Big East Fans Rooting for Butler over Marquette at Tip-Off

In a piece this morning for Breitbart I graded the bid chances of all 351 teams with Seton Hall, Providence and Butler as teams that likely just needed to avoid an upset to a lower team today to wrap up a bid.

I hate to say it, but for Big East fans, a Marquette loss probably locks five Big East teams into the tournament, with a chance to get a sixth team if one of the "have nots" make a surprise UConn like run through the tournament.

Obviously I want MU to pull out the huge upset and would love Creighton to lose to give MU momentum and the fifth seed in the Big East tournament to have the best chance at that UConn type run.

Right now the top four seeds are set with Providence's just completed win - so I have all four of those teams rated as a "B" - in the tournament. (Not all agree, but I can't see any of them missing based on a first round loss in the conference tournament. Marquette and four others are a "E" meaning only a tournament win gets us in. The problem for Big East fans is that Butler is a C+ meaning probably in but a loss to MU that dropped them to a 7-seed and then a loss to St. John's in the opening round of the Big East could well leave them out on Selection Sunday.

Oh well, I root for the conference unless it hurts Marquette. Go Warriors, and hopefully after we upset Butler they can win a conference tournament game or two and make it six teams along with Big East Tournament champions Marquette after our wins over Providence, Nova and Xavier next week!

1. Nova 16-2

2. Xavier 13-4

3. Seton Hall 12-6

4. Providence 10-8

5th through 7th

Creighton 9-8

Butler 9-8

Marquette 8-9 (with tie-breaker in a 2-way or 3-way)

8. Georgetown 7-11

9. DePaul 3-15

10. St. John's 1-17