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Winners of three straight and six of their last seven in the Big East, the St. John's Red Storm have made their mark on the top 25 polls again, as they were ranked as the number 29 team in the country in the AP Poll with 27 votes, and came in at number 32 in the USA Today Coaches Poll with 12 votes.
The Red Storm will face off with Marquette and Villanova, both on the road, this week as their regular season comes to an end.
Poll Movements Across the Big East
At 27-2 on the season and having already clinched the conference's regular season title, the Villanova Wildcats jumped up to number four overall in the nation on Monday.
They've now won 10 straight Big East games, and will close out the season with games against Creighton and St. John's.
Two other Big East teams made the top 25 on Monday, with the Butler Bulldogs next up at number 21 in the nation. The Bulldogs jumped up two spots in the polls after they won both of their games this week against Marquette and Creighton, and they will face a pair of tough games against Georgetown and Providence this week.
At 21-8 overall and 11-5 in the conference, the Bulldogs appear primed for at least a top-3 finish in the conference at season's end.
Despite being blown out on the road against Villanova last week, the Providence Friars still hung on to their top 25 ranking this week, as they dropped to number 23 in the AP Poll and number 24 in the Coaches.
At 10-6 in the conference and 20-9 overall, the Friars currently sit in third place in the Big East, and they'll take on Seton Hall and Butler in the final week of the regular season.
Aside from St. John's, the Georgetown Hoyas received some votes to crack the top 25 as well on Monday. In the Coaches Poll the Hoyas barely missed out on a top 25 ranking, coming in at number 26 overall with 35 votes. However in the AP Poll, they were ranked at number 33 with just 13 votes.
Having suffered a tough loss at the hands of St. John's over the weekend, the Hoyas will go at Butler and return home to face Seton Hall to round out the season. They are currently one game ahead of St. John's in the Big East standings with a 10-6 conference record.
The Xavier Musketeers missed two straight opportunities to pick up resume-building wins this week against St. John's and Villanova.
Now under-.500 with an 8-9 conference record and holding an 18-12 overall record, one would have to think that the Musketeers will be fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives in the coming weeks, and that fight will begin with their final game of the regular season at Creighton on Saturday.
The four bottom-feeders of the Big East continue to struggle, however the Seton Hall Pirates snapped a six-game losing streak with a 67-66 win over Creighton on Saturday. However that losing streak is beginning to look like nothing compared to the struggles that both DePaul and Marquette are facing at the moment.
The Blue Demons have dropped six straight and nine of their last 10 on their way to a 6-11 conference record, while the Golden Eagles extended their losing streak to five with a pair of losses this week as well. They have now dropped 11 of 12 in what has become a lost season under first-year head coach Steve Wojciechowski.