Let’s keep this simple, shall we?
The Big East did us all a huge favor on Friday by advising us exactly what’s been settled for the conference tournament seeding heading into the final day of the 2025-26 regular season. UConn is already locked at #1, Villanova is locked at #2, and Providence — which happens to be Marquette’s opponent for the regular season finale — is locked at #7. In addition to that, the league confirmed that Seton Hall and Marquette have clinched finishing somewhere between #3
and #5 and thus locking in a bye to the quarterfinals. I believe that Marquette’s clinching detail is that they have a season split with Villanova. That gives them an advantage over Creighton, who they also split with, if both teams end up at 11-9, as the Bluejays lost both contests with the Wildcats this year.
In any case, Marquette can render that point null with a win on Sunday. I believe that the best that MU can actually do in the standings is the #4 seed, as if they land in a tie for third place with Seton Hall at 12-8, the Pirates get the #3 by way of their season sweep of the Golden Eagles. That would effectively mean that Marquette is going to be in the 4/5 game in the Big East Quarterfinals no matter what happens on Sunday, but isn’t it a much better idea to end up as the #4 seed by way of a win than losing and letting God sort things out?
On top of that, if Marquette would like to be in the WBIT for a second straight year, it’s probably a very smart idea to win this game. Nothing against Providence or anything, but they’re a sub-150 NET team right now. Marquette is only at #67 as of Friday morning, their second lowest ranking since losing at home to St. John’s back in December, so I really think it’s in MU’s best interest to not put a spot in the 32 team WBIT field at risk with a ridiculous loss here.
I’m not going to go crazy in detail with the previewing of Providence here because Marquette led the Friars by 24 midway through the third quarter in the home game of the season series. The Friars did whittle that lead down to just 10 points with three minute and change to go before Marquette eventually won by 17. If “First 25 minutes Marquette” shows up for 40 minutes in Rhode Island on Sunday, we’re all going to feel better about things heading into the conference tournament, to say the least.
Big East Game #20: at Providence Friars (14-16, 7-12 Big East)
Date: Sunday, March 1, 2026
Time: 4:30pm Central
Location: Alumni Hall, Providence, Rhode Island
Streaming: Peacock
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle, maybe at the end since I’ll be at Fiserv until at least halftime.
Marquette is 28-6 all time against Providence. The Golden Eagles won 78-61 in Milwaukee in early February to move their winning streak to 17 straight against the Friars.
