At this point in the season, with 1-2 games left the power poll looks a lot like the conference standings. All but two teams are playing for seed. Some are playing for NCAA Tournament seed, others for Big East Tournament position -- or just to make it into the field.
Rutgers and South Florida are eliminated from the Big East Tournament. There are 3 teams fighting for the last couple spots.
Up at the top, Louisville and Georgetown meet on Saturday in D.C. The game will decide the Big East regular season championship and the #1 seed for the Big East Tournament.
- Louisville -- Now on a 9 game winning streak and 11 of last 12. Still the hottest team in the Big East.
- Georgetown -- Clean living or just lucky. Last minute or OT wins over 'Nova, Syracuse, WVU, UConn and now Marquette.
- UConn -- Huskies will be rooting for the Hoyas on Saturday. A Georgetown win will give them the #2 spot in the Big East Tournament.
- Notre Dame -- Buried early against Louisville, but a furious comeback made it a close loss. Then burying DePaul, but then let them make it close. Their final two games are against teams that have won all of 8 games in the Big East.
- Marquette -- Tom Crean scheduled a game in March against Florida Gulf Coast to game the system on the "last 10 games."
- Pitt -- The offense has started clicking since Levance Fields returned, but what happened to the defense?
- West Virginia -- Can't lose any more games if it wants to get to the NCAA.
- Cinci -- The Bearcats really blew it against Providence. Since Coach Mick Cronin tried to argue his team was NCAA worthy, they've lost 3 straight.
- Villanova -- With USF and Providence to end the season, they have no excuse not to finish .500.
- Syracuse -- They have to beat Seton Hall and Marquette to still have even a ghost of a chance at the NCAA Tournament.
- Providence -- Finally won a game for the first time in 4 weeks. Finishes with UConn and 'Nova. They could very well miss the Big East Tournament. Just one more nail in the Tim Welsh coaching coffin.
- Seton Hall -- A bad week for the Pirates and their coach. Now just trying to finish with enough warm bodies.
- St. John's -- The Red Storm responded to the news that Norm Roberts would be back for 2008-09 by stinking in
- DePaul -- They were deceptive early in the Big East season with a backloaded schedule. Now, they are just trying to make the Big East Tournament.
- USF -- They can destroy Villanova's faint post season hopes. Otherwise, they can bask in the fact that they stayed out of last place in the conference.
- Rutgers -- Only thing left to this season is try and ruin the end of the year for Seton Hall.
The aggregate power poll results of various Big East bloggers can be found here.
