– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Outside of teams fighting to keep their seasons alive, there’s going to be a lot of common when gazing at the six squads opening up the 2025 Big East Tournament.
Five of the six teams feature blue in their color scheme, and that doesn’t include the Butler University Bulldogs live canine mascot, whose name just happens to be … Blue.
Butler, the No. 9 seed in the Big East Tournament, raised the curtain on the 46th edition of the tournament with a 75-69 win over eighth-seeded Providence — the only squad playing tonight without the color blue in its color scheme — inside Madison Square Garden on Wednesday afternoon. Pierre Brooks’ game-high 25-points helped the Bulldogs snap a three-game losing streak in the Big East Tournament.
From the team whose mascot is Blue to the squad with “Blue” in its team name, the No. 10 seeded DePaul Blue Demons, who completed the clean sweep of the No. 7 Georgetown Hoyas with a 71-67 victory in the second game. Victories have been rare for the Blue Demons inside the World’s Most Famous Arena since joining the league, but N.J. Benson made sure DePaul would stay around New York for an extra day with 18 points in 18 minutes, going 7-for-8 from the field.
In the nightcap, the No. 6 seed Villanova Wildcats, in desperate need of victories to improve its NCAA Tournament résumé, need to avoid defeat against No. 11 Seton Hall, who won just two games in the league all season.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday’s first round, with photos taken by ALOST photographers Scott Rausenberger, Danny Suriel and Dale Horton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 44 pictures in total.
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