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BIG EAST MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL:
- Connecticut
- Creighton
- Xavier
- Marquette
- Saint John’s
- Providence
- Villanova
- Butler
- Georgetown
- Seton Hall
- DePaul
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 1ST TEAM:
-Ryan Kalkbrenner – SR, C – Creighton (Preseason Player of the Year)
-Alex Karaban – JR, F – Connecticut
-Kam Jones – SR, G – Marquette
-Bryce Hopkins – SR, G/F – Providence
-Kadary Richmond – SR, G – Saint John’s
-Eric Dixon – SR, F – Villanova
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 2ND TEAM:
-Pierre Brooks – SR, F – Butler
-Jahmyl Telfort – SR, F – Butler
-Deivon Smith – SR, G – Saint John’s
-Zach Freemantle – SR, F – Xavier
-Dayvion McKnight – SR, G – Xavier
MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-BIG EAST 3RD TEAM:
-Aidan Mahaney – JR, G – Connecticut
-Steven Ashworth – SR, G – Creighton
-Jayden Epps – JR, G – Georgetown
-Wooga Poplar – SR, G – Villanova
-Ryan Conwell – JR, G – Xavier
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COMMENTS FROM DAVID:
-UConn won an amazing 37 games last year, has won the National Championship each of the last two years, and is on an amazing stretch of 49 wins in their last 53 games. Four of those starters are gone and UConn will have to reload this year, but reloading is not an issue for them. Aidan Mahaney comes in from Saint Mary’s, and Liam McNeeley is a McDonald’s All-American. They are not quite as stacked as they were a year ago. I do not think they will win 37 games and repeat (again) as national champions, but this is still one of the best teams in the country.
-Up until recently I had been highly critical of Creighton and how they always seemed to tank out down the stretch. Well, I have stopped saying it because they have stopped doing it. They made it to the Sweet Sixteen or further in three of the last four seasons, and look to be good enough to do it again this year. Trey Alexander/Baylor Scheierman are big players to have to replace, especially Scheierman (because he was such a strong post player), but three other starters are back along with some solid transfers. I think they are good enough to win the Big East this year. They are exceptionally tough to beat at home, they tend to shoot well from the outside, they rebound well, and can score in the paint as well with Ryan Kalkbrenner at center. In short, they are good!
-Expectations are high for Xavier this year, and while they’ve already been hit with an injury to a key player (again), and while most of last year’s starters are gone, the roster does appear to be pretty stacked. Ryan Conwell/Dayvion McKnight make up a very solid backcourt, and Zach Freemantle is a huge contributor as well. Some pretty strong portal additions give Xavier a fair amount of talent and depth. While Xavier has had a lot of success throughout its history, they have actually missed five of the last six NCAA Tournaments, so they may be getting a little anxious in X-Land.
-I like this Marquette team. A lot. It seems a little nuts to me that they are being picked as low as 4th. I would personally have them…well…about four spots higher. Three starters return from a team that made it to the Sweet Sixteen, Kam Jones is one of the best guards in the conference and can hit from the outside, and while they may not have any players in the post that will likely end up on NBA rosters, their frontcourt is still solid enough. What makes this team so hard to beat is their pressure defense, and it is something that seems to get better and tougher the more they play together. Shaka Smart is a fantastic coach and this may be one of the better teams he has had in a while.
-Rick Pitino enters season #2 as the head man at Saint John’s, and the roster has been completely overhauled. No starters are back from a year ago. Deivon Smith is a solid player, and it looks to be a transfer-heavy roster. I will say this about Rick Pitino: he knows what he wants and he can usually get his guys to play together, so you never want to overlook the Johnnies.
-Kim English won a respectable 21 games his first year at Providence last year and once again has his work cut out for him. He has a high-caliber player in Bryce Hopkins who is a great scorer and rebounder, and they have some nice looking transfers coming in including Jabri Abdur-Rahim from Georgia, so the Friars have the pieces to take a step forward this year.
-The days of being able to pencil Villanova into your top-10 and seemingly always seeing them make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament now suddenly seem like it was all a long time ago. I like Coach Kyle Neptune, and was particularly impressed with how he was seemingly starting to turn Fordham (of all places!) around. But, since arriving at Nova they just have not been that good. And, it does not look like they are going to be all that good this year. Wooga Poplar is a solid player out on the perimeter, but he will need some help.
-Preseason rankings really do not mean much. A week into the season no one will even care about any of this, so I normally do not try and get too deep into the weeds with it. I am really doing all this to help myself learn the teams rather than make any predictions. Having said that, Butler being picked to finish 8th seems over the moon insane to me. I am trying to figure out what I am missing. Pierre Brooks/Jahmyl Telfort are both very solid players, Pat McCaffery is transferring in from Iowa and can be a solid role player and provide some depth, Kolby King comes in from Tulane who is a fairly decent PG. I mean…perhaps they are not the deepest team, and I certainly do not think they’re as good as the top three/four teams in the league, but to pick them 8TH!!?? I actually think they can be an NCAA Tournament team this year! This is a pick I disagree with: they are better than this!
-Georgetown has been synonymous with awful for the last three or four years, and while they will probably be slightly less awful this year, I still do not see them being all that good. Malik Mack (who had a strong freshman season at Harvard)/Jayden Epps should make a pretty talented backcourt, and that alone will result in them being somewhat better than what we have seen.
-Seton Hall won the NIT last year, but given how much their roster is overturned they could be taking a step back instead of forward. I like Shaheen Holloway as a coach, and I think they did get a few decent players out of the portal, but I do think they will be closer to the bottom than the top this year. They will win both games against DePaul, though!
-DePaul might lose every single Big East game they play this year. It would be the second year in a row where that happened. Chris Holtmann takes over as head coach, and I think he is a phenomenal coach, and they are getting some guys in the portal that should make them a little better…but “a little better” is a very low bar.