We’ve got two games on Monday, one much more important on a national level than the other, both pretty early, so we’re getting this look at the week ahead out to you on Sunday night. As such, all the ranking
information you see below is from the January 12th Associated Press poll. Once the new polls are out on Monday, we’ll update things as needed, say, for example, Seton Hall dropping out of the top 25 after losing to Butler.
I’ll be honest, given how both the men’s and the women’s conferences have divided out in terms of “good” and “not good” to this point of the calendar, it’s a little bit hard to come up with games that are intriguing in terms of the possible result of the contest. Is Butler/Georgetown on either side of the aisle a critical matchup on any level? Not really, y’know? This will pick up a little bit as we get closer to the Big East tournaments and there are seeding situations to monitor, but for now, it’s a little hard to say “ooooo, big game on Wednesday between the Marquette and St. John’s women!” and so on.
But we forge ahead, as just because the projected games don’t jump out as Must See TV, that doesn’t mean the events themselves won’t be compelling. Let’s get into the highlights that we have this week….
Monday, January 19: #1 Connecticut Huskies vs #23 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4pm Central, Fox) — See, that’s a pretty nationally important game, right? Don’t ask about what the other Monday game is. I’m writing this on Sunday morning, and Notre Dame’s still ranked, and losing at home to #9 Louisville probably won’t knock them out…. but maybe it will? And this isn’t a very fun follow up for the Irish after three losses in their last five games, but it’s an important-adjacent game for Sarah Strong and her teammates on national TV, and that’s fun.
Tuesday, January 20: #25 Seton Hall Pirates at RV St. John’s Red Storm (6pm Central, FS1) — The Pirates failed their home test against Butler in between a home game at UConn and this road game against the Johnnies. That already gives them their first back-to-back losses of the season, and unless Shaheen Holloway steers the car back on the tracks in a big way, they’re staring down the business end of a third straight loss.
Wednesday, January 21: Xavier Musketeers at Creighton Bluejays (6pm Central, FS1) — Kinda curious about the direction of the two teams here, as Richard Pitino has steered the Musketeers out of a three game losing streak with wins in their last two contests and the Bluejays have lost three of their last five, including a kind of awful collapse at Providence back on Friday. Not sure if either one is a tournament team, but there’s a certain amount of “maybe win to help avoid the Big East tournament opening tripleheader” here given their current spots in the standings.
Saturday, January 24: RV Villanova Wildcats at #3 Connecticut Huskies (11:30am Central, Fox) — I’m pretty sure Fox Sports was mostly guessing when they decided to give this one the Big Fancy Fox treatment back in September, but it’s paying off for them as Kevin Willard has the Wildcats at 14-4 and 5-2 in the Big East. It’s a big top three showdown at the very least, although VU losing to St. John’s on Saturday will probably stop this from being a ranked on ranked battle.
Saturday, January 24: Georgetown Hoyas at Providence Friars (11:30am Central, TNT/truTV) — Serious question: Do Providence fans actually care about booing Ed Cooley any more? This is his third trip back to the AMP and let’s be honest about it: Neither team is particularly going in a great direction without the other side in their lives.
Sunday, January 25: #1 Connecticut Huskies at Seton Hall Pirates (11am Central, Peacock) — This is the THIRD game of the week for Geno Auriemma’s team, and at a glance, this is their second most dangerous Big East game left on the schedule. The most dangerous is their trip to Villanova in February. Why yes, UConn did beat the Pirates 84-48 in their first meeting.
Here’s the full Big East men’s basketball schedule for the week, with all times Central, as always.
Here’s the full Big East women’s basketball schedule for the week, with all times Central, as always.
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