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College Basketball Big East Conference Tournament Picks & Predictions (2023)

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The Big East men’s basketball season will culminate in Madison Square Garden with a tournament that could be full of surprises.  This season has been a wild ride in the Big East, and even though Marquette secured the top seed, the Golden Eagles have lost to two of the teams they’re almost sure to face early on

Despite that, they will be aiming to win the Big East tournament for the first time in program history, and even a finals appearance would be historic for the program. In recent years, however, Villanova has dominated this tournament. Having won five of their previous seven appearances, the Wildcats will be a huge underdog this year as they come in as the 6th seed with a deep run needed to solidify their tournament chances.

Let’s take a closer look at the tournament at large and see where the value remains.

Big East Conference Tournament

Dates: March 8th-11th
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Top Seed: Marquette

Previous Winners:

  • 2022 - Villanova
  • 2021 - Georgetown
  • 2020 - N/A
  • 2019 - Villanova
  • 2018 - Villanova

Favorite to Watch

UConn Huskies (+220 at BettingPros Consensus)

For now, UConn is playing some of the best basketball in the country and has been since the start of February.

In their last nine games, they have gone 8-1, though it’s worth noting that just two of those games were against top teams.
While the road to finals will be difficult, the best team among the four that will play on Thursday in Providence, a team that beat them on January 12th that they’ll surely want revenge on.

Look for a veteran and well-coached UConn team to stay hot in the Big Apple.

Top Live Underdog

Xavier Musketeers (+550 at BettingPros Consensus)

The Musketeers came into the tournament with the highest-scoring guard in the conference Souley Boum, who is certainly the type of player who can take charge at Madison Square Garden.  During a five-year career that included stops at San Francisco, UTEP, and now Xavier, he is approaching his last season of eligibility. He will look to make a statement with a huge couple of days here.

In Xavier’s most recent victory over Providence, Boum’s effectiveness was clearly noticeable, as he was the offensive catalyst for Xavier, scoring 33 points with a 39.8% three-point shooting percentage.

It would have been ideal to play Providence again, but in order to advance to the championship game, they will need to defeat Creighton, which might be one of the tournament’s best matchups.

In the end, Boum should make all the difference because the Blue Jays lack a similarly explosive scorer. He ought to get them a game against a UConn squad, where they hope to catch an exhausted Huskies team fresh off a game vs. Marquette.

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