Mat Mlodzinski gives his Big East basketball power rankings for week 7 of the season.
Matchup of the week: Marquette vs. Providence
Sneaky good matchup of the week: Butler vs. Creighton
All games listed are EST
1) UConn Huskies
Last week’s ranking: 1 (-)
Record: 12-0 (1-0)
Last week: Butler (W) 68-46
Next week: Georgetown (Dec. 20 – 6:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Alabama, Iowa State, Oregon, Florida, Butler, Oklahoma State
Worst losses: N/A
We’re now a dozen games into the season and UConn isn’t just undefeated – they’re blowing everybody out. A 22-point win at Hinkle Fieldhouse explains everything you need to know about the Huskies this season. Adama Sanogo has been playing like a National All-American, putting up 27 points and 14 rebounds on an above-average Butler interior. The Huskies grabbed 54 rebounds in the game, proving no match for the Bulldogs.
This week, UConn draws Georgetown. I’ll leave it at this: that game could get ugly.
2) Marquette Golden Eagles
Last week’s ranking: 3 (+1)
Record: 9-3 (1-0)
Last week: Creighton (W) 69-58
Next week: @ Providence (Dec. 20 – 7 p.m.)
Best wins: Baylor, Creighton, Notre Dame
Worst losses: N/A
I’m still of the belief that even without Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Creighton Bluejays should be better than how they’re playing. In the preseason, it was widely expected that the Jays would compete for a Big East title and Kalkbrenner wasn’t the only reason.
Marquette was the latest team to take down Creighton, and the Golden Eagles did so by 11 points. It’s an impressive Big East win for a very inexperienced Marquette team. That’s been my one question mark all season, but they gave a resounding answer by holding the Bluejays to 4-of-20 from downtown and creating 18 turnovers while only coughing it up ten times.
Next up for Marquette is a road trip at Providence, which will be another challenging test that could very well show how underappreciated the Golden Eagles have been.
3) Xavier Musketeers
Last week’s ranking: 2 (-1)
Record: 9-3 (1-0)
Last week: Southern (W) 79-59, @ Georgetown (W) 102-89
Next week: Seton Hall (Dec. 20 – 8:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Florida, West Virginia, Cincinnati
Worst losses: N/A
Xavier went 2-0 as they should’ve last week and only dropped down because of Marquette’s big win over Creighton. But make no mistake – the Musketeers are an elite Big East basketball team and one that shouldn’t drop out of the top 5 of the power rankings all season long.
All five starters poured in points in the win over the Hoyas, combining for 92 of Xavier’s 102 points. You can say what you want about a thin bench that really only goes about seven players deep – the Musketeers get it done in the scoring department.
4) St. John’s Red Storm
Last week’s ranking: 4 (-)
Record: 11-1 (1-0)
Last week: Florida State (W) 93-79
Next week: @ Villanova (Dec. 21 – 6:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Syracuse, Nebraska, Florida State
Worst losses: N/A
Florida State has been a trainwreck in the ACC, but you still have to pay the Red Storm some respect for a 14-point win over a fellow power conference team. I’m sure the defense wasn’t up to Mike Anderson’s standards, as the Noles shot 57.9% from deep and had 17 assists on 27 made buckets. But St. John’s dominated the glass and shot over 50% from the floor, hitting the 90-point mark for the fourth time this season.
5) Providence Friars
Last week’s ranking: 6 (+1)
Record: 9-3 (1-0)
Last week: @ Seton Hall (W) 71-67
Next week: #24 Marquette (Dec. 20 – 7 p.m.)
Best wins: Seton Hall, Rhode Island, Rider
Worst losses: N/A
Heading into the Prudential Center, the Providence Frairs’ best win all season had only come against URI. Not to say that Seton Hall is anything special this year, but for Providence to grind out a win in Newark says a lot about Ed Cooley’s transfer-heavy team. Kentucky transfer Bryce Hopkins is who really caught my eye. He didn’t play many minutes as a Wildcat, but seems to be a key piece for the Friars, and one who could elevate their play as the season keeps chugging along.
6) Villanova
Last week’s ranking: 6 (-)
Record: 5-5
Last week: @ St. Joseph’s (W) 71-64
Next week: St. John’s (Dec. 21 – 6:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Oklahoma, Penn, Boston College
Worst losses: Portland, Temple
It was a grind-it-out type of win over Philly-rival St. Joe’s. Villanova’s three freshmen – Cam Whitmore, Mark Armstrong, and Brendan Hausen – only combined for 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting in the game. That will likely be the story of the season for the Wildcats. When the star freshmen are playing well, this team can beat a lot of teams. When they’re struggling? Villanova is going to have to turn to its defense.
Plus, hope and pray that Justin Moore can come back soon and healthy.
7) Creighton Bluejays
Last week’s ranking: 7 (-)
Record: 6-6 (0-1)
Last week: @ Marquette (L) 58-69
Next week: Butler (Dec. 22 – 8 p.m.), DePaul (Dec. 25 – 4:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Arkansas, Texas Tech, UC Riverside
Worst losses: Nebraska, BYU
I’m starting to worry about Creighton, and not because Marquette is a bad loss. In fact, of the Bluejays six consecutive losses, only Nebraska is really head-scratching, and BYU isn’t awful. But at the same time, they’ve all been winnable games on paper.
Step number one is getting Ryan Kalkbrenner back on the floor. He’s been out with a non-COVID illness, and Creighton has clearly missed him throughout the past few games. The losing streak shouldn’t all fall on one player though. Creighton’s depth was a big talking point this offseason and right now it’s not showing up.
8) Seton Hall Pirates
Last week’s ranking: 8 (-)
Record: 7-5 (0-1)
Last week: Drexel (W) 66-49, Providence (L) 67-71
Next week: @ Xavier (Dec. 20 – 8:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Memphis, Rutgers, Drexel
Worst losses: Siena
The Pirates may have only split at 1-1 last week, but played two of their most complete games of the season. Against Drexel, Seton Hall held the Dragons to a season-low with 49 points. Seton Hall won the rebounding battle and also made up for an iffy offensive game by going 15-of-19 from the free-throw line.
Fast forward to the home game against Providence, and things started to work better on offense. The Pirates may have found their go-to guy, as Kadary Richmond tallied a career-high 28 points in the loss. Defensively, things were solid aside from a Providence run to start the second half.
If the Pirates can continue to get more out of Richmond, it might save the season a little bit.
9) Butler Bulldogs
Last week’s ranking: 9 (-)
Record: 8-4 (0-1)
Last week: #3 UConn (L) 46-68
Next week: Creighton (Dec. 22 – 8 p.m.)
Best wins: Kansas State, BYU, Yale
Worst losses: N/A
Losing to the #3 team in the nation didn’t come as a shock, even with Butler being at home. But I’m sure Bulldogs fans aren’t pleased about losing by 22 points.
The offense was a burden for Butler against the Huskies. Outside of Manny Bates, who shot 7-of-11 for 16 points, the rest of the team was 9-of-43 for 30 points. UConn shut Butler down from doing hardly anything on the offensive end.
The Bulldogs can try and right their wrongs against a Creighton team looking to get out of a shocking slump.
10) DePaul Blue Demons
Last week’s ranking: 10 (-)
Record: 6-6 (0-1)
Last week: @ Duquesne (L) 55-66, @ Northwestern (L) 45-83
Next week: @ Creighton (Dec. 25 – 4:30 p.m.)
Best wins: Minnesota, Loyola Chicago, UTEP
Worst losses: Santa Clara, Duquesne, Northwestern
On paper, it looked like two games DePaul could come away with against Duquesne and Northwestern. Not only did they lose both, but it got ugly as the week went on.
To DePaul’s credit, they defended Duquesne very well, keeping them under 40% from the field and holding the Dukes to just nine free-throw attempts. Unfortunately, Tony Stubblefield’s group couldn’t even match that, barely eclipsing the 30% mark from the field.
Against Northwestern, it was flat-out atrocious. 22 turnovers highlighted a night in which nothing went right for the Blue Demons.
They’ll get a chance for a Christmas present or some coal in their stocking on December 25th at Creighton.
11) Georgetown Hoyas
Last week’s ranking: 11 (-)
Record: 5-7
Last week: Xavier (L) 89-102
Next week: @ #2 UConn (Dec. 20 – 6:30 p.m.)
Best wins: La Salle, Siena, Coppin State
Worst losses: American, Loyola Marymount, Northwestern, South Carolina
I almost felt tempted to move Georgetown ahead of DePaul, solely because of how bad the Blue Demons played against both teams last week. But when it gets down to it, the Hoyas still gave up 102 points in a home loss to Xavier, and are the only Big East basketball team with an overall record under .500.
Primo Spears dropped 22 points to lead the Hoyas and offensively, they looked great. But the defense was a major issue and one that can’t be ignored. 102 points is a lot to give up in a college game.
Have fun with UConn this week!