UConn — 27-0 (16-0)
Villanova — 21-5 (14-3)
Seton Hall — 17-8 (11-5)
St. John’s — 20-8 (10-7)
Marquette — 16-10 (10-7)
Creighton — 12-14 (8-9)
Providence — 13-14 (6-10)
Georgetown — 12-13 (5-11)
Xavier — 11-14 (4-12)
Butler — 9-17 (3-13)
DePaul — 6-21 (3-13)
Elsewhere in the standings, the Seton Hall Pirates are holding on to the No. 3 position, while St. John’s has crept up to the No. 4 spot following Marquette’s three-game skid. Creighton, fighting to finish above .500 by season’s end, dropped to 8-9 following Sunday’s loss to Villanova. With a 59-54 win over Georgetown on Saturday, Providence leap-frogged the Hoyas. The bottom three spots are held by Xavier, Butler and DePaul, respectively.
Beyond the stats and standings, there are several storylines to track across the conference before the BIG EAST Tournament tips off from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on March 6.
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DePaul notches milestone victory
DePaul hasn’t had much to celebrate this season, sitting at the bottom of the conference with a 6-21 (3-13 BIG EAST) record. A glimmer of good news did however surface out of the Blue Demons’ 72-68 victory over St. John’s last week — its 1,000th win in program history.
The victory made DePaul one of 86 Division I programs to reach the 1,000-win milestone and just the second current BIG EAST member to do so, joining UConn. Longtime DePaul head coach Doug Bruno was at the helm for 786 of those wins. He now serves as a special assistant to the vice president and director of athletics at the university, officially handing the reins to longtime associate head coach Jill Pizzotti in April 2025.
“You just start thinking about all these great teams in the past and the program that Doug built,” Pizzotti said about the milestone. “It obviously is an accomplishment, a milestone that many were a part of.”
Former DePaul head coach Doug Bruno speaks during the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 induction ceremony inside the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tenn., on June 11, 2022. (Photo credit: Jamar Coach | News Sentinel | USA TODAY NETWORK)
During UConn’s absence from the BIG EAST between 2013-2020 (when the Huskies competed in the American Conference) DePaul was a dominant force in the conference. During that seven year span, Bruno led the program to six BIG EAST regular-season titles and five conference tournament titles. The Blue Demons qualified for their 18th-straight NCAA Tournament in 2020, but have only made the NCAA Tournament one time (2021-22) in the past four seasons.
What dreams are made of
Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s basketball will reportedly tip off the 2026-2027 season in Rome. The schools were each reportedly granted a waiver from the NCAA to compete in Italy’s capital city on Sunday, Nov. 1 — a day before the official start of the regular season.
Both Catholic institutions, Villanova and Notre Dame are former BIG EAST foes. In women’s basketball, Notre Dame leads the all-time series 20-10. The teams last faced off in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, when the Irish defeated the Wildcats en route to the Irish’s second national championship.
In May 2025, Villanova alum Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, was chosen as the successor to Pope Francis. Pope Leo XIV, Prevost’s papal name, became the first American-born person to lead the Catholic Church.
Sabou Gueye isn’t finished yet
Now in her fourth and final season of NCAA eligibility, Providence graduate guard Sabou Gueye continues to make her mark on college basketball. In a 66-50 win against Xavier on Feb. 8, Gueye became the first BIG EAST player since Lucy Olsen (in 2023) to record at least 29 points, nine rebounds and five steals in a regular season matchup. The performance earned her a spot on the conference honor roll for a sixth time this season.
“[Sabou] was our anchor today. She’s been for many games. Just really love her and proud of her,” Providence head coach Erin Batth told reporters following the win.
Providence Friars guard Sabou Gueye (0) drives the ball to the basket during the second half against the UConn Huskies at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I., on Dec. 31, 2025. (Photo credit: Eric Canha | Imagn Images)
Gueye began her collegiate career in junior college at Northwest Florida State College (2020-22), where she helped the program compile a 51-5 record over two seasons, including a 2021 NJCAA national championship team. She began her NCAA DI career at New Mexico State University (2022-24) before competing last season at Florida A&M.
This season, she’s Providence’s leading scorer (15.3 ppg) and has notched seven 20-point games. Now in the final months of her multi-stop college basketball career, Gueye has lifted the Friars to a three-game winning streak.
“[Sabou] knows when she makes a mistake, you can see it. She tries to get it back,” Coach Batth told reporters following a Feb. 11 victory over Butler. “She’s so fun in practice, the girls look up to her. She knows she’s got to get better in a lot of different areas and … she gets in the gym. … She knows she’s not perfect and she needs to get the work done, and she does, and it shows on the court.”
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