MBB Minute – Providence and Villanova won their respective games as the Big 12-BIG EAST Battle started Tuesday. The Friars welcomed Bryce Hopkins back and defeated BYU. The Wildcats played what coach Kyle Neptune called his team’s most complete game of the season in a win over No. 14 Cincinnati. Butler won its sixth straight game with a victory over Eastern Illinois.
Providence (6-3) shot 71 percent from the floor in the first half while building a 46-34 edge at the break en route to an 83-64 victory. Hopkins, who had been out since January with an ACL injury, posted 16 points, five rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes. Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored a game-high 21 points.
Villanova (5-4) took the lead late in the first half and beat the Bearcats 68-60. Eric Dixon continued his outstanding production with 31 points and seven rebounds. Wooga Poplar added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Jhamir Brickus contributed 13 points and nine assists.
Butler (7-1) got 20-point efforts from Patrick McCaffery and Jahmyl Telfort in a 73-58 triumph over Eastern Illinois. McCaffery had seven rebounds and Telfort added six. Butler held EIU to 32.8 percent shooting from the field.
BIG EAST teams are 67-22 (.753) going into Wednesday.
Wednesday’s schedule is heavy with ranked Big 12-BIG EAST Battle matchups. In a meeting of top-10 teams, No. 5 Marquette travels to No. 6 Iowa State at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+. Also, No. 25 UConn hosts No. 15 Baylor at Gampel Pavilion at 6:30 p.m. on FS1, which follows with No. 1 Kansas at Creighton at 8:30 p.m. DePaul puts its unblemished mark (7-0) on the line at Texas Tech at 9:15 p.m. on ESPNU. Outside of the Battle, Seton Hall hosts NJIT at 8:30 p.m. on CBSSN.