The opening week of college basketball is complete, and all but one Big East team has taken the floor at least twice. The sample size is still too small to draw substantial conclusions from, especially given the varying degrees of competition faced, but there is no shortage of burgeoning storylines.

The overarching review of the league's early performances is perhaps negative, but Georgetown appears to be building momentum, Butler's tempo change is reality, and UConn is...well...still UConn. Let's dive into the past week of action.

(Mostly) league-wide cold start in marquee matchups.

The opening week of the college basketball season was not short on some high-level games. While not all of the Big East tested itself in the first week, five teams faced other high-major competition. Despite the high watchability of those games, though, the Big East was more often than not on the wrong side of the result. St. John's lost to Alabama; Villanova lost to BYU; Providence lost to Virginia Tech; and Marquette lost to Indiana.

The silver lining of the week was Georgetown going into College Park and knocking off Maryland. Other than that, the Big East's second-best win of the season is...Xavier over Marist? Based on quality of opponent, that's it, but Xavier fell nine spots on KenPom because of the margin of victory (again, more on that in a bit). Taking into account margin and opponent quality, the league's second-best win might be Marquette over Southern.

Overall, the Big East is 20-5 through one week with its wins coming over a KenPom rank average of 276.9. Take out the Georgetown win over Maryland, and the average win falls to a KP rank of 288.7. Yikes, but time to acquire meaningful out-of-conference wins remains.

When "metric-boosting" goes wrong:

It hasn't just been the marquee games that haven't gone the Big East's way. While the league is yet to suffer a landmine loss (Santa Clara is a top 100 team), the margins have not evoked confidence.

Especially come March, a common complaint is about teams who "gamed the NET" or "gamed KenPom" by beating up on lower-rated opponents early in the season to boost their metrics. Sure, that works for some teams, but the counter is that teams have to really beat up on those opponents for it to matter.

When it comes to the era of predictive metrics and their involvement in NCAA Tournament selection and seeding, it often isn't enough to simply win buy games. The margins matter, and the Big East has already seen the effects of "metric boosting" gone wrong:

Xavier, especially, is off to a poor start. Combine the two closer-than-expected wins with a home loss to Santa Clara as a four-point favorite, and the Musketeers have already fallen from preseason No. 62 on KenPom to No. 107 – lowest of any Big East team.

Georgetown impresses; another test awaits.

As already referenced, the biggest bright spot in the Big East's week was Georgetown's performance in College Park. Anecdotally, it felt like Ed Cooley's Providence teams were always threats to make the NCAA Tournament but didn't necessarily help the Big East during their out-of-conference schedules. His teams either played weak nonconference schedules, or missed marquee opportunities, or both — at least, that's how it felt.

But with the Big East suffering a down opening week, Cooley's Georgetown team held up its end of the bargain by picking up the league's best win to date at Maryland. Georgetown started the game on an 11-0 run, and an 18-3 run to begin the second half built a lead Maryland could not come back from. The Hoyas never trailed.

Malik Mack and KJ Lewis are looking like one of the best backcourts in the league. Lewis (15.0ppg, 7.0rpg) was a Big East Honor Roll selection for Week 1, while Mack's on-off splits are insane in the tiny two-game sample:

Georgetown entered this season having been picked to finish sixth in the Big East, and garnered preseason interest for its exhibition win over Kentucky. KenPom's preseason algorithm did not agree with the hype, ranking the Hoyas outside of the top-75 to begin the campaign. Georgetown's win over Maryland led to an 18-spot jump on the site, though, and the upward trajectory could continue when Clemson, a KenPom top-25 team right now, comes to the nation's capital this weekend.

Fast starts, fast play propelling Butler early.

Butler is 2-0, but its schedule has not afforded any "statement" opportunities. That said, the 30+-point victories over Southern Indiana and IU Indy show a stark difference compared to last season. For one, Butler went just 4-2 against sub-100 nonconference opponents last season and never led by double-digits at half in any of the victories. Through two games this year, the Bulldogs led by 26 at half of the opener (after a 17-0 start) and by 13 in their second game — while scoring 50+ points in the first half of each game.

The first two games have proven that Butler's offseason desire to play faster this season was not coachspeak. The Bulldogs are picking up full-court defensively, and getting into sets quickly offensively. Facing IU Indy this season will inherently raise a team's tempo, but Butler didn't shy away from that. In fact, Butler played IU Indy at a faster pace than Ohio State did. The Butler/IU Indy game leads the country in possessions this season, and the Bulldogs now rank 10th-fastest in average possession length; that doesn't happen by accident or because of the style an opponent plays.

Purdue Fort Wayne transfer Jalen Jackson has been the catalyst. Not only are his season-to-date totals impressive — 28 points (66.7 eFG%), 11 rebounds, nine assists, and five steals in 48 minutes — but he is propelling the tempo. Butler is averaging the equivalent of 85.7 possessions per game with him on the floor compared to only 77.1 when he sits, per Hoop-Explorer. He's not without his flaws, including a 30.8% turnover rate and some defensive struggles, but he is setting the pace for Thad Matta's new attack:

Tarris Reed SZN appears to be in full swing.

UConn did not look particularly dominant in its opener against New Haven. The Huskies were a 37-point favorite on KenPom, but led by just 13 at half and "only" won by 24. Their win probability never dipped below 99.8%, but it wasn't the type of dominance that we've grown accustomed to seeing. Then again, UConn was without starting big man Tarris Reed, an absence he has proven to have been significant in the two games that have followed.

First, Reed's season debut featured 20 points, 12 rebounds, and four blocks in just 17 minutes during UConn's demolition of UMass Lowell. He followed it up with 19 points, eight rebounds, three steals, and two blocks against Columbia.

Before the season, I wrote about Reed's potential determinant role for UConn this season after his tremendous on-off marks, especially defensively, last season. He is quickly living up to that this year; Reed has more blocks + steals (10) than 2-point makes allowed with him on the court (8). I'm serious. UMass Lowell and Columbia shot a combined 8-for-38 on 2-point attempts with Reed on the floor this past week.

Games to watch in the coming week

Nov. 11: Creighton at Gonzaga

Creighton is the lone Big East team with only one game under its belt after the opening week, a 16-point victory over KP 295 South Dakota. No better way to get to know the Bluejays, though, than by settling in for a 10pm ET tip out in Spokane against one of the best programs in the country. Creighton will have its hands full against Gonzaga, but it is an opportunity for the 'Jays to plant their flag among the league's top teams. The Big East could use another marquee win, too.

Nov. 15: UConn vs. BYU

Especially after St. John's loss to Alabama, UConn is expected to be the class of the Big East this season. The Huskies are 3-0 to begin the year but have not been tested, beating three sub-200 opponents by an average of 38.0 points. A meeting with BYU and star freshman AJ Dybansta is simply much-watch college hoop. Dan Hurley's schedule starts slow but ramps up in a hurry, starting with this one.

Nov. 15: Butler at SMU

Butler has looked good through the opening week of the season but wins over sub-200 KenPom opponents aren't turning any heads. The second half of this home-and-home against an ACC foe will be the first chance to see the Bulldogs' new system against a high-major opponent. The matchup feels like a litmus test (as well as functioning as a revenge game of sorts for big man Yohan Traore, who played at SMU before transferring to Butler).