Big East basketball reset: What's wrong with UConn? Key to success for Marquette?

After UConn's men's basketball team captured every headline in the Big East and throughout the country last year with a historic 37-3 record and a second consecutive national championship, the conference carries more intrigue at the top this season. 

Heading into the weekend, there are four teams with seven or more conference wins, which has made for a competitive regular-season title race, and at least one more NCAA Tournament team. Last season, only three teams from the Big East – UConn, Marquette and Creighton – made the Big Dance, with all three advancing to the second weekend.

With a non-conference season that felt rather similar to last year, things appeared to be heading in a similar direction this season, but Creighton's recent six-game winning streak and a résumé featuring a win over Kansas and a road victory over UConn puts the Jays in a good spot, along with No. 9 Marquette, No. 15 St. John's and No. 25 UConn. 

The spotlight in the conference right now is in New York City, where St. John's Basketball is humming in Year 2 of the Rick Pitino era. The Johnnies are 18-3 overall and 9-1 in Big East play, good for their best start in conference play since 1984-85. That year, Lou Carnesecca took the program to its last Final Four. 

How has this transformation happened so quickly? Year 2 of the Pitino era throughout the four-decade course of the Hall of Famer's career has brought significant leaps from the time he was at Boston University to Providence, when he took the program to the Final Four in 1987, to Kentucky to Louisville and even Iona. 

"A lot of people ask me what the secret is about the second year being really successful in my tenures and think it was some sort of special science," Pitino told FOX Sports.