2020 Big East men's basketball tournament

The 2020 Big East men's basketball tournament was the postseason tournament men's basketball tournament for the Big East Conference. It was to have been held from March 11 through March 14, 2020, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the two first-round games were played on March 11.

2020 Big East men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2019–20
Teams	10
Site	Madison Square Garden New York City
Television	FS1, Fox
Big East men's basketball tournaments ← 2019 2021 →

2019–20 Big East men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 7 Creighton	13	–	5		.722			24	–	7		.774
No. 11 Villanova	13	–	5		.722			24	–	7		.774
No. 16 Seton Hall	13	–	5		.722			21	–	9		.700
Providence	12	–	6		.667			19	–	12		.613
No. 24 Butler	10	–	8		.556			22	–	9		.710
Marquette	8	–	10		.444			18	–	12		.600
Xavier	8	–	10		.444			19	–	13		.594
Georgetown	5	–	13		.278			15	–	17		.469
St. John's	5	–	13		.278			17	–	15		.531
DePaul	3	–	15		.167			16	–	16		.500
Note: The 2020 Big East tournament was cancelled at halftime of the first game of the quarterfinals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rankings from AP poll

Early on March 12, amid concerns over the spreading COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Big East Conference issued a statement that it would limit attendance during the rest of the tournament to student-athletes, coaches, team staff, event staff, essential media, and immediate family members ^[1] The first quarterfinal game, with Creighton facing St. John's, began on March 12, but during halftime, with St. John's leading 38–35,^[2] the Big East Conference cancelled the rest of the game and all remaining tournament games in order to further reduce the possibility of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for cases of COVID-19. It was the first cancellation of the tournament since its foundation in 1980. Despite the cancellation of the tournament, the conference was able to receive an insurance payout of $10.5 million as a result of the tournament's insurance policy.^[3]

The winner was to have received the conference's bid to the 2020 NCAA tournament, which also was cancelled on March 12, 2020.

Seeds

All 10 Big East schools were slated to participate in the tournament. Teams were seeded by the conference record with tie-breaking procedures to determine the seeds for teams with identical conference records. The top six teams received first-round byes. Seeding for the tournament was determined at the close of the regular conference season.

Seed	School	Conference	Tiebreaker 1
1	Creighton	13–5	3–1 vs. Villanova/Seton Hall
2	Villanova	13–5	2–2 vs. Creighton/Seton Hall
3	Seton Hall	13–5	1–3 vs. Creighton/Villanova
4	Providence	12–6
5	Butler	10–8
6	Marquette	8–10	2–0 vs. Xavier
7	Xavier	8–10	0–2 vs. Marquette
8	Georgetown	5–13	2–0 vs. St. John's
9	St. John's	5–13	0–2 vs. Georgetown
10	DePaul	3–15

Schedule

Game	Time	Matchup	Score	Television	Attendance
First round – Wednesday, March 11
1	7:00 pm	No. 8 Georgetown vs. No. 9 St. John's	62–75	FS1	17,534
2	9:30 pm	No. 7 Xavier vs. No. 10 DePaul	67–71
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 12
3	12:00 pm	No. 1 Creighton vs. No. 9 St. John's (cancelled at halftime)	35–38 (halftime)	FS1	N/A*
4	2:30 pm	No. 4 Providence vs. No. 5 Butler	cancelled
5	7:00 pm	No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 10 DePaul
6	9:30 pm	No. 3 Seton Hall vs. No. 6 Marquette
Semifinals – Friday, March 13
7	6:30 pm	Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner	cancelled
8	9:00 pm	Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner
Championship – Saturday, March 14
9	6:30 pm	Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner	cancelled
Game times in Eastern Time. Rankings denote tournament seed.[4] *Attendance by the general public was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Bracket

	First round Wednesday, March 11 FS1					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 12 FS1					Semifinals Friday, March 13 FS1					Championship Saturday, March 14 Fox
						1	#7 Creighton	35
						9	St. John's	38 (canceled halftime)
	8	Georgetown	62
	9	St. John's	75
												cancelled
						4	Providence	cancelled
						5	#24 Butler
																	cancelled
						2	#11 Villanova	cancelled
						10	DePaul
	7	Xavier	67
	10	DePaul	71
												cancelled
						3	#16 Seton Hall	cancelled
						6	Marquette

See also

• 2020 Big East women's basketball tournament

References

1. "BIG EAST Announced Restricted Attendance Policy". Big East Conference. October 29, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
2. St. John's vs. Creighton Box Score — March 12, 2020 https://theathletic.com/ The Athletic Retrieved May 19, 2020
3. Caron, Emily (December 2, 2020). "Big East recoups $10.5 million from men's basketball tournament insurance policy". Sportico. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
4. "Big East Conference". Bigeast.com. Retrieved March 12, 2020.