January 15, 2018 | Andrei Greska | 0 Comments

18 edition

With 3 weeks of Big East play under the belt, we’re still in the smallish sample size theater, where lopsided wins can result in significant movement, but far enough in to where changes are subtle for the most part. As always, this chart and all stats come from TRank.

Here is what the map looks like on the morning of 1/15/2018:

Tier 1 – Villanova

Enough said.

Tier 2 – Xavier, Seton Hall, Creighton, Butler, Marquette

So this got jumbled pretty quickly. And looking at the results from the first 2 weeks, it sort of makes sense. Xavier beat Butler which beat Marquette which beat Seton Hall which beat Creighton. I would still say Xavier, Creighton and Seton Hall are the top of this tier, with Butler and Marquette at the bottom, but as it currently stands, all 5 of these teams would be safely in the dance. Lots of basketball to come, though.

Tier 3 – Providence, St. John’s

Providence bounced back with a big home win against Xavier and held on to beat DePaul, notching their highest TRank rating since Dec. 17. With the team approaching full health, it must show consistency with two big home games against Butler and Creighton. There is still lots of time, but it’s these types of games that move the numbers, not just big upsets of Xavier or Villanova. With that said, a strong performance from St. John’s against Villanova allowed it to hold on to Tier 3 by a nail. With Lovett now out for the year, I still expect the Johnnies to finish in the bottom tier by the end of the year and nowhere close to the NCAA Tournament.

Tier 4 – DePaul, Georgetown

Both of these teams now have away victories over St. John’s, further bolstering the point that the Johnnies deserve to be here. These two teams continue to make life difficult for opponents who don’t bring their A game. More upsets will come, I guarantee it.

The league as a whole is still on track for a minimum of 6 Tournament teams, with 7 not out of the question. We don’t start focusing on brackets until the calendar says February, but with only 15 days left in the month, every game will start to mean that much more, and every bracket that much more predictive. I love it.