Big East Tournament 2020: Basketball Bracket and Championship Picks

The Big East Conference tournament rarely fails to provide great drama and high-quality basketball in pursuit of crowning a champion. 

Looking across the league's landscape in 2020 there's bound to be a new chapter of excitement when the teams descend upon Madison Square Garden over the next four days. 

The mad dash to the tournament and subsequent shuffle of the seeding is a perfect example of the volatility of the 10-team field.

Seton Hall was the No. 1 seed with two games left in the season but went on to lose its final two games to Villanova and Creighton, thus dropping it to the No. 3 seed and resetting the hierarchy. 

Here's a look at the full bracket and a rundown of some of the championship contenders and storylines to watch:

First round: Wednesday, March 11
Game 1: No. 9 St. John's vs. No. 8 Georgetown | 7 p.m. on FS1
Game 2: No. 10 DePaul vs. No. 7 Xavier | 9:30 p.m. on FS1                                                                   

Quarterfinals: Thursday, March 12

Game 3: No. 1 Creighton vs. Game 1 winner | 12 p.m. on FS1
Game 4: No. 4 Providence vs. No. 5 Butler | 2:30 p.m. on FS1
Game 5: No. 2 Villanova vs. Game 2 winner | 7 p.m. on FS1
Game 6: No. 3 Seton Hall vs. No. 6 Marquette | 9:30 p.m. on FS1

Semifinals: Friday, March 13
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner | 6:30 p.m. on FS1
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner | 9 p.m. on FS1

Big East Tournament Championship Game: Saturday, March 14
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner | 6:30 p.m. on Fox

Creighton, Xavier and Seton Hall figure to be the favorites for the championship, but the depth in this league won't make that an easy task. 

The Creighton Bluejays are on a roll to end the year after finishing the season 8-2 in their final 10 games.

The backcourt of Ty-Shon Alexander and Marcus Zegarowski has been hard for opposing teams to deal with. In the season finale, the two combined for 38 points and nine assists in a 77-60 win over Seton Hall to earn a share of the regular-season title. 

Then there's the perennial contender in Villanova. The Wildcats have won this tournament in four of the five past seasons. Jay Wright's squad is also peaking at the right time with seven wins in seven of their last eight. 

They are also among the top teams in the league when it comes to their record in Quadrant 1 games. 

Seton Hall rounds out the top three. Even with the back-to-back losses going into the tournament, they are still a force to be reckoned as the No. 19-ranked team on KenPom.

The Pirates have top players in most statistical categories in the conference. Myles Powell is second in scoring at 21 points per game, Quincy McKnight is second in assists at 5.4, while Romaro Gill is the top rim-protector with 3.2 blocks. 

Outside of the big three, there's enough talent for a Cinderella run. Marquette has one of the most electric talents in the nation in Markus Howard. The guard leads the nation at 27.8 points per game and is climbing up the all-time scoring list. 

The Golden Eagles are on the bubble in Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology for ESPN, so a big performance from Howard and some success in the tournament could secure their spot in the big dance. 

They are joined by Xavier on the bubble. The Musketeers haven't helped themselves recently. They went 3-4 over their last seven games, and none of their wins came against better competition. 

Fortunately, they've had success in MSG before:

They will likely win their first game against No. 10 seed DePaul, but beating Villanova in the next round will be a difficult task. They have lost both games to the Wildcats this season. 

Lunardi already has Butler and Providence safely in the field. Butler's record in Quadrant 1 games is even with Villanova so they could be a dark horse as things get underway in New York. Providence is a solid team with a strong defense, and it ranks 27th in defense on KenPom. 

The first-round game between the two teams should be an evenly matched contest and will give the winning team one more resume-builder heading into Selection Sunday.