Docs Website

53 Years Strong! A Trusted Leader In Sports Picks, Best Bets and Predictions Since 1971.

Main Menu

2025 Big East Tournament Predictions and Betting Odds

by Robert Ferringo - 3/11/2025

Big East Tournament predictions Ryan Kalkbrenner Creighton Bluejays

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: for my money the biggest and best spectacle of Championship Week is still the Big East Tournament.

I am 100 percent biased, thanks to my formative years spent watching my favorite team (and eventual alma mater) Syracuse do battle with the beasts of the east in The Mecca of Basketball. The Big East Tournament is four days of rabid energy, bruising physicality, and relentless intensity, featuring some of the best basketball in the country played amidst the highest of stakes. 

This year won’t be any different. Classic Big East brands St. Johns, Connecticut and Villanova are all in line for marches to the title. While league new(er)comers Creighton, Xavier and Marquette are all looking to etch their names in Big East Tournament lore.

The Big East Tournament will once again take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The first round opens on Wednesday, March 12, with the champion crowned on Saturday, March 15. Here is Doc’s Sports 2025 Big East Conference Tournament preview and predictions:

Doc’s Sports offers college basketball expert picks for every game on our NCAA basketball predictions page.

The Favorite: St. John’s (+155)

It’s been a resurgent year for the St. John’s program. And it shouldn’t be a surprise; all Rick Pitino has done in his long coaching career is court controversy and win games. The Red Storm are 27-4 on the season. Their four losses have come by just seven combined points, and they have won 15 of their last 16 games since New Year’s Day. It starts on the defensive end with this rugged group, with the Red Storm currently No. 3 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency. Forward R.J. Luis is the team’s leading scorer at 18.1 points per game, but point guard Kadary Richmond – who only shoots 19.4 percent from 3-point range – may be their most important guy this March.

The Contender: Creighton (+370)

It was supposed to be a bit of a rebuilding year for Creighton after losing their two best guards to graduation and then transfer Pop Isaacs to injury. Instead, Greg McDermott just continues to win. Creighton has one of the nation’s best big men, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and a super senior guard Steven Ashworth. They are surrounded by a young, hungry bunch of versatile athletes. But Kalkbrenner does most of the heavy lifting. The Bluejays started the year 9-6, with wins over Kansas and St. John’s, before taking off on a 13-3 close to the season that lifted them to second place in the league. Creighton doesn’t foul and doesn’t turn the ball over, so beating them takes patience and execution.

The Sleeper: Connecticut (+400)

It has been a rocky season for the two-time defending National Champions. First, they were embarrassed during an 0-3 trip to Maui. They followed that up with eight straight wins, beating Baylor, Texas and Gonzaga in the process, before a 6-6 slog in league play. The Huskies got swept by St. John’s and had a weird loss to bottom-feeder Seton Hall, and they clearly aren’t anywhere near what we’ve seen out of Storrs during their legendary two-year title run. Connecticut is still dangerous, though, with freshman Liam McNeeley, sophomore Solo Ball and junior Alex Karaban all averaging between 14.2 and 14.7 points per game.

The Spoiler: Marquette (+550)

At one point this season, Marquette was 15-2 and comfortably in the Top 10 in the country. Since then, the overachieving Eagles are just 7-7 and head to New York off back-to-back losses to Connecticut and St. John’s. In fact, Marquette hasn’t beaten an NCAA Tournament-caliber team since a win over Creighton back on Jan. 3. Kam Jones, David Joplin and Stevie Mitchell are veterans that have won a lot of games in this program, including a surprise Big East tournament title two years ago and a trip to the final last year. Do they have one more run in them, or should we follow the arrow straight down with this group?

Early Round Matchup To Watch:

No. 4 Xavier (+3.5) vs. No. 5 Marquette (2:30, Thursday, March 13)

This is going to be one of the best games in the country on Thursday. Xavier can punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a win in this game. The Musketeers have won seven straight games and will be facing a Golden Eagles team trying to avoid a three-game losing streak. The two teams split their regular season matches, with each game decided by exactly two points, and there will be nine seniors in this game each battling to extend their Big East careers.

No. 3 Connecticut vs. No. 6 Villanova (9:30 p.m., Thursday, March 13)

Last year, sixth-seeded Villanova pushed the third seed, Marquette, to overtime in the quarterfinals. I think they will be a tough out again this year. Eric Dixon is one of the best players in the country. And the Big East Tournament has a long, storied history of guys – Gerry McNamara and Kemba Walker immediately come to mind – putting teams on their backs en route to a title run.

2025 Big East Conference Tournament Predictions: I actually think we are going to have a surprise winner of this tournament, which is to say anyone other than No. 1 seed St. John’s. The Red Storm are a very good, talented team and they will have a big home court edge playing in Madison Square Garden. However, this team can be streaky offensively and they play a lot of close games. All it takes is one cold spell or one late-game mistake to take a team down. I like the winner of the Connecticut-Villanova game to beat Creighton and go to the finals. And I like them to face the winner of the Marquette-Xavier game, who I think will upset St. John’s in the semifinals. I’ll take the Xavier-Marquette winner to cut down the nets of another wild tournament.

Robert Ferringo is a member of the Basketball Writer's Association of America and a professional sports handicapper for Doc's Sports. He is considered one of the best college basketball handicappers in the country and has posted 13 of 16 winning seasons. He is looking for a monster March run and you can sign up for his college basketball picks and get more information here.

Get college basketball picks on every single game, or if you want our very best bet premium picks by the experts, sign up for your free $60 account with a guarantee.

 

Most Recent March Madness Betting

One E-mail A Week Is All You Need!
Our weekly newsletter is loaded with exclusive free picks,insight and advice from our expert handicappers