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BIG EAST MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Marquette
- Creighton
- UConn
- Villanova
- Saint John’s
- Xavier
- Providence
- Georgetown
- Seton Hall
- Butler
- DePaul
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
-Tyler Kolek – SR, G – Marquette
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 1ST TEAM:
-Trey Alexander – JR, G – Creighton
-Ryan Kalkbrenner – SR, C – Creighton
-Bryce Hopkins – JR, F/G – Providence
-Joel Soriano – SR, C – Saint John’s
-Justin Moore – SR, G – Villanova
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 2ND TEAM:
-Donovan Clingan – SO, C – UConn
-Baylor Scheierman – SR, G – Creighton
-Oso Ighodaro – SR, F – Marquette
-Kam Jones – JR, G – Marquette
-Eric Dixon – SR, F – Villanova
COMMENTS FROM DAVID GRIGGS:
In glancing at the Big East just before the season starts, there appear to be three teams that are solid protected seeds and two that are top-ten-caliber teams. The rest of the league seems to drop off after that. Now, I always say you do not REALLY know anything about anyone until they actually start playing, but HOLY CRAP is Marquette good! HOLY CRAP is Creighton good! And UConn? Well, there is only one defending National Champion out there and it is them.
-Marquette has been very good before. We have seen them in the top-25 and we have seen them make NCAA Tournament runs. But even by their standards this Marquette team is INSANELY good this year! Four starters are back from a team that won 29 games a year ago: guys like Kam Jones give them a ton of talent at the guard position and Oso Ighodaro gives them both experience/talent in the post. They are ranked in the top-ten in both major polls to start the season and are playing a really strong OOC schedule to go along with a very tough Big East, so this team should be super battle tested by the time March rolls around. Oh yeah, and Shaka Smart? He is a HELL of a head coach!
-For years (decades really) I have picked on Creighton and Coach Greg McDermott for being a great team and coach in the months of November/December/January and the first half of February…and then falling apart. I can no longer say that and will never say that again. Creighton is coming off an Elite Eight run last year where they nearly made the Final Four before falling 57-56 to San Diego State. They have three starters back who all deservedly received preseason all-conference honors, and are adding Steven Ashworth who is another outstanding player that is transferring in from Utah State. I have gone back and forth between Creighton and Marquette. I really like both of them but I think I like Creighton a little more. It is a cold day in Hell: I am picking Creighton! A team that is coached by Greg McDermott, to not just win the Big East but to MAKE THE FINAL FOUR!!! And…why not?? They damn near got there last year and they look to be even better this year!
-Last year in the months of November/December UConn was the best team in the country. Then, they started off the new year (New Year’s Eve actually) by going 2-6. They were an ABYSMAL team in the month of January!! Then in February they were good again, and then in March/April they were VERY good and won the National Championship. John Stalica will have to research this but I believe they are the first team to ever go 2-6 in the month of January and then win the National Title. Anyway, they are going to be good again this year: they always are. They are losing three starters including Adama Sanogo/Jordan Hawkins, and that is a lot to lose, but UConn is just able to reload with a really highly-rated recruiting class and some big-time transfers coming in. I am not going to go so far as to pick them to repeat as national champs but I do think they will end up as a protected seed once again.
-Kyle Neptune’s debut as Villanova head coach fell short of a lot of peoples’ expectations but injuries were a big part of why the team struggled. I for one think Neptune is an OUTSTANDING coach and that he will get Nova rolling this year. I do not think they are top-ten-good like the three teams that are picked ahead of them but they are definitely NCAA-Tournament-good and, as a program I think they will remain nationally-relevant under Neptune. Three starters are gone, and replacing Caleb Daniels/Cam Whitmore will not be easy, but TJ Bamba (a key player at Washington State last year) joins the roster as a good all-around player with a pretty good outside shot. Tyler Burton also comes in as a grad-transfer from Richmond so they have the talent/experience they need to be a really good team.
-Saint John’s has been a so-so team for the past several seasons and I guess they felt that they needed to make a change to inject some energy into the program. So…they went out and hired Rick Pitino. Chances are Pitino will get his 725th win this year as a college head coach. The Johnnies have just one starter back so they are having to rebuild, but whenever Pitino takes over a program rebuilding is his specialty. This is a transfer-heavy team. Daniss Jenkins (Iona), Jordan Dingle (Penn), and Chris Ledlum (Harvard) were all hugely talented players who averaged over 15ppg so there is no lack of talent with the Johnnies. It would not shock me at all to see them improve significantly right away and end up inside the bubble this March.
-Sean Miller’s return to Xavier exceeded most expectations as the Musketeers won 27 total games and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Just two starters are back from that team so repeating that level of success probably is unlikely…but then again I was not expecting them to be that good at the beginning of last year so what do I know? Xavier is tasked with replacing three really strong backcourt players, but they have hit the portal and gotten Abou Ousmane (North Texas)/Dayvion McKnight (Western Kentucky) who are both really strong guards. They also have some new players in the frontcourt who look rather promising so Xavier may be a dark horse in this conference…again!
-It seems like every year we undervalue Providence in the preseason, and every year we are proven wrong. But this year Coach Ed Cooley left to take the Georgetown job and just two starters are back. One of them, though, is an exceptionally good player in Bryce Hopkins, but the Friars have just lost too much and are unlikely to make any noise this year. Or…can they?? Like I said, we seem to say that about them every year and every year they surprise us.
-In 2021 Georgetown had one very good week, and it was a good week to have a good week. They won the Big East Tournament and earned the auto-bid to the NCAAs. Outside of that, this team has been so bad that they have become a running joke over the past three years. Ed Cooley takes over as head coach and that alone should bring some new energy to the program. Just one starter is back and they have gone into the portal to try and rebuild the roster. The easy prognosis is to say that we will see some improvement, but that they do not appear to be good enough to make a run at the NCAA Tournament. Having said that, Ed Cooley has a history of taking teams with rebuilt rosters that do not appear good enough to make a run at the NCAA Tournament…and ending up in the NCAA Tournament.
-Shaheen Holloway begins his second year as Seton Hall head coach, and while they were a modest 17-16 last year they really were not anything special. He has also gone into the portal and landed some guys who were contributing D1 players a year ago, so while I do not think they will be anywhere near the bubble, I could see them ending up around .500 again. I think they will do a little better than 9th.
-Butler is a program that I do not really get. They should be better. They HAVE been better: MUCH better! Thad Matta is a good coach, they have great fan support/resources/history. Yet, they have had three straight losing seasons and expectations again are not all that high. Just three players return from last year so it is practically a brand new roster, and while the recruiting class appears to be promising I find myself agreeing with the low expectations for this season.
-I have never understood how DePaul is always so bad. You would think that given their location and the size of their alumni base in that area that they would at least be able to put together a good team every few years even if it was just by accident. More often than not they are outside the top-100 of pretty much every major metric. Just one starter is back from a year ago and they do not appear to have a ton of talent this year.