Big East Basketball: Why Seton Hall Upset Is Sign of What's Ahead for Conference

Unranked Seton Hall stunned No. 8 UConn on Tuesday night, the Pirates’ first win in 11 seasons over the Huskies. Don’t expect that result to be an anomaly—the Big East season is going to deliver plenty of Top 25 teams falling, not just to the other conference powerhouses but to unranked foes as well.

The biggest reason, as showcased in the Pirates’ win over the Huskies, is the level of defensive play in the conference is much, much higher than the level of offensive play. Jeremy Lamb and Shabazz Napier give UConn an outstanding offense by Big East standards, but the Huskies shot all of 35.1 percent from the field (and 31.8 percent from long range) in a 12-point defeat.

Seton Hall isn’t the only unranked Big East squad that has the potential to spring that kind of surprise. Cincinnati and West Virginia will both be very tough to score against, especially on their respective home floors.

Also, like Seton Hall, both of those teams have star-caliber forwards to make put pressure on opposing defenses (Yancy Gates and Kevin Jones, respectively, with Herb Pope filling the role for the Pirates).

Another factor that will keep the Big East standings shuffling all year is even the conference’s likely bottom-feeders have some bite. Slumping Pitt boasts two of the conference’s top offensive weapons in Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall, and even lowly Rutgers has already knocked off No. 14 Florida.

The one team that might be immune to the upset bug this year is unbeaten and top-ranked Syracuse. The Orange have the 13th-ranked offense in the nation to go with their always-tough 2-3 zone, so even an outstanding defensive effort might not be enough to allow a lesser team to outscore them.

Of course, all bets are off when Jim Boeheim’s squad has to take on a fellow heavyweight like the Huskies or red-hot Georgetown. Even as good as this Syracuse team is, it’ll take a miracle for them to run the table in this conference.

As for the Big East’s other four ranked teams, they’ll be doing very well if they only lose one game each against an unranked foe in this year’s conference gauntlet. The Big East should produce plenty of impressive seeds in the NCAA tournament, but gaudy records are another question entirely.