About a year has passed since University of Connecticut (UConn) Head Coach Dan Hurley’s comment that the BIG EAST “is the best conference” in men’s college basketball. The comment came after UConn’s back-to-back NCAA national championships under Hurley.
In the 2025 March Madness tournament—where the eventual national champions, the University of Florida Gators ended the Huskies’ hopes of a three-peat—five BIG EAST teams made an appearance in the tournament. These schools were Marquette, Xavier, Creighton, St. John’s (SJU), and UConn, with the last three making it to the second round of the tournament before being eliminated.
Since then, the preseason sentiment is that the BIG EAST is a two-team conference, with there being low postseason expectations for teams outside of St. John’s and UConn. Meanwhile, the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 conferences—all among the highly profitable “Power Five” of college basketball—are currently ranked as stronger conferences by most analysts and expert power rankings.
As such, coaches and administration at the 2025 BIG EAST Media Day shared their strategies to put the conference among the vanguard of college basketball.
Coaches and administration work to overcome NIL disadvantage
Speaking on behalf of the BIG EAST, Commissioner Val Ackerman said in her opening remarks at the media-day-event that “we believe the system that now allows [student-athletes] to share in our sport’s commercial rewards is appropriate and fair.”
With recent changes in NIL legislation, the commercial reality of college sport is now clear, as the BIG EAST will now have to compete with teams in larger markets.
With adjustments being made by coaching staff to compete with larger market conferences, there is an understanding that BIG EAST basketball will still have a place in non-conference competition. Coaches are seeing that the NIL advantage of the Power Five is apparent, but not unsurmountable.
“It’s a new world of college athletics and there are a lot of challenges in our schools,” Ackerman said. “We’re not as big as some of the enlarged conferences now.”
For schools in the BIG EAST, Ackerman stressed resilience in the current era of college hoops.
“The landscape’s changing and we have to stay adaptable,” she said.
“But I’m confident that this year, there’s great depth in the conference,” Ackerman added. “I think we’ve raised the bottom of the league.”
Seton Hall Head Coach Shaheen Holloway spoke to the media about how NIL has made him modify his approach to being a head coach.
“You gotta adapt and adjust with the times,” Holloway said. “As far as any NIL stuff, that’s where problems could be.”
“I’m their coach,” he added. And my job is to coach the guys here and bring the guys in.”
BIG EAST teams acknowledge offensive shortcomings
Hurley attributes UConn’s struggles in last year’s tournament play to the BIG EAST’s playstyle and the changing college basketball environment.
“Every year now with college it’s just like becoming the G-League in a way,” Hurley said.”So many things fluctuate.”
“Their physicality, their defense, their rebounding—it all played incredibly well in the BIG EAST,” he added regarding last season’s team. “But then the lack of shooting, the lack of scoring hurt them when you get to tournament play.”
The BIG EAST has a reputation as being a heavily physical and defensive conference, but raw offensive output has been scarce in recent years. Only two teams in the BIG EAST made the top 50 in NCAA offensive efficiency— those being Hurley’s UConn Huskies and the Villanova University Wildcats.
Sleeper teams to look out for
The BIG EAST had three of their 11 schools selected to the NCAA tournament in the 2023-24 season, which was the lowest number in conference history. Last season, that number increased to five, with UConn, Creighton, Marquette, St. John’s and Xavier having played in the tournament. .
All of these schools, except DePaul University, have had the chance to dance in the last decade. St. John’s and UConn are poised to be division powerhouses, ranked first and second respectively in preseason coaches’ polls. Creighton (3) and Marquette (5) are also ranked favorably.
Head Coach Rick Pitino of St John’s had several predictions about these teams s this season.
“Georgetown [University] is significantly better,” Pitino said. “Physically tough, hard-nosed—Georgetown is the real deal.”
“Providence is much improved, DePaul is much improved,” Pitino added. “Certainly Marquette and Creighton are just as good [as last year]. Villanova is much improved— I hear great things about them as well.”
Providence College (4) and Georgetown (6) also scored favorably on the coaches’ poll, despite failing to make an appearance in last year’s March Madness. With opening day only weeks away, BIG EAST fans should not be surprised to see the conference have a greater postseason presence across the board.
The challenge
Internally, the BIG EAST is among the most competitive divisions in college basketball. The challenge will be for teams not in the upper echelon of the conference finding traction in non-conference and postseason play.
Christian Hui is the assistant editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at christian.hui@student.shu.edu.
