For most of the season, the Big East has been recognized by the rest of the country as “Villanova and everybody else.” On Saturday, Xavier will have an opportunity to change all that ... at least for one evening.
2015 Big East Tournament schedule and bracket: Villanova, Xavier to play for title
The Big East Tournament’s 2015 championship game will be played between a team everyone expected to be there, and one few people saw making it past the quarterfinals.
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The sixth-seeded Musketeers completed their surprising run to the Big East championship game with a nerve-wracking 65-63 upset of Georgetown on Friday. Matt Stainbrook had 20 points and nine rebounds for the victorious Musketeers, whose struggles from the free throw line allowed the Hoyas to trim a 21-point deficit down to one point in the closing minute. Chris Mack's team then finally found its composure and made five of its final six attempts from the charity stripe to salt away the win.
The only thing standing the between X-Men and a conference championship is a Villanova team looking to put the finishing touches on a résumé it hopes is worthy of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Those hopes nearly took a huge hit when the Wildcats were pushed to the brink before pulling out a 63-61 semifinal victory over defending tournament champion Providence. Ryan Arcidiacono was the hero of the night, hitting two free throws with 3.1 seconds left after a highly questionable foul call on the Friars’ Ben Bentil.
Here’s a look at how the bracket stands heading into the final night of the tournament (via BigEast.org):
Schedule and Results (all times Eastern and all games on Fox Sports 1)
Wednesday, March 11 (first round)
Game 1: No. 9 Marquette 78, No. 8 Seton Hall 56 (Game reaction from our Marquette blog and Seton Hall blog)
Game 2: No. 10 Creighton 78, No. 7 DePaul 63 (Game reaction from our Big East basketball blog)
Thursday, March 12 (Quarterfinals)
Game 3: No. 1 Villanova 84, No. 9 Marquette 49 (Game reactions from our Villanova blog and Marquette blog)
Game 4: No. 4 Providence 74, No. 5 St. John's 57 (Game reaction from our Big East blog and St. John's blog)
Game 5: No. 2 Georgetown 60, No. 10 Creighton 55 (Game reaction from our Georgetown blog and Big East blog)
Game 6: No. 6 Xavier 67, No. 3 Butler 62 (Game reaction from our Xavier blog and Big East blog)
Friday, March 13 (Semifinals)
Game 7: No. 1 Villanova, 63 vs. No. 4 Providence, 61 (reaction from our Villanova blog and Big East blog)
Game 8: No. 6 Xavier 65, No. 2 Georgetown 63
Saturday, March 14 (Championship)
Game 9: No. 1 Villanova vs. No. 6 Xavier, 8 p.m.
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