Villanova looked anything but a league-caliber team during a loss to Butler on Sunday, but the No. 10 Wildcats recovered with a 72-60 victory over No. 14 Creighton on Wednesday to claim the title. Big East regular season. It is the seventh time in the past eight years that Villanova has won at least part of the league, although this title comes at a price. Guardin Collin Gillespie was lost in the first half due to a knee injury that coach Jay Wright described as “serious” after the game.
The league title may come with a small asterisk in the mind of some detractors. The caveat is that the Wildcats (16-4, 11-3 Big East) are on their way to play just 15 league games this season. On the other hand, Creighton (17-7, 13-6) will complete a full list of 20 Big East games if Saturday’s regular season finale against Butler is played as scheduled. But the league decided to use the percentage of victories as a determining factor to crown a champion.
Even if Villanova loses in his regular season finale in Providence on Saturday and Creighton defeats Butler, the Wildcats will still end the regular season with a better winning percentage. The Wildcats and Bluejays could still meet again in the Big East title game, however, which would give them the opportunity to break the tie after splitting their pair of games in the regular season.
Although it was a landmark night for the Wildcats, it was also a worrying night for the show because of what happened to Gillespie. Here’s more about it as we talk about the winners and losers of an important Wednesday night in college basketball
Loser: Collin Gillespie’s graduation night
Gillespie was among the four veterans honored at the Finneran Pavilion before the game, but the game turned out to be anything but a commemorative farewell to the decorated general. Gillespie left the game with a knee injury at 6:38 in the first half, after jumping to contest a shot by Creighton’s Damien Jefferson. Without him on the ground, Villanova seemed lost at times in the second half, when Creighton recovered from a 22-point handicap to challenge the Wildcats at the end of the game. Finally, the Wildcats survived. But it was sad to see Gillespie sitting on the bench on the senior night with a league title at stake, and Villanova’s performance without him was a reminder of how critical he is to the team.
The Wildcats are not a deep team, and with the postseason approaching, the severity of Gillespie’s injury becomes a critical problem for a team that entered the NCAA Tournament’s projected No. 3 seed line at night.
Winner: Missouri gets out of panic
Missouri had been trending strongly in the wrong direction for the past few weeks, entering Friday night’s battle with Florida. The Tigers came out of their fear in an emotional way, when Dru Smith hit a victorious tray in the second final to lift Mizzou to a 72-70 victory.
Missouri needed this and could enter the postseason having regained some momentum if they manage to bring LSU down this weekend.
Loser: Minnesota collapsed
When Minnesota handed Michigan its first loss of the season on January 16 and improved to 11-4, AP voters rewarded the Squirrels by raising them to 17th place in the next vote. Everything has been downhill since then. With their hopes that the NCAA tournament has already decayed most of the way, the Gophers’ misery continued on Wednesday, with a 84-65 loss to Penn State. Now there are nine defeats in 11 games for Minnesota since Michigan’s victory and six in a row. Injuries, including a problem with the foot of the great man Liam Robbins, have been hurting the team of coach Richard Pitino in recent times, but do not fully excuse a collapse of this magnitude.
Winner: Syracuse wins the bubble
Syracuse scored another big win in the bubble on Wednesday when Orange defeated Clemson 64-54 in a game that, for now, will count only as a Quad 2 win. That’s because the Tigers (15-5, 9-6) came in 33rd place on NET. But if Clemson made it into the NET top 30 before Sunday’s selection, Wednesday night’s victory would become Syracuse’s first victory in Quad 1 of the season. Orange entered the game as one of the “last four” of Jerry Palm’s projected field for the NCAA Tournament, and the victory over a Clemson team that has been hot will be a good boost, as Orange is now preparing for the Tournament ACC.
On the other hand, winning an important game did not stop Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim from reminding everyone that he is an eccentric.
Winner: Wichita State takes care of business
Wichita State entered the night as a No. 10 projected seed at the NCAA Tournament, with bracketology expert Jerry Palm observing that his place in the bracket “would disappear with a defeat for Tulane.” Well, the Shockers avoided disaster, and there is something to be said for it at this time of year. The night was particularly pleasant for Trey Wade, who came in with an average of just 5.8 points for the Shockers, but had a record 23 out of 9 out of 12 shots. Wichita State hit 13 of 31 kicks from 3 points in the game, and will be a serious threat in the postseason if he can continue to kick the ball like that.
Seton Hall came in as one of Palm’s “last four eliminated” and did him no favors by losing 69-58 to UConn. The Pirates play at St. John’s on Saturday, and from now on, this will count as a Quad 1 game. But make no mistake: Seton Hall is disappearing. Wednesday night’s defeat was the team’s third consecutive loss, and none of them are defensible defeats. Georgetown and Butler are teams that the Pirates should defeat, and putting UConn at home shouldn’t have been so difficult after Seton Hall defeated the Huskies on the road on February 6.
Winner: Oregon is freezing
After an 82-74 victory over UCLA on Wednesday night, Oregon have won nine of their last 10 games. The Ducks (18-5, 13-4 Pac-12) are still in contention for the Pac-12 title and appear to be clicking at the right time after another remake of the squad under coach Dana Altman. Oregon fired an absurd 60.8% of the ground. While that number is partly an indictment of UCLA’s unstable defense, it is also an indication of how the Ducks are finding their rhythm. Chris Duarte has reached 20 points in three of Oregon’s last four games, and transfers from Eugene Omoruyi (Rutgers) and LJ Figueroa (St. John’s) also continue to shine. The victory should also allow the Ducks to breathe for a while after entering the night still in the bubble, according to Palm.
Loser: Maryland suffers a horrible loss
Maryland’s momentum came to an abrupt halt on Wednesday night, when the Terrapins launched a 60-55 stun in Northwestern. The Wildcats (8-14, 5-13 Big Ten) have won two in a row now after taking down Minnesota last Thursday, but the Wildcats had lost 13 in a row before that. On the other hand, Maryland (15-11, 9-10) came in with a five-game win, but now they must beat Nebraska on Sunday if they want to avoid a record loss in the Big Ten game. It was the fifth time this season that the Terrapins failed to reach 60 points. Fortunately, as the defeat came on the road, it will only count as a Quad 2 loss to Maryland. It would have been his first loss at Quad 3 if it had happened at home.