Way Too Early Preview of the Big East
by Hire Esherick on Jun 18, 2009 3:49 PM EDT
in Previews and Predictions
20 comments
If the pre-season polls are any indication, no one has any idea what to expect from the Big East in the upcoming season. Andy Katz has Georgetown ranked in the top 20 in the nation whereas Adam Zagoria thinks Georgetown will barely crack the top 10 in the Big East. NBE Basketball Report picks Georgetown as 6th in the Big East while this yahoo picks Duke as #2 in the country (that has nothing to do with Georgetown or the Big East but I felt the need to mention it). So I have decided to join in on the madness.
If you hadn't figured out by my previous posts, I think freshmen are overrated. They get all the hype at the beginning of the season, but by the end it is the upperclassmen that carry the team. And I am not talking about Conference USA or Pac-10 freshmen, where the competition is the equivalent of a badminton team, I am talking about the Big East, real basketball. Freshmen do not lead Big East teams to the top of the standings. Take this nugget as evidence; since the 2005-06 season when the Big East expanded to 16 teams, the highest regular season finish for a team that also had the Big East Rookie of the Year was 6th (Marquette in 2006). The average finish for the team of the Big East Rookie of the Year has been 8th. With this in mind, I offer my Big East rankings for the 2009-10 season.
1. Villanova - Scottie Reynolds returns and Corey Fisher will have a breakout year. Nevermind the fact that they have three five-star recruits and All-American transfer Taylor King.
2. West Virginia - Da'Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks are best combo in Big East.
3. Connecticut - lost a ton, but still have a lot. Kemba Walker, Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson keep Uconn near the top.
4. Louisville - they are here because I don't have the stomach to put Georgetown as fourth. And Samardo Samuels and Terrence Jennings are still there.
5. Georgetown - inexperienced bench, talented starting five. People say the season depends on Hollis Thompson, I say it depends on Henry Sims; his ability to take pressure off of Greg Monroe will be the key to the season.
6. Pittsburgh - the cockroach of the Big East, never goes away.
7. Syracuse - nothing will make up for the loss of Jonny Flynn, Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf. Expect Andy Rautins to miss a few games while visiting BFF Cheddar Bob in Slovenia.
8. Cincinnati - brings back essentially the same team in a much weaker conference.
9. Seton Hall - see above.
10. St. John's - lost no one. This would be the best finish for Norm Roberts, who was hired at the same time as JT3. How he has kept his job is nothing short of a miracle.
11. Notre Dame - the return of Luke Harangody means nothing, the overrated Brey will be on the hot seat after another disappointing finish.
12. Rutgers - Mike Rosario has a breakout season.
13. Marquette - lost its three best players, nothing will fill the void.
14. South Florida - lost best player, Jesus Verdejo, who also happens to have the greatest name ever. Nothing hits the spot better than Jesus Wine.
15. Providence - lost five of the eight main players from last year's overachieving team.
16. DePaul - lost the only good player from an 0-18 team. Expect negative wins from this squad this season.
Good talk.
0 recs |
20 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
My Friars
Providence is a team on the rise. I see UConn suffering from Calhoun’s constant hospitalization. I am going to choke on my own vomit when Jay Wright cuts down the nets at MSG with the same clippers his butler uses to trim his ear hair.
by lordnick on Jun 18, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
If DePaul goes 0 and -18 in the Big East....
…THEN they don’t make the BET, right? RIGHT?
by Sean Keeley on Jun 18, 2009 4:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
5th sounds about right, but...
How are we going to win games without Omar Wattad on the floor and Robert Burke on the bench?
5 may be the number to keep in mind this season, because if Nikita winds up averaging more than 5 minutes per game, we’re in for a world of hurt.
Again.
Casually.
by CasualHoya on Jun 18, 2009 4:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Hosed!
Nothing like playing the Gators in Jacksonville, especially since it really worked out well playing Davidson in Greensboro.
Casually.
by CasualHoya on Jun 18, 2009 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
We played OSU
in Dayton in ’06 and destroyed them
Good talk.
by Hire Esherick on Jun 18, 2009 4:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yes, but...
We won’t have Jeff Green in Jacksonville.
Then again, the Gators will have Vernon Macklin.
Casually.
by CasualHoya on Jun 18, 2009 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
fouling
we should employ the hack a mack approach
Good talk.
by Hire Esherick on Jun 18, 2009 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Awesome
I really think it’s awesome how this blog has essentially become a glorified hoyatalk chat board for its three primary authors.
by lordnick on Jun 18, 2009 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Some of us got kicked off the hoya talk chatrooms
for making inappropriate comments about the possibility of a potential maybe you never know but i heard a rumor that someone was transferring…I was logged in from my work comp “forever”…so now I am forever blocked.
Casual Hoya, you are my only source of hoya news M-F…thank god for you
by TheYellofAllYells on Jun 23, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Jesus.
That Lunardi bracket is real messed up. REAL MESSED UP. Like someone needs an intervention and a six-week break at Promises Malibu messed up.
by lordnick on Jun 18, 2009 4:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Esh:
Essentially agree, except I think Cincinnati might be stronger than 9. Lost a lot of close games, and they have been making steady improvement the last few years.
NOTE: I was going to write this post to say that we can’t possibly be 5 next year and we must be worse than that – but no team smacks me as being good enough to be 5 instead. Hollis better sharpen his elbows bc we need rebounding badly.
by 40-Year Old Man on Jun 18, 2009 11:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
What a joke
Georgetown and Pitt ahead of Syracuse.
The Orange are returning Onuaku and Jackson in the frontcourt, quite possibly the best returning 4/5 combo in the league.
“Nothing will make up for the loss of Flynn, Harris, and Devendorf.”
Harris is being replaced by Wes Johnson, who will come as a transfer from Iowa State as one of the league’s top 3 small forwards and a significantly better player than Taylor King who gets praised in the Nova capsule as though he is something special.
Devendorf is being replaced by Andy Rautins, who has proven to be more than capable of putting up Devo type numbers.
Rautins off the bench offense will be replaced by either Mookie Jones or James Southerland or both depending upon who is hot.
The true loss is Flynn. But even here the Orange have Jardine, who played point alongside Flynn his freshmen season after both Devo and AR went down with injuries and newcomer Brandon Triche who in HS as a soph went up against Flynn, the McD’s AA in a match most considered to be even.
The Orange will be competing for a Top 4 spot in the Big East this year.
by SUDomeFanatic on Jun 19, 2009 11:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Devo!
Yes, but will Rautins be nearly as proficient as Devendork in beating women about the head and neck? He will be sorely missed.
by lordnick on Jun 19, 2009 12:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
"Sorely missed"
I see what you did there.
Pretty clever, pretty clever.
by StPetersburgHoya on Jun 20, 2009 3:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
That makes sense
Lose your top three players and finish better than you did last year.
If Onuaku and Jackson are the best 4/5 combo in the league than the Big East is in trouble.
Good talk.
by Hire Esherick on Jun 19, 2009 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
And Also
I second the point that if the Onuaku and Jackson are the best combo, the Big East is going to get killed down low all year. They are wildly inconsistent and haven’t proven that they can play without getting into foul trouble.
"Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." - At this point it's all we have.
by Paging Victor Page on Jun 19, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
says you...
Unfortunately, Wes Johnson was arguably the best player on the Cuse squad last year… He practised with the team but had to sit out because he had just transferred… at least that is according to syracuse coaches…
I know, Wes who??
Don’t worry – you’ll find out about him soon enough… and you aren’t going to like what you see…
Rautins will be better than Devo… he’s a better passer and smarter game IQ… shot draining they are about equal…
Point – we will miss Johnny, but not that much…
The cuse is underrated – that’s ok . we like it that way
by kingtidge on Jun 19, 2009 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
debating the basketball IQ of Devo versus Rautins is like trying to figure out if roseanne bar is fatter than rosie o’donnell…they are both 3 point jackers with no deep understanding for basketball.
by TheYellofAllYells on Jun 23, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
If you hadn’t figured out by my previous posts, I think freshmen are overrated. They get all the hype at the beginning of the season, but by the end it is the upperclassmen that carry the team. And I am not talking about Conference USA or Pac-10 freshmen, where the competition is the equivalent of a badminton team, I am talking about the Big East, real basketball. Freshmen do not lead Big East teams to the top of the standings. Take this nugget as evidence; since the 2005-06 season when the Big East expanded to 16 teams, the highest regular season finish for a team that also had the Big East Rookie of the Year was 6th (Marquette in 2006). The average finish for the team of the Big East Rookie of the Year has been 8th.
This entire preview was written with the premise that experience counts for a lot (a premise that I strongly agree with). Losing your best three players and replacing them largely with unknowns (which all of the guys you mentioned are given that they’ve played minimal amount of games in the Big East) is not a recipe for success. Just ask last year’s Georgetown team that fielded a number of top – yet largely unproven – recruits.
"Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." - At this point it's all we have.
by Paging Victor Page on Jun 19, 2009 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
Related FanPosts on Casual Hoya
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
