The first day in the Big East Tournament is in the books, and already we’ve seen a couple upsets and exciting games. The big story of the day was the USF-Villanova upset, but there was plenty more action in the tournament as well. The day started off with No. 9 UConn defending their higher ranking against No. 16 DePaul, beating them handily 97-71.
In The Battle of New Jersey, No. 13 Rutgers squeaked by No. 12 Seton Hall 76-70. This was a close game, with the lead going back and forth all game before Rutgers finally pulled ahead for good in overtime. And late at night, No. 11 Marquette beat up on No. 14 Providence 87-66.
The USF-Villanova game could have gone the way of the Marquette-Providence matchup, as Villanova was ranked five slots higher than the Bulls, but USF played one of their best games all season and stole the game from Villanova in the final 20 seconds of play. They move on to face No. 7 Cincinnati today, with the winner of that game facing No. 2 Notre Dame on Thursday.
Wednesday, March 9
No. 8 Georgetown vs. UConn – Noon
No. 5 St. John’s vs. Rutgers – 2 p.m.
No. 7 Cincinnati vs. South Florida – 7 p.m.
No. 6 West Virginia vs. Marquette – 9 p.m.
Thursday, March 10
No. 1 Pittsburgh vs. 8/9/16 Winner – Noon
No. 4 Syracuse vs. 5/12/13 Winner – 2 p.m.
No. 2 Notre Dame vs. 7/10/15 Winner – 7 p.m.
No. 3 Louisville vs. 6/11/14 Winner – 9 p.m.