The 2015–16

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

men's basketball season began with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the followed by the start of the

2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first early-season tournaments to begin were the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and the Charleston Classic. The season ended with the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tour ...

in November. The season marked the 37th year in the conference's history, but the third as a non-football conference, which officially formed on July 1, 2013. Conference play began on December 30, 2015, and concluded in March with the

2016 Big East men's basketball tournament The 2016 Big East men's basketball tournament, officially known as the 2016 Big East tournament, was a tournament held from March 9–12, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Big East Championship game returned to broadcast television ...

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. Villanova won the regular season championship by two games over Xavier with a 16–2 conference record. However,

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

, who finished in third, won the Big East tournament, defeating Villanova in the championship game. Providence's Kris Dunn was named the conference's player of the year for the second straight year, while Seton Hall coach

Kevin Willard Kevin Schreiber Willard (born April 6, 1975) is an American college basketball coach and the incoming men's basketball head coach at Villanova University. Willard played basketball at Western Kentucky during the 1992–93 season before transfer ...

and Villanova coach Jay Wright shared coach of the year. Creighton received a bid to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

and lost in the quarterfinals. Villanova, Xavier, Seton Hall, Providence and

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all received bids to the NCAA tournament. Only Villanova advanced past the Second Round of the Tournament. On April 4, Villanova defeated

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

in the National Championship game to win the school's second NCAA Championship. Ryan Arcidiacono was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Preseason

''() first place votes''

Preseason All-Big East teams

Rankings

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

Honors and awards

All-Americans

All-Big East awards and teams

Postseason

Big East tournament

* March 9–12, 2016 Big East Conference Basketball Tournament,

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Seeds

All 10 Big East schools participated in the tournament. Teams were seeded by the 2015–16 Big East Conference season record. The top six teams received a first round bye. Seeding for the tournament was determined at the close of the regular conference season.

Schedule

Bracket

NCAA tournament

The Big East Conference had five bids to the

2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 20 ...

National Invitational tournament

Creighton earned the sole NIT bid for the conference.

References

External links

Big East website
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