BETology 3-1

BETology 3-1
This is The Rant’s daily look in at the Big East conference as we creep closer to the BET in New York City, which begins March 9th.
STANDINGS:
Big East Official Tie-Breaking formula
X**Syracuse Orange 14-2
**Villanova Wildcats 12-4
*Pittsburgh Panthers 11-5
*West Virginia Mountaineers 11-5
*Louisville Cardinals 10-6
*Marquette Golden Eagles 10-6
Georgetown Hoyas 9-7
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 8-8
South Florida Bulls 7-9
Cincinnati Bearcats 7-9
Connecticut Huskies 7-9
Seton Hall Pirates 7-9
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 5-11
St. John’s Red Storm 5-11
Providence Friars 4-12
X-DePaul Blue Demons 1-15

**Clinched Double-bye
*Clinched opening round bye
X-Clinched Current Seeding

YESTERDAY:
MARQUETTE GOLDEN EAGLES 84
Seton Hall Pirats 83
OT

Marquette clinched an opening round bye with the win in NJ. The Golden Eagles can still get a double bye, but they would have to win out against Louisville and Notre Dame (both at home) and have either West Virginia or Pitt lose both of their remaining games. The win also allowed the Eagles to keep pace with Louisville, who also won. The loss dropped the Pirates to 12th in the current standings with just two games to go in the final week of the season. Seton Hall has two very winable games coming up, against Rutgers and Providence. If they can win those, they still have an outside chance of claiming an opening round bye, but they would still need help from others ahead of them losing.

LOUISVILLE CARDINALS 78
Connecticut Huskies 76

Like Marquette, Louisville also clinches an opening round bye with this win. They push their record to 10-6 in conference play and are currently in 5th place. However the Cardinals are in the same boat Marquette is, since they don't hold the tiebreakers with either WVU or Pitt, they need one of those two teams to lose their final 2 games, while the Cardinals need to win both of their remaining games to move up to 4th and get a double bye. UCONN was hurt bigtime by this loss. The loss prevented UCONN from pulling away from that pack at 7-9, now they join them. And unfortunately for the Huskies, they have not fared very well against that group and finish 3rd out of 4 in the tiebreaker with that group. That drops UCONN to 11th place. Like Seton Hall, UCONN can still get up to 8th place, but they will likely need help. Unlike the Pirates, the Huskies may not need to depend on others for the help. In the Huskies final 2 games they play two teams directly in front of them. UCONN goes to Notre Dame on Wednesday, then travels to South Florida on Saturday. 2 wins in their final 2 games and UCONN may earn a day off in NYC.

TONIGHT:
Georgetown @ West Virginia, 7:00 pm, ESPN
WHAT IS AT STAKE:
*West Virginia can clinch a double bye with win.
*Georgetown can clinch an opening round day bye with a win, however a loss puts the Hoyas in play to drop out of the top 8 and be forced to play on Tuesday.

UP COMING GAMES ON NATIONAL TV:
TUESDAY:
Villanova @ Cincinnati, 7:00 pm, ESPN2
South Florida @ DePaul, 7:30 pm, ESPNU
Louisville @ Marquette, 9:30 pm, ESPNU
WEDNESDAY:
UCONN @ Notre Dame, 7:00 pm, ESPN
THURSDAY:
Seton Hall @ Rutgers, 7:00 pm, ESPN2
Providence @ Pitt, 9:00 pm, ESPN2
SATURDAY:
West Virginia @ Villanova, NOON, CBS
Syracuse @ Louisville, 2:00 pm, ESPN

BETology:
TUESDAY
March 9th:
NOON
9 – South Florida
Vs
16 – DePaul
2:00
12 – Seton Hall
Vs
13 – Rutgers
7:00
10 – Cincinnati
Vs
15 – Providence
9:00
11 – UCONN
Vs
14 – St. John's

WEDNESDAY
March 10th:
NOON
8 – Notre Dame
Vs
Tuesday NOON winner
2:00
5 – Louisville
Vs
Tuesday 2:00 winner
7:00
7 – Georgetown
Vs
Tuesday 7:00 winner
9:00
6 – Marquette
Vs
Tuesday 9:00 winner

THURSDAY
March 11th:
NOON
1 – Syracuse
Vs
Wednesday NOON winner
2:00
4 – West Virginia
Vs
Wednesday 2:00 winner
7:00
2 – Villanova
Vs
Wednesday 7:00 winner
9:00
3 – Pitt
Vs
Wednesday 9:00 winner

Check back tomorrow for another update!