2018–19 Big East Conference men's basketball season

The 2018–19 Big East Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2018, followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. This season marked the 40th year in the conference's history, but the sixth as a non-football conference, which officially formed on July 1, 2013. Conference play began in December 2018.

2018–19 Big East Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	10
TV partner(s)	CBS, CBSSN, FOX, FS1, FSN
Regular Season
Season Champions	Villanova
Season MVP	Markus Howard, Marquette
Tournament
Champions	Villanova
Runners-up	Seton Hall
Finals MVP	Phil Booth, Villanova

2018–19 Big East men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 23 Villanova †	13	–	5		.722			26	–	10		.722
Marquette	12	–	6		.667			24	–	10		.706
Seton Hall	9	–	9		.500			20	–	14		.588
Xavier	9	–	9		.500			19	–	16		.543
Creighton	9	–	9		.500			20	–	15		.571
Georgetown	9	–	9		.500			19	–	14		.576
St. John's	8	–	10		.444			21	–	13		.618
Providence	7	–	11		.389			18	–	16		.529
Butler	7	–	11		.389			16	–	17		.485
DePaul	7	–	11		.389			19	–	17		.528
† 2019 Big East Tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 2019 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament was held at Madison Square Garden in New York from March 13 through March 17, 2019. Villanova defeated Seton Hall to win the tournament championship and receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Four Big East schools received bids to the NCAA Tournament (Marquette, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Villanova). Villanova was the only team to make it out the Round of 64 before losing to Purdue in the Round of 32.

Five Big East schools received bids to the National Invitation Tournament (Creighton, Xavier, Georgetown, Providence, and Butler) with only Creighton and Xavier advancing past the 1st Round, with the Bluejays making to the Quarterfinals before losing to TCU.

Marquette guard Markus Howard was named the Big East Player of the Year after leading the Big East in scoring with 25.0 PPG. Georgetown freshman guard James Akinjo was named Big East Freshman of the Year. Villanova head coach Jay Wright was named Big East coach of the year for the sixth time.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

On March 27, 2018, Chris Mack was hired as the new head coach of Louisville, leaving Xavier after nine seasons.[1] Four days later, longtime assistant coach Travis Steele was named the new head coach of the Musketeers.[2]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Big East record	Big East titles	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Butler	LaVall Jordan	Milwaukee	2	21–14	9–9	0	1	0	0
Creighton	Greg McDermott	Iowa State	9	187–94	47–43	0	5	0	0
DePaul	Dave Leitao	Tulsa (asst.)	7	87–99	39–63	0	0	0	0
Georgetown	Patrick Ewing	Charlotte Hornets (asst.)	2	34–29	14–22	0	0	0	0
Marquette	Steve Wojciechowski	Duke (asst.)	5	73–59	31–41	0	1	0	0
Providence	Ed Cooley	Fairfield	8	144–94	64–62	1	5	0	0
Seton Hall	Kevin Willard	Iona	9	150–114	62–82	0	2	0	0
St. John's	Chris Mullin	None	4	39–60	12–42	0	0	0	0
Villanova	Jay Wright	Hofstra	18	422–165	191–103	6	13	3	2
Xavier	Travis Steele	Xavier (asst.)	1	0–0	0–0	0	0	0	0

Notes:

• Years at school includes 2018–19 season.
• Overall and Big East records are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2018–19 season.
• McDermott's MVC conference records not included since team began play in Big East.

Preseason

Preseason poll

Prior to the season, the Big East conducted a poll of Big East coaches, coaches do not place their own team on their ballots.[3][4]

Rank	Team
1.	Villanova (8)
2.	Marquette (1)
3.	Providence
4.	St. John's
5.	Butler (1)
6.	Xavier
7.	Georgetown
8.	Seton Hall
9.	Creighton
10.	DePaul
(first place votes)

Preseason All-Big East teams

Source[5]

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	Shamorie Ponds, St. John's
Preseason All-Big East First Team	Shamorie Ponds, St. John's
	Eric Paschall, Villanova
	Markus Howard, Maquette
	Kamar Baldwin, Butler
	Jessie Govan, Georgetown
	Alpha Diallo, Providence
Preseason All-Big East Second Team	Phil Booth, Villanova
	Myles Powell, Seton Hall
	Max Strus, DePaul
	Sam Hauser, Marquette
	Justin Simon, St. John's
Preseason All-Big East Honorable Mention	Martin Krampelj, Creighton
	Naji Marshall, Xavier

Regular season

Rankings

See also: 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
(Italics)		Number of first place votes

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Final
Butler	AP
	C
Creighton	AP
	C
DePaul	AP
	C
Georgetown	AP
	C
Marquette	AP		24				21	20	18	16	21	15	12	10	10	10	11	10	16	23	RV
	C							23	20	18	19	13	11	9	9	10	10	9	15	22	T-25
Providence	AP
	C
Seton Hall	AP
	C
St. John's	AP										24
	C
Villanova	AP	9 (1)	8		23	21	17					22	18	14	14	13	17	RV	23	25	23
	C	8	8		23	21	16					21	18	14	13	13	16	RV	23	25	22
Xavier	AP
	C

Conference Matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Butler	Creighton	DePaul	Georgetown	Marquette	Providence	Seton Hall	St. John's	Villanova	Xavier
vs. Butler	–	1–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1
vs. Creighton	1–1	–	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–1
vs. DePaul	2–0	2–0	–	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	2–0	1–1
vs. Georgetown	1–1	2–0	1–1	–	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–1
vs. Marquette	0–2	1–1	0–2	1–1	–	0–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–2
vs. Providence	0–2	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	–	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1
vs. Seton Hall	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	–	1–1	1–1	1–1
vs. St. John's	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	–	1–1	2–0
vs. Villanova	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	–	1–1
vs. Xavier	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–1	–
Total	7–11	9–9	7–11	9–9	12–6	7–11	9–9	8–10	13–5	9–9

Player of the week

Throughout the season, the Big East Conference named a player of the week and a freshman of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week
November 12, 2018[6]	Markus Howard, Marquette	A. J. Reeves, Providence
November 19, 2018[7]	Max Strus, DePaul	James Akinjo, Georgetown
November 26, 2018[8]	Shamorie Ponds, St. John's	A. J. Reeves (2), Providence
December 3, 2018[9]	Markus Howard (2), Marquette	A. J. Reeves (3), Providence
December 10, 2018[10]	Myles Powell, Seton Hall	Joey Hauser, Marquette
December 17, 2018[11]	Max Strus (2), DePaul	Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton
December 23, 2018[12]	Markus Howard (3), Marquette	Mac McClung, Georgetown
December 31, 2018[13]	Naji Marshall, Xavier	Josh LeBlanc, Georgetown
January 7, 2019[14]	Shamorie Ponds (2), St. John’s	Joey Hauser (2), Marquette
January 14, 2019[15]	Markus Howard (4), Marquette	James Akinjo (2), Georgetown
January 21, 2019[16]	Sam Hauser, Marquette	Joey Hauser (3), Marquette
January 28, 2019[17]	Ty-Shon Alexander, Creighton	Joey Hauser (4), Marquette
February 4, 2019[18]	Markus Howard (5), Marquette	James Akinjo (3), Georgetown

Honors and awards

All-Americans

Main article: 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans

Consensus All-Americans
First Team	Second Team
None	Markus Howard - Marquette

To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team.[19]

Associated Press[20]	NABC[21]	Sporting News[22]	USBWA[23]
First Team
None	None	None	None
Second Team
Markus Howard – Marquette	Markus Howard – Marquette	Markus Howard – Marquette	Markus Howard – Marquette
Third Team
None	None	None	None

Big East Awards

2019 Big East Men's Basketball Individual Awards[24]
Award	Recipient(s)
Player of the Year	Markus Howard, G., Marquette
Coach of the Year	Jay Wright, Villanova
Defensive Player of the Year	Justin Simon, G., St. John's
Freshman of the Year	James Akinjo, G., Georgetown
Most Improved Player of the Year	Paul Reed, F., DePaul
Sixth Man Award	Paul Jorgensen G., Butler

2019 Big East Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams[24]
First Team	Second Team	Honorable Mention	All-Freshman Team
Markus Howard† – Marquette Myles Powell† – Seton Hall Phil Booth† – Villanova Eric Paschall† – Villanova Shamorie Ponds – St. John's Jessie Govan – Georgetown	Kamar Baldwin – Butler Max Strus – DePaul Sam Hauser – Marquette Alpha Diallo – Providence Naji Marshall – Xavier	Ty-Shon Alexander - Creighton Martin Krampelj - Creighton	Marcus Zegarowski† – Creighton James Akinjo† – Georgetown Josh LeBlanc – Georgetown Mac McClung – Georgetown Joey Hauser – Marquette Saddiq Bey - Villanova
† - denotes unanimous selection

Postseason

2019 Big East Tournament

Bracket

Main article: 2019 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament

	First round Wednesday, March 13 FS1					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 14 FS1					Semifinals Friday, March 15 FS1					Championship Saturday, March 16 FOX
						1	Villanova	73
						8	Providence	62
	8	Providence	80
	9	Butler	57
											1	Villanova	71*
										4	Xavier	67
						4	Xavier	63
						5	Creighton	61
																1	Villanova	74
																3	Seton Hall	72
						2	Marquette	86
						7	St. John's	54
	7	St. John's	82
	10	DePaul	74
											2	Marquette	79
										3	Seton Hall	81
						3	Seton Hall	73
						6	Georgetown	57

*Indicates number of overtime periods.

2019 NCAA Tournament

Main article: 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	1st Round	2nd Round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
5	West	Marquette	BYE	L 64–83 vs. Murray State – (Hartford, CT)
6	South	Villanova	BYE	W 61–57 vs. Saint Mary's – (Hartford, CT)	L 61–87 vs. Purdue – (Hartford, CT)
10	Midwest	Seton Hall	BYE	L 68–84 vs. Wofford – (Jacksonville, FL)
11	West	St. John's	L 65–74 vs. Arizona State – (Dayton, OH)
		W–L (%):	0–1 (.000)	1–2 (.333)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 1–4 (.200)

2019 NIT

Main article: 2019 National Invitation Tournament

Seed	Region	School	1st Round	2nd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
2	TCU	Creighton	W 70–61 vs. Loyola–Chicago – (Omaha, NE)	W 79–67 vs. Memphis – (Omaha, NE)	L 58–71 vs. TCU – (Fort Worth, TX)
3	Alabama	Xavier	W 78–64 vs. Toledo – (Cincinnati, OH)	L 76–78 (OT) vs. Texas – (Austin, TX)
3	UNCG	Georgetown	L 68–71 vs. Harvard – (Washington, DC)
4	Indiana	Providence	L 72–84 vs. Arkansas – (Providence, RI)
5	TCU	Butler	L 76–80 vs. Nebraska – (Lincoln, NE)
		W–L (%):	2–3 (.400)	1–1 (.500)	0–1 (.000)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–) Total: 3–5–0 (.375)

2019 CBI

Main article: 2019 College Basketball Invitational

School	1st Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
DePaul	W 100–86 vs. Central Michigan – (Chicago, IL)	W 97–89 vs. Longwood – (Chicago, IL)	W 92–87 vs. Coastal Carolina – (Chicago, IL)	L vs. South Florida – (Tampa, FL/Chicago, IL)
W–L (%):	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	1–0 (1.000)	1–2 (.333) Total: 4–2 (.667)

References

1. Greer, Jeff (March 27, 2018). "Louisville hires Chris Mack as new men's basketball coach". Courier Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
2. Borzello, Jeff (March 31, 2018). "Musketeers promote longtime assistant Travis Steele to head coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
3. "Did Seton Hall basketball get disrespected in the Big East coaches' poll?". Asbury Park Press. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
4. "Xavier basketball picked 6th in Big East preseason poll: 'We'll use it as motivation'". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
5. writer, Jon Nyatawa World-Herald staff. "Creighton men's basketball picked ninth in Big East coaches preseason poll". Omaha.com. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
6. "Marquette's Howard, Providence's Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
7. "DePaul's Strus, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn Weekly #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
8. "St. John's Ponds, Providence's Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
9. "Marquette's Howard, Providence's Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
10. "Seton Hall's Powell, Marquette's Hauser Take #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
11. "DePaul's Strus, Creighton's Zegarowski Earn Weekly #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
12. "Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's McClung Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
13. "Xavier's Marshall, Georgetown's LeBlanc Earn MBB Weekly Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2018-12-31.
14. "St. John's Ponds, Marquette's Hauser Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
15. "Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
16. "Marquette's Hauser Brothers Take #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
17. "Creighton's Alexander, Marquette's Hauser Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
18. "Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn #BIGEASTmbb Honors". Big East Conference. Retrieved 2019-02-06.
19. "2009–10 NCAA Statistics Policies (updated 9/2/2009)". National Collegiate Athletic Association. September 2, 2009. Archived from the original on May 21, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
20. Marshall, John (April 2, 2019). "Duke Freshmen Williamson, Barrett Top AP All-America Team". Associated Press. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
21. "NABC Announces 2019 Division I All-America Teams". National Association of Basketball Coaches. March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
22. DeCourcy, Mike (March 11, 2019). "Sporting News' 2018-19 college basketball All-Americans". Sporting News. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
23. "USBWA names men's All-American teams". USBWA. March 18, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
24. "2019 Men's Basketball Award Winners Announced". Atlantic Coast Conference. March 11, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019.

External links

• Big East website