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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Creighton
- Xavier
- Villanova
- Connecticut
- Providence
- Saint John’s
- Seton Hall
- Butler
- Marquette
- Georgetown
- DePaul
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 1ST TEAM:
-Ryan Kalkbrenner – JR, C – Creighton
-Jared Bynum – SR, G – Providence
-Posh Alexander – JR, G – Saint John’s
-Colby Jones – JR, G – Xavier
-Jack Nunge – SR, F – Xavier
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 2ND TEAM:
-Arther Kaluma – SO, F – Creighton
-Ryan Nembhard – SO, G – Creighton
-Kadary Richmond – JR, G – Seton Hall
-Caleb Daniels – SR, G – Villanova
-Eric Dixon – JR, F – Villanova
-Justin Moore – SR, G – Villanova
COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-After returning a lot of the core that lead Creighton to an NCAA Tournament last year and adding a huge transfer in Baylor Scheierman from South Dakota State, expectations are understandably high for the Blue Jays this year. One of my criticisms of this program has been how they always fizzle out in last 4-5 weeks of the season. While they did lose in the Round of 64 last year, they still played very well in the second half of conference play so I am backing off my belief that this team just cannot get it done down the stretch. They are good enough to earn a protected seed and be a Sweet Sixteen team or better this year. Speaking of teams not doing well down the stretch…
-Xavier finished last year’s regular season by losing 8 out of 11. Prior to that they appeared to be a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament. They made a coaching change in the middle of the NIT, then won the NIT, and then made another coaching change with the re-hiring of Sean Miller. He was successful during a previous stint at Xavier and was also successful out at Arizona. While ongoing NCAA investigations could be a factor, the expectations at Xavier is that they will once again be NCAA Tournament regulars under Miller. As for this season, three starters are back, they are picked to finish second in the conference, and are also expected to be safely inside the bubble.
-Villanova begins the post-Jay Wright era with Kyle Neptune. It is not easy replacing a Hall of Fame coach, but Neptune was with Nova for a long time and in his one year at Fordham he did a fantastic job (at least by Fordham’s standards). Although Collin Gillespie is gone, which is a huge loss, a lot of other contributing players are back from last year’s Final Four team. I think we will see them as top-25 regulars and safely inside the bubble this March.
After that it starts to look a little bubblicious…
-UConn made the NCAA Tournament last year and will likely be on the right side of the bubble this year. They did lose some key pieces but they return enough and add enough to where they should still be competitive. Dan Hurley has this program moving in the right direction and I think that will continue this year.
-Providence was a protected seed a year ago. Providence also lost all of their starters and are in complete rebuilding mode. Not much is expected of them but we have all seen this movie before. They have some key transfers coming in and Ed Cooley is a fantastic coach, so will the Friars once again be able to surprise all of us and end up having a big year?
-Saint John’s kind of fell apart in the second half of conference play last year, but they did show some signs of being pretty good prior to that, and they have enough coming back that they may end up being in the discussion come March.
-Seton Hall welcomes Shaheen Holloway as their new head coach. He was last seen taking Saint Peter’s to the Elite Eight. While it is a good hire for The Hall, he has his work cut out for him this year. Just two starters are back so they have hit the transfer portal to try and round up some new players who can step into contributing roles.
-Butler welcomes a new/old head coach in Thad Matta! While he was only the head coach at Butler for one season, he had been with the program a while before that, and even played for them once upon a time. He was very successful at Xavier, and then again at Ohio State, so he will look to rebuild the Bulldogs back into being on the national map. It probably will not happen this year, though. They struggled last year, and lost some of their better players, so they are definitely in rebuilding mode.
-Marquette did make the NCAA Tournament last year, but they kind of backed into it by losing six of their last nine and a lot of key players from that team are gone. I do not think they will finish quite as low as they have been picked, but they are a young team and it could be a rough season.
-Georgetown won just six total games last year and none of them were conference games. They may be a little better this year…but that is not saying much. Simply winning one conference game at any point would be an improvement.
-There always seems to be a moment during the season where DePaul looks like they have a reason to be excited. It does not last long but the last several seasons seem to have given us that. At one point last year they were 9-1 with a win at Louisville. They proceeded to lose 9 of their first 10 Big East games after that. But, I do not think DePaul finishes last this year. Two starters are back and they have some decent looking transfers. I do not think they are anywhere near the NIT but I think they are certainly better than the last place team in this league.