Day 1: Big East Tournament

by James Finneral

It was a great first day at Madison Square Garden for the 2015 Big East Tournament. With two upsets in the first day of the tournament it is certainly obvious that we are in March.

#8 Seton Hall vs. #9 Marquette: 

Coming into the game people thought that this 8 vs. 9 matchup would come down to the wire, but that was absolutely not the case. A tough Golden Eagles team under first year coach Steve Wojciechowski smacked down a hungry Seton Hall club. Marquette was in control for the entire game. They were able to score from the paint with the power of their big 6'11" center, Luke Fischer who finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. No one on Seton Hall could stop senior sharp shooter, Matt Carlino. Carlino has been the best player for the Golden Eagles this year and has shot lights out from behind the arch. Last night was no different. Carlino knocked down 8 three pointers which was a large part of his 26 points. After a first half beat down Seton Hall tried to battle back, but the Golden Eagles would have nothing of it. They still beat Seton Hall by 9 in the second half which totalled to a final score of 78-56. Seton Hall freshman, Isaiah Whitehead played well and looks to have a promising future. As for the Golden Eagles they advance to take on the number one seed in the Big East, the Villanova Wildcats. It will be a tough game, but anything can happen in March.

#7 DePaul vs. #10 Creighton: 

This was another game that was not very exciting. The theme of the game was unexpected heroes. Creighton has not been the same team since Doug McDermott left, but they are still playing with some heart. In the first half the teams were evenly matched in terms of offensive efficiency. The only reason this happened was because of Creighton junior guard, James Milliken. Milliken is a starter for the Blue Jays, but has never been their main guy, but he was last night. Milliken finished with 22 points, most of which he had in the first half. He did his part to keep Creighton in the game and his teammates responded in a big way. In the second half the DePaul defense fell apart allowing many layups and stupid fouls. There offense could not pick up the slack and the Blue Devils ended up losing by a final score of 78-63. The were solid efforts by DePaul players, Billy Garret Jr. and Jamee Crocket, but it just was not enough. Creighton received a great spark from Devin Brooks off the bench who finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Milliken and Brooks are the reason why Creighton won and it will be interesting to watch them play moving forward.

If the first day was filled with this much upsets I cannot wait for the rest of the tournament.