Big East Tournament Bracket: Looking At The Big East Bracket

Looking At The Big East Tournament Bracket And Who Is Safely In The NCAA Tournament And Who Has Some Work To Do

The best conference in the country, the Big East, starts their conference tournament on Tuesday night with four games - two in the afternoon, two in the evening.

The first two games will feature Connecticut-Depaul and Seton Hall-Rutgers. Of those teams, only Connecticut is safely in the NCAA tournament right now. The other three teams have no chance of getting in unless they win the Big East tournament.

The other two games are between Villanova-South Florida and Marquette-Providence. Villanova is an interesting team. They look like a tournament team just looking at their resume, but they have lost five consecutive games and nine of their last 14. They will probably get in, but at least one win would be good, two would make them a lock. Marquette probably has a better case than Villanova, despite a worse record. The Golden Eagles are 18-13, but they have beaten Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame. They lost very close games to Duke, Louisville, Notre Dame and Villanova. Providence and South Florida have no shot.

The other eight teams in the conference - Pitt, Notre Dame, Louisville, Syracuse, St. John's, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Georgetown - are all in the tournament, they are just battling for seeding.

Pitt is a virtual lock as a No. 1 seed. Notre Dame has the inside track to get the fourth No. 1 seed, they can guarantee their spot with an appearance in the finals of this tournament. Louisville and Syracuse are probably a 3- or 4-seed right now, with a chance to move up to a 2 if they win the tournament. If they lose early, they might fall to a 5-seed, but it's doubtful.

St. John's, West Virginia and Georgetown could all end up as 5-seeds. St. John's could move up to a 4-seed if they win one game. West Virginia and Georgetown are all but guaranteed to be on the 5-seed line unless they put together a good run this week.

Cincinnati is probably going to fall in that 6- or 7-seed area. They have a lot of wins this season (24), but a lot of those wins came out of conference against teams that are on the schedule to give the Bearcats some wins. Their two wins over Georgetown, plus their victory over Louisville really helped move them into the position they are in right now.

No matter how you look at it, this conference is deep and dangerous going into the tournament with as many as 11 teams making it in.

Related Story: Breaking Down Each Game In The Big East Tournament

K. D. Aubert Sara Spraker Alexis Bledel Kim Kardashian China Chow