The Big East Tournament quarterfinals saw three favorites advance and one massive upset.
The Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden – there are no other conference tournaments that can capture what they have.
The first three sessions of the Big East Tournament quarterfinals went as expected, with favorites St. John’s, Seton Hall, and UConn each advancing.
During the final session, a different story unfolded as last-ranked Georgetown shocked Villanova to advance to the semifinals.
This sets up the semifinals with all four teams being founding members of the Big East Conference, the first time this has happened since 1994!
Here are the key takeaways from each game.
St. John’s front-court too much for the Friars
There is no love lost between the Providence Friars and Bryce Hopkins. The last time these two teams faced off, St. John’s star Hopkins took a hard foul by Providence that resulted in a benches-clearing scuffle, which made national headlines.
Providence Friar fans could be heard yelling expletives at former Friar, Bryce Hopkins, throughout this contest in the Big East Tournament.
This seemed to fuel Hopkins as he played with high energy throughout the contest, punctuated by several emphatic dunks.
The starting front-court for St. John’s was the difference in this one as both Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor finished with double-doubles.
Fellow starting front-court mate Dillon Mitchell was a steady presence as well, finishing with six points to go along with eight rebounds.
The trio of Ejiofor, Hopkins, and Mitchell combined for a staggering 14 offensive rebounds for St. John’s and helped lead St. John’s to a wire-to-wire 85-72 victory over Providence.
Seton Hall’s ship is still afloat
The Seton Hall Pirates have been on the outside looking in over the past month for making the NCAA Tournament.
With most of the NCAA Tournament Bubble teams crumbling down the stretch of the season, as well as having early exits in their respective conference tournaments, the Pirates desperately needed a win to put themselves back in the conversation to secure an at-large bid.
Star player Budd Clark did everything for the Seton Hall Pirates in their win over Creighton in the Big East Tournament, finishing with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
As good as Clark was, this will forever be known as “The Jacob Dar” game for Seton Hall, as he came into the contest scoring only 69 points all season but dropped 16 points, all in the second half, to secure a 72-61 win over Creighton.
If Seton Hall can beat St. John’s in the Big East Tournament semifinals, they will put themselves in a great position to make the NCAA Tournament.
This is going to be a debate over the coming days, and head coach Shaheen Holloway was asked about his team’s NCAA Tournament chances postgame.
“Personally I think we did enough…this league is good from top to bottom…winning this game really helps, but all we can be concerned about is playing tomorrow night,” said Holloway.
UConn returns to dominant form
UConn has certainly had Xavier’s number this season. During the regular season, UConn won by 23 points and 32 points in its two matchups.
The Big East Tournament proved no different as UConn rolled to a 25-point win over Xavier in a game that was over within the first five minutes.
It was a well-balanced attack for UConn as every starter scored nine points or higher.
Tarris Reed Jr. played an outstanding game, and Xavier had no answers for the UConn big man as he finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
“Tarris is the difference between us winning this tournament. Tarris is the difference between us getting to the Final Four,” said Huskies coach Dan Hurley.
What also jumped out was how well UConn’s bench played as Malachi Smith, Eric Reibe, and Jayden Ross each played integral roles and combined for 24 points.
If UConn can consistently get this kind of bench production throughout the Big East Tournament, it is hard to see any team knocking them off.
11 seed Georgetown stuns 3 seed Villanova
The final game of the quarterfinals proved once again why the Big East Tournament is so special.
This was a close back-and-forth game until Georgetown pulled ahead in large part to Kayvaun Mulready’s 10-point spurt over the course of five minutes late in the second half.
The last-ranked Georgetown Hoyas came into Madison Square Garden and pulled off a massive upset over the heavily favored Villanova Wildcats.
The only other time an 11 seed has advanced to the Big East Tournament semifinals was back in 2004, when Villanova was the one pulling off upsets.
It’s a lot to ask for Georgetown to follow this win with another one against UConn but crazier things have happened, and Georgetown has played UConn close twice this year, losing by a total of six points in their matchups.