Seton Hall was the preseason favorite in the Big East. So, on a surface level, it's no surprise that the Pirates are currently sitting alone atop the league standings. But what is surprising is that they're now on a nine-game winning streak, and a perfect 7-0 in the Big East, despite the fact that Kevin Willard's team lost one of its best three players (Sandro Mamukelashvili) to an injury 11 games ago.

"I always say Coach Willard doesn't get enough credit," Myles Powell, a legitimate national player of the year candidate, told reporters after Wednesday's 73-64 victory over Providence. "I'm glad to see him start to get the recognition he deserves. We're on a nine-game winning streak because of him."

It was Romaro Gill, not Powell, who was the star against Providence. The 7-foot-2 center who averaged just 2.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per game last season finished with 17 points and eight -- yes, eight -- blocks in 33 minutes. Impressive stuff. When I was the CBS Sports Network sideline reporter for Seton Hall's 69-55 victory over Marquette two Saturdays ago, Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski told me pregame that trying to score at the rim against Seton Hall, primarily because of an improved Gill, was mostly a futile exercise. With every passing game, that's looking more and more true. With every passing game, imagining the Pirates in the Final Four seems more and more realistic.

Seton Hall is No. 9 in Thursday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Pirates' next two games are home contests against unranked DePaul and unranked Xavier. So moving to 17-4 overall, and 9-0 in the Big East, is a likely scenario before next month's road games at Georgetown and Villanova.

Thursday's Top 25 And 1 rankings