By HENRY EISENBERG
With their big win over No. 8 Villanova Tuesday night in Hartford in which Dan Hurley was ejected for riling up the fans, No. 21 UConn is now a projected Top-4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, per ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
Despite not having a single projected first-round NBA pick, the Big East now has three of the Top 15 projected seeds — and seven teams in the Big Dance. Villanova is a projected 3 seed and Providence a 4.
The Huskies (20-7, 11-5 Big East)– winners of four straight — have three games remaining before making the short trip to New York City for the Big East tournament beginning March 9. UConn is favored to win all three at Georgetown, at Creighton and vs. DePaul.
Providence finishes the season with two home games (Xavier and Creighton) and then quite possibly the game of the year in the Big East on March 1 at Villanova. The Friars caught a break because they will not have to make up COVID-postponed games at Creighton, UConn and Seton Hall.
Villanova (21-7, 14-4) and Providence (22-3, 12-2) sit two games ahead of UConn atop the Big East, but the Friars are ahead in percentage points. They can be crowned the Big East regular season champions for the first time in program history if they win their last two games at the Dunkin Donuts Center (where they have only lost once all year). They would then lock up the No. 1 seed for MSG.
Villanova, No. 8 in the NET, has two games left in their 2022 regular season (3/1 vs Providence and 3/5 at Butler).
The top five teams in the league get first-round byes in the Big East Tournament.
Photo: @UConnHuskies (Twitter)
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