Villanova stays top, Georgetown stays steady in Big East action

Butler had their chances at Hinkle against Villanova, but a second-half barrage from the Wildcats was enough to hold their position at the top of the Big East table as Butler dropped to 1-3 in league action. Josh Hart had 22 and 11 to lead Villanova, who won despite shooting 4-15 from deep.

Georgetown made it look like work, but they eventually took down DePaul at the Verizon Center The Blue Demons led by four early in the second half, but Georgetown went on a 14-3 run over four minutes to take control of the game, and their win probability never dipped below 80% again. DePaul's Billy Garrett, Jr. only shot four times but dropped 16/4/4 thanks to going 12-12 from the line. DSR has 17/3/8 for Georgetown but only shot 3-12/2-8/9-14. Georgetown is 3-1 in conference, but they haven't looked really convincing in getting there.

Speaking of teams that haven't looked that convincing, Seton Hall dropped a home game to Creighton in fairly sad fashion. The Pirates gave up a 21-7 run late in the first half and never righted the ship. Creighton's Maurice Watson had 14 assists and 4 turnovers while the entirety of Seton Hall's roster had 8 assists and 14 turnovers. I'm not going to use one game as a referendum on two programs, but it would be hard not to see thee differences between Greg McDermott's coaching of Creighton and Kevin Willard's of Seton Hall.

The same St. John's team that tried to throw a scare into Xavier in the midweek was up as many as 10 in the second half at Marquette before completely losing the plot. They allowed the Golden Eagles to shoot 15-26/5-8/15-17 in the second period en route to being outscored by 14 in the half and giving up the lead and the game. Durand Johnson's - whose hilariously profligate shot selection gave Xavier the game - put up 18 on 7-11/4-7/0-0 shooting. Marquette's starting big men combined for 33 and 12 in completely dominating the paint.