The Big East Conference Tournament gets underway on Wed., March 12. While UConn is the defending two-time NCAA champion, it's Rick Pitino's St. John's Red Storm who enter the tournament as the conference's No. 1 seed after a stellar regular season. Creighton, UConn, Xavier and Marquette are the No. 2-5 seeds, respectively, and those four, along with St. John's, enjoy a first-round tournament bye into the quarterfinals. The tournament begins with No. 8 Providence against No. 9 Butler, No. 7 Georgetown versus No. 10 DePaul and No. 6 Villanova taking on No. 11 Seton Hall. There are currently five Big East squads projected to make the NCAA Tournament, according to the latest bracketology update by Jerry Palm for CBS Sports.

Big East Tournament Schedule

First Round

No. 6 Villanova vs. No. 11 Seton Hall
No. 7 Georgetown vs. No. 10 DePaul
No. 8 Providence vs. No. 9 Butler

Quarterfinals 

QF1: No. 1  St. John's vs. Providence/Butler winner 
QF2: No. 2. Creighton vs. Georgetown/DePaul winner
QF3: No. 3 UConn vs. Villanova/Seton Hall winner
QF4: No. 4 Xavier vs. No. 5 Marquette

Semifinals 

SF1: QF1 winner vs. QF4 winner
SF2: QF2 winner vs. QF3 winner   

Final

SF1 winner vs. SF2 winner

St. John's enters the tournament as the favorite, with Pitino's Red Storm priced at +140 at FanDuel Sportsbook. Next up are No. 2 Creighton and No. 3 UConn, as both are +410 to win the Big East Tournament. No. 5 Marquette is +600, No. 4 Xavier is +850 and No. 6 Villanova is +1600.

RJ Luis Jr. paces St. John's in scoring this year with 18.1 points per game, and Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond also average double-digit points for the Red Storm. Ejiofor leads the team in rebounds and blocks, while Richmond is tops in assists and steals per game. Creighton, which handed St. John's one of its two conference losses, is led by Ryan Kalkbrenner, who was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year for the fourth consecutive season. Kalkbrenner is more than just a star defender, though, as he leads the Bluejays in points (19.4) and rebounds (9.0) per game while making over 66% of his shots, and Steven Ashworth is second in scoring (16.8) and first in assists (7.0) on the team. 

UConn has four players averaging at least 10 points per game—Solo Ball, Liam McNeeley, Alex Karaban and Tarris Reed JrJr., with Ball leading the Huskies in scoring and Reed in rebounds. Hassan Diarra paces the team in assists. Kam Jones, the No. 3 scorer in the Big East, leads Marquette in points per game with 18.9, and David Joplin, Stevie Mitchell and Chase Ross also average double digits for the Golden Eagles. Zach Freemantle is the top player for Xavier, leading the Muskateers in scoring (17.4) and rebounds (7.1) on 52.5% shooting. Ryan Conwell is also enjoying a nice year for Xavier, averaging 16.2 points per game and making 40.7% of his 3-point tries. Villanova has the top scorer in the Big East in Eric Dixon, who is averaging 23.6 points per game and making 42.9% of his 3-point attempts. Wooga Poplar is also having a great year for the Wildcats, scoring 14.2 points per contest and leading the team in rebounds with 6.9 per game. 

St. John's leads the Big East in scoring with 78.6 points per game, with UConn right behind at 78.0 and Xavier a close third at 77.7. St. John's also boasts the top scoring defense in the conference, allowing just 66.3 points per game. Marquette is second in scoring defense at 67.6, followed by Villanova (67.7), UConn (68.3) and Georgetown (68.7). The Red Storm boast the 17th-best scoring margin in the nation. 

SportsLine expert Thomas Casale is picking the two-time defending NCAA champs, UConn, to win the Big East Tournament ahead of the NCAA Tournament. You can find out which teams Casale and other SportsLine experts are backing for each conference tournament only at SportsLine.