After a bit of a holiday-induced hiatus, the week in review is back! We are in the infancy of the Big East basketball season, but the conference is beginning to take shape. Big East microsite writers Jameson Fleming, George Hershey and I bring you this week’s power rankings, all-conference team, and player and freshman of the week.

Villanova is Reaching for #1 in Our Power Rankings

Player of the Week: Doug McDermott: We should probably rename this the “Doug McDermott Player of the Week Award.”  I would love to see someone else here, but then McDermott went out and scored 30 against Seton Hall and only 19 against DePaul.

Freshman of the Week: Josh Hart: The Big East doesn’t have many super freshmen this year, but Hart is carving out a nice role for Villanova. He’s scored double figures in each of his last five games and is hitting a remarkable 45.9 percent of his threes.

Power Rankings

• 10.) DePaul (8-8, 0-3):
  Dan Lyons: New year, same DePaul?  That’s what it looks like so far this year for the Blue Demons, who have opened conference play 0-3.  They did keep it close against Georgetown and Marquette, but Creighton made quick work of DePaul yesterday.
  Jameson Fleming: The Blue Demons have been competitive against Marquette and Georgetown. That’s a good sign moving forward.
• 9.) Providence (10-5, 0-2):
  DL: No one has had more attrition than Providence this season, and it has put a ton of pressure on Bryce Cotton, who continues to put up huge numbers but has little help.
  JF: The Friars may actually be the worst team in the Big East, but for now, they’re still better on paper than DePaul. That could change soon.
• 8.) Seton Hall (10-5, 1-1):
  DL: Seton Hall beat Providence, although the game was about as close as possible, finishing at 81-80 in double overtime. It is therefore appropriate to slot these two together right now.
  JF: The bottom of the Big East is mirrored in mediocrity. St. John’s, Providence, Seton Hall and DePaul won’t win many games against the top six in the league.
• 7.) St. John’s (9-5, 0-2):
  DL: The Johnnies flash their talent every so often, but that hasn’t come through this Big East season. They kept it close against Xavier, but got one of Georgetown’s best efforts of the year.  They’ve been disappointing in this year’s conference season.
  JF: Despite having four top shot-blockers, St. John’s still has an effective field goal percentage of 49.2 percent.
• 6.) Butler (10-4, 0-2):
  DL: Butler got thrown to the wolves to start conference play with games against Villanova and Xavier.  They came quite close to upending the Wildcats, falling 76-73 in overtime, but couldn’t keep it as close down the stretch against the Musketeers.
  JF: The Bulldogs are allowing their Big East opponents to shoot 56 percent from two-point range so far.
• 5.) Marquette (9-6, 1-1):
  DL: I think it’s about time for Buzz Williams to print off some more “Lost Offense” posters for the local telephone poles.  Marquette has been held to 60 or fewer points five times this season.
  JF: The Golden Eagles have played a brutal schedule, but they haven’t come away with a single quality win. Odds are that Buzz Williams won’t be dancing this year.
• 4.) Georgetown (10-3, 2-0):
  DL: After dropping two of their first three games of the season, Georgetown has been playing pretty well as of late.  Two of those losses are against ranked Kansas and Oregon teams, so those don’t look too bad. But they’ll need a few quality wins in the conference this year.
  JF: The Hoyas will likely make the NCAA Tournament, but they haven’t played like a Tournament team just yet. They’ll need a couple wins against Villanova and Creighton during Big East play to ensure their spot in March.
• 3.) Xavier (12-3, 2-0):
  DL: Semaj Christon leads the incredibly balanced Musketeers, who have seven players at over seven PPG and 20 MPG.
  JF: After a disastrous trip to the Bahamas, Xavier has won seven in a row, including five wins against top-75 teams on KenPom.com.
• 2.) Creighton (13-2, 3-0):
  DL: It’s Doug McDermott’s world and we’re all just living in it.  The Creighton star is quite close to the elusive 50/40/90 season.
  JF: For awhile, it looked like nobody would challenge Villanova, but Creighton has quickly emerged as a worthy foe. The Bluejays have won seven consecutive games by double figures.
• 1.) Villanova (13-1, 2-0):
  DL: Nine of the Wildcats’ 14 games have been double-figure wins.  Nova may slip up once or twice in the Big East, but I would be surprised if they find their way off of the #2 or #3 seed line.
  JF: Providence isn’t any good, but the Wildcats completely dismantled the Friars despite their star, James Bell, fouling out in only five minutes of action.

All-Conference Team of the Week

• Doug McDermott, Creighton – Another magnificent week for Doug, averaging 24.5 PPG in his two conference games.
• Davante Gardner, Marquette – Creighton held the big man in check, but then he exploded for 28 points and six rebounds against an overmatched DePaul squad.
• Semaj Christon, Xavier – Christon did a bit of everything against Butler, dropping 20 points on 14 attempts, and doling out eight assist, both tops on the team.
• D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown – The 77-60 win over St. John’s would not have been nearly as easy without a monster 31-point outing from DSR, who continues to be prolific for the Hoyas.
• Bryce Cotton, Providence – He scored 25 in both of PC’s games this week, accounting for 35 percent of the Friars’ points last week.  Can someone help Bryce out, please?

Dan Lyons (78 Posts)

Writer at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician and Rush the Court's Big East Microsite. Syracuse '12.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 at 11:55 am by Dan Lyons and is filed under big east, microsites. Tagged: Bryce Cotton, butler, creighton, d'vauntes smith-rivera, Davante Gardner, depaul, Doug McDermott, georgetown, josh hart, marquette, providence, seton hall, st johns, villanova, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.