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The Big East coaches have picked Villanova to win the Big East regular season title and picked Georgetown to finish second. The Wildcats got 9 of 10 first place votes (presumably the missing one was their own coach?), with the Hoyas getting the 10th and final first place vote.
Villanova won the Big East regular season crown last year, going 16-2 in conference play and they return a bunch of talent from last year's squad including Preseason All Big East first-teamer JayVaughn Pinkston.
Georgetown edged St. John's for second place in the poll by just two points, 67-65. The Hoyas finished 18-15 overall and 8-10 in BIG EAST play last season. Coach John Thompson III has some quality returnees, including junior D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, the 2014-15 BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year. A 6-3 guard, Smith-Rivera finished third in the BIG EAST in scoring last year with a 17.6 average. Senior guard Jabril Trawick, a standout defender, is back after averaging 9.1 points. Six-ten Joshua Smith returns at center after averaging 11.5 points and 3.4 rebounds. He missed the second half of last season due to academic reasons.
The full results of the coaches preseason poll are below:
Team | Points | |
1 | Villanova | 81 (9) |
2 | Georgetown | 67 (1) |
3 | St. John's | 65 |
4 | Xavier | 52 |
5 | Providence | 49 |
6 | Seton Hall | 43 |
7 | Butler | 28 |
Marquette | 28 | |
9 | Creighton | 25 |
10 | DePaul | 12 |