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Xavier, Creighton Among Best Potential Big East Opponents for Oklahoma State

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There’s not much I like more than Oklahoma State basketball scheduling news, and this might be the best news I’ve heard in awhile.

According to Alex Halstead at 247Sports, the Big 12 is discussing a possible scheduling alliance with the Big East conference.

The move comes in response to other major conferences like the SEC and Pac-12 moving to a 20-conference game schedule. The Big 12 is maxed out on conference games at 18 with a full round-robin schedule.

Adding an annual game against the Big East to go along with the yearly Big 12/SEC Challenge, would guarantee all Big 12 teams get 20 games a year against quality opponents (regardless of conference affiliation).

The Big East is a perfect conference to make a scheduling alliance with. Boasting teams like Xavier, Butler, Creighton, Marquette, and of course defending national champ Villanova, the conference is full of quality teams. Plus with both conferences standing at 10 teams, there are no worries about whether top teams are sitting out the match-up like there is with the SEC.

While the article mentions it will likely be the 2019-2020 season at the earliest before we see this coupling take their first date, there’s no reason not to look at who it would be most fun to see pop up on OSU’s schedule


Creighton

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I know you all think I’m going to list Villanova. I’m not, at least not until Coach Boynton has the program at a level where I think it can compete with Nova (though they might get a chance to this year).

Instead, give me the team with the closest geographical proximity to Stillwater, the Bluejays of Creighton.

Creighton is led by former Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott who has found much more success in Omaha than he did in Ames. In his eight seasons the Bluejays have reached the NCAA tournament five times and finished in the top three of the Big East three of the five seasons they’ve been in the conference.

This is a series (like Wichita State) I don’t understand why OSU doesn’t schedule anyway. A solid program that’s a 6 1/2 hour drive from Stillwater seems like it would fold into the schedule nicely.

Throw in the fact that Creighton was the school that gave the great Eddie Sutton his first head coaching gig and this home-and-home just makes sense.

Butler

Yes both Brad Stevens and now Chris Holtmann are gone, but this is still a program that has reached the NCAA tournament in seven of the last 10 years. And if you’re looking to add a “name” opponent that even casual college basketball fans will recognize, you can’t do a lot better than Butler.

They’re always a fun team to watch and well coached. Plus, you can’t tell me seeing Butler on the schedule wouldn’t get you pumped.

Providence

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I really like what head coach Ed Cooley has been doing at Providence.

The Friars have become a mainstay in the NCAA tournament, making the Big Dance the last five seasons in a row. Now, they don’t tend to last long when they get there — the Friars are 1-5 in their last five visits — getting there with this kind of consistency is good. Providence went on a 10-year NCAA tournament drought between 2004 and 2014. Plus, it can’t be easy to recruit to Rhode Island.

Still, they’re a quality opponent that will not only look good on a resume, but be a fun one to play. At home anyway.

Xavier

This is the one I really hope for. Granted, Chris Mack is gone. But Xavier has had successful coaches leave before and be able to fill the hole with another successful guy.

This time it’s Travis Steele who will look to continue building on the success of the men who came before him. Steele has spent the last 10 seasons at Xavier and has been an associate head coach. So I wouldn’t expect to see him deviate too far from what Chris Mack did at Xavier.

And those Musketeers were talented and a lot of fun. I would love to see this team on the schedule.

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