova is 28-3 overall.
Butler is the No. 2 seed after finishing in second place with a 12-6 mark. The Bulldogs are 23-7 overall. In this week’s national polls, Villanova is ranked second in the Associated Press poll. Butler is ranked 13th.
Providence, Marquette, Seton Hall and Creighton all tied for third with 10-8 BIG EAST records. Providence earns the No. 3 seed because the Friars were 4-2 against the other three tied teams.
Marquette and Seton Hall were 3-3 against the tied teams and split their head-to-head meetings. Marquette gets the edge and the No. 4 seed because of its win over a higher team in the standings, No. 1 Villanova.
Creighton is the No. 6 seed with a 2-4 record against the other three tied teams.
In the First Round on Wednesday, the tournament begins with No. 8 seed St. John’s meeting No. 9 seed Georgetown followed by No. 7 seed Xavier playing No. 10 seed DePaul.
This year’s BIG EAST Tournament will be the 35th held at Madison Square Garden. The Championship Game will air on Saturday, March 11, at 4:30.
The schedule:
First Round, Wednesday, March 8
No. 8 St. John’s vs. No. 9 Georgetown, 7 p.m.
No. 7 Xavier vs. No. 10 DePaul, 9:30 p.m.
Quarterfinals, Thursday, March 9
No. 1 Villanova vs. St. John’s/Georgetown winner, Noon
No. 4 Marquette vs. No. 5 Seton Hall, 2:30 p.m.
No. 2 Butler vs. Xavier/DePaul winner, 7 p.m.
No. 3 Providence vs. No. 6 Creighton, 9:30 p.m.
Semifinals, Friday, March 10
Thursday afternoon winners, 6:30 p.m.
Thursday evening winners, 9 p.m.
Championship Game, Saturday, March 11
Semifinal winners, 5:30 p.m.