2018–19 Big East Conference men's basketball season explained

2018–19 Big East Conference men's basketball season
Color:	1B3A68
Color Text:	FFFFFF
League:	NCAA Division I
Sport:	Basketball
Pixels:	230px
No Of Teams:	10
Tv:	CBS, CBSSN, FOX, FS1, FSN
Season:	Regular Season
Season Champs:	Villanova
Season Champ Name:	Season Champions
Season Runner-Up:	Marquette
Mvp:	Markus Howard, Marquette
Mvp Link:	Big East Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
Finals:	Tournament
Finals Link:	2019 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament
Finals Champ:	Villanova
Finals Runner-Up:	Seton Hall
Finals Mvp:	Phil Booth, Villanova
Finals Mvp Link:	Big East Men's Basketball Tournament#Champions
Seasonslistnames:	Basketball
Prevseason Link:	2017–18 Big East Conference men's basketball season
Prevseason Year:	2017–18
Nextseason Link:	2019–20 Big East Conference men's basketball season
Nextseason Year:	2019–20

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.

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
style=	Creighton	Greg McDermott	Iowa State	9	187–94	47–43	0	5	0	0
style=	DePaul	Dave Leitao	Tulsa (asst.)	7	87–99	39–63	0	0	0	0
style=	Georgetown	Patrick Ewing	Charlotte Hornets (asst.)	2	34–29	14–22	0	0	0	0
style=	Marquette	Steve Wojciechowski	Duke (asst.)	5	73–59	31–41	0	1	0	0
style=	Providence	Ed Cooley	Fairfield	8	144–94	64–62	1	5	0	0
style=	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

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
		First place votes

See main article: 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings.

	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.

	style= width=75	Butler	style= width=75	Creighton	style= width=75	DePaul	style= width=75	Georgetown	style= width=75	Marquette	style= width=75	Providence	style= width=75	Seton Hall	style= width=75	St. John's	style= width=75	Villanova	style= width=75	Xavier
CRE	DEP	GU	MU	PROV	SHU	STJ	VU	XAV -->	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	–	CRE	DEP	GU	MU	PROV	SHU	STJ	VU	XAV -->
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
February 11, 2019^[19]	Markus Howard (6), Marquette	Mac McClung (2), Georgetown
February 18, 2019^[20]	Mustapha Heron, St. John's	Saddiq Bey, Villanova
February 25, 2019^[21]	Naji Marshall (2), Xavier	Joey Hauser (5), Marquette
March 4, 2019^[22]	Max Strus (3), DePaul	Josh LeBlanc (2), Georgetown
March 10, 2019^[23]	Myles Powell (2), Seton Hall	James Akinjo (4), Georgetown

Honors and awards

All-Americans

See main article: 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans.

Colspan=2	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.^[24]

Associated Press^[25]	NABC^[26]	Sporting News^[27]	USBWA^[28]
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^[29]
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<	--This is the title for the coaches' award.-->	James Akinjo, G., Georgetown
Most Improved Player of the Year	Paul Reed, F., DePaul
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Michael Nzei, F., Seton Hall
Sixth Man Award	Paul Jorgensen, G., Butler
Sportsmanship Award	Nate Fowler, C., Butler

2019 Big East Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
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

See main article: 2019 Big East men's basketball tournament. *Indicates number of overtime periods.

2019 NCAA tournament

See 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	bgcolor=#ddd		L 64–83 vs. Murray State – (Hartford, CT)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
6	South	Villanova		W 61–57 vs. Saint Mary's – (Hartford, CT)	L 61–87 vs. Purdue – (Hartford, CT)
10	Midwest	Seton Hall		L 68–84 vs. Wofford – (Jacksonville, FL)
11	West	St. John's	L 65–74 vs. Arizona State – (Dayton, OH)
		W–L (%):							Total:

2019 NIT

See 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)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
4	Indiana	Providence	L 72–84 vs. Arkansas – (Providence, RI)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
5	TCU	Butler	L 76–80 vs. Nebraska – (Lincoln, NE)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
		W–L (%):					Total:

2019 CBI

See main article: 2019 College Basketball Invitational.

External links

• Big East website

Notes and References

1. News: Louisville hires Chris Mack as new men's basketball coach. Greer. Jeff. March 27, 2018. March 27, 2018. Courier Journal.
2. News: Musketeers promote longtime assistant Travis Steele to head coach. Borzello. Jeff. March 31, 2018. March 31, 2018. ESPN.com.
3. News: Did Seton Hall basketball get disrespected in the Big East coaches' poll?. Asbury Park Press. 2018-10-25. en.
4. News: Xavier basketball picked 6th in Big East preseason poll: 'We'll use it as motivation'. Cincinnati.com. 2018-10-25. en.
5. News: Creighton men's basketball picked ninth in Big East coaches preseason poll. Jon. Nyatawa. Omaha.com. 2018-10-25. en.
6. Web site: Marquette’s Howard, Providence’s Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-11-19.
7. Web site: DePaul's Strus, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn Weekly #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-11-19.
8. Web site: St. John's Ponds, Providence's Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-10.
9. Web site: Marquette's Howard, Providence's Reeves Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-10.
10. Web site: Seton Hall's Powell, Marquette's Hauser Take #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-19.
11. Web site: DePaul's Strus, Creighton's Zegarowski Earn Weekly #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-19.
12. Web site: Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's McClung Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-27.
13. Web site: Xavier's Marshall, Georgetown's LeBlanc Earn MBB Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2018-12-31.
14. Web site: St. John's Ponds, Marquette's Hauser Take #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-01-08.
15. Web site: Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-01-17.
16. Web site: Marquette's Hauser Brothers Take #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
17. Web site: Creighton's Alexander, Marquette's Hauser Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
18. Web site: Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn #BIGEASTmbb Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
19. Web site: Marquette's Howard, Georgetown's McClung Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
20. Web site: St. John's Heron, Villanova's Bey Take #BIGEAST mbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
21. Web site: Xavier's Marshall, Marquette's Hauser Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
22. Web site: DePaul's Strus, Georgetown's LeBlanc Take #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
23. Web site: Seton Hall's Powell, Georgetown's Akinjo Earn #BIGEASTmbb Weekly Honors. Big East Conference. 2019-02-06.
24. Web site: 2009–10 NCAA Statistics Policies (updated 9/2/2009) . . September 2, 2009 . February 20, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100612225534/http://ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/sports+and+championship/general+information/stats/statistics+policies . June 12, 2010 . dead . mdy .
25. News: Marshall. John. Duke Freshmen Williamson, Barrett Top AP All-America Team . April 2, 2019. Associated Press. April 2, 2019.
26. News: NABC Announces 2019 Division I All-America Teams . March 26, 2019. National Association of Basketball Coaches. March 26, 2019.
27. News: DeCourcy. Mike. Sporting News' 2018-19 college basketball All-Americans . March 11, 2019. Sporting News. March 11, 2019.
28. News: USBWA names men's All-American teams . March 18, 2019. USBWA. March 18, 2019.
29. Web site: 2019 Men's Basketball Award Winners Announced. Big East Conference. March 10, 2019. March 11, 2019.