Villanova wins 3rd straight Big East Tournament

Villanova secured a third consecutive Big East Tournament championship, beating Seton Hall in Saturday’s finale at Madison Square Garden.

The Wildcats needed overtime to dispatch Xavier in Friday’s semifinal, while Seton Hall beat Marquette in a 2-point thriller to advance to their first Big East Tournament final ever.

Villanova was the top seed in this year’s tournament, the fifth time in the last six seasons for Jay Wright’s squad.

The Big East is filled with bubble teams, though many believe the top three — Villanova, Marquette and Seton Hall — may already be locks for the NCAA Tournament. Nothing is guaranteed though, and pretty much every team in the conference is still looking at a potential spot in said tournament. St. John’s, Xavier, Creighton and Georgetown can all still make it, with only the bottom three really considered out of the running, if there is such a thing in the Big East.

All ten teams will take part in the tournament, and all of them have something to fight for with decent-to-strong records outside of their conference. Inside of the conference,there are four different teams that finished with 9-9 records, with Villanova managing a 13-5 mark and Marquette coming in just behind them at 12-6. The top four seeds get first-round byes.

1. Villanova Wildcats (22-9)
2. Marquette Golden Eagles (23-8)
3. Seton Hall (18-12)
4. Xavier Musketeers (17-14)
5. Creighton Bluejays (18-13)
6. Georgetown Hoyas (19-12)
7. St. John’s Red Storm (20-11)
8. Providence Friars (17-14)
9. Butler Bulldogs (16-15)
10. DePaul Blue Demons (15-14)

The tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, March 13 with three first-round games. It will continue on Thursday with the four second-round matchups, then on Friday with the semifinals. The championship game will be played on Saturday, March 16 at 6 p.m. ET.

All games will be broadcast by FS1, save for the championship game, which will be broadcast by FOX. Live streaming of the entire tournament can be had via FOX Sports GO and FuboTV.

Here is the schedule, with all times ET.

Game 1: No. 8 Providence 80, No. 9 Butler 57
Game 2: No. 7 St. John’s 82, No. 10 DePaul 74

Game 3: No. 1 Villanova 73, No. 8 Providence 62
Game 4: No. 4 Xavier 63, No. 5 Creighton 61
Game 5: No. 2 Marquette 86, No. 7 St. John’s 54
Game 6: No. 3 Seton Hall 73, No. 6 Georgetown 57

Game 7: No. 1 Villanova 71, No. 4 Xavier 67 (OT)
Game 8: No. 3 Seton Hall 81, No. 2 Marquette 79

Championship Game: No. 1 Villanova 74, No. 3 Seton Hall 72