Who will excel in the Big East and who will fall behind?

[SJU89]

Thought this might be an interesting topic, especially with changes at sevaeral schools, I will start it off

The Beat Goes on for these schools:
UCONN
Villanova
Syracuse
Georgetown

Will do well but will have to fight for recruits and wins:
West Virginia
St. Johns
Seton Hall
Louisville
Pittsburgh (lost their bread and butter in NY)
Notre Dame

Will have their problems:
Rutgers
South Florida
Providence
Marquette (I think they will have trouble keeping up)
DePaul
Cincinnati

 

[DWsleddog]

I think perhaps you need to adjust that list a little there '89.

West Virginia? I think they have peaked and will slide back down to mediocrity despite coach Belein. I'd drpo them to the third catagory.

Louisville? You have to be kidding right? With RP they have always been in catagory 1 and that is where they still belong- The beat goes on. They are going to reload and continue to fire at will.

Notre Dame? I think they will move up from catagory 2 ro catagory 1 wil the addition of two of their rivals to the west - Marquette and Depaul. I see the Domers keeping for the best in the midwest with the B10 now.

Depaul and Marquette belong in the 2nd catogory, both have decent BB programs and will be able to recruit well. Depaul perhaps even moves up to catagory 1 in the next 5 years...... as does the return of St. John's.

The four schools I'd put in the bottom four are Rutgers, So. Fla, Providence and West Virginia.

I think Cincy will recover despite the Huggins fiasco. I think they should atleast be in catagory 2 until proven otherwise.

 

[SJU89]

I may be wrong but just want to get the opinion of others.

I don't know if RP will pull off his usual magic in the Big East.

 

[Fordham_57]

Should all BE teams be in the Tournament?

The truth is that top to bottom the Big East is an awesome league. Even the teams that didn't make the Big East Tournament last year were tough. I think the perennial powers like UCONN, Syracuse, etc. will always be there, but the rest will move up and down year to year.

The bigger question is "Should all the teams in the Big East qualify for the Big East Tournament, or only the top 12." Boeheim came out last year and said he thought they should all be in it.

I myself like the elimation of some teams. It gives teams a reason to fight to the very end, and I think teams should have to earn entry into the Tournament. I thought it made it very interesting and competitive.



For example, So Fla was playing tough at the end of the year. But, they lost and lost and lost. It would be a crime to see a team like that knock off a team that fought through many games and were successful during the season, just because So Fla happened to have a good game at the end of the year. Just my opinion.
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[WrightOn!]

UCONN - a young team. They will need the freshman to step imm
Villanova - Sumpter Sheridan and Nardi will be leaned on heavily. As will the freshman.
Syracuse - Harris had better be as good as advertised. The soul has graduated.
Georgetown - I think they'll be the league's best team.

Will do well but will have to fight for recruits and wins:
West Virginia - They lost just about everything. The party is over.
St. Johns - Seniors need to finally put it together. Freshman need to provide offense.
Seton Hall - Lack of size and experience will hurt, Nice class coming in.
Louisville - Good class. Decent returning players. Like Hill, Padgett needs to be healthy.
Pittsburgh (lost their bread and butter in NY)
Notre Dame

Will have their problems:
Rutgers - Losing Douby is horrible for this program. Snake bitten. They will struggle to beat anyone.
South Florida - It would take a miracle
Providence - They could make some noise. Had some good young talent.
Marquette - James rocks. They'll be in it.
DePaul - Should be better than last year. Lose nobody, and they really picked it up late.
Cincinnati - Who knows? Cincy always seems to find great players that we've never heard of,
but Huggins is gone, and with him that talent may be gone, too.

 

[WillieGlass]

Great posts gentleman. I tend to agree with SJU89 on this one. Hopefully, we could move back into that upper teir after this year and next..

This league is "Killer". Period... No other conference can even come close to matching the Big East. Especially if SJU & G-town can return to their former glory. Should be ALOT of fun to watch the next few years at the very least.

God Bless America!

 

[WrightOn!]

It all goes in cycles. Hopefully it's the end of our bad cycle and the beginning of a new one.

WV was a great team to watch the last couple of years. I think it will be near impossible to recover from losing Gansey and Pittsnoggle. Without those guys we will beat them handily.

Uconn lost their whole team. I don't care how freshman are, you are always asking a lot when you ask them to lead, and as it stands right now, Uconn may have a great class coming, but freshman are freshman. Let's hope this is the year evil is stopped in it's tracks.

Syracuse is interesting. Paul Harris is one serious prospect, but so was Devendorf, and he's
hold and cold. Losing your captain, when it's a guy who's meant so to a program will be hard
to recover from.

GTown loses leadership, but brings in talent, and returns talent. Not sure who runs the point.
Not sure if it matters.

Nova will be very good. Jay Wright is a helluva coach. Nardi, Sheridan and Sumpter
(Provided he's healthy) should be enough to dance. Their freshman class appears to
be very strong on paper.

I honestly feel bad for Rutgers. They have been in the Big East since 96, and they have yet to dance. Just when they it seems they are turning the corner something bad happens. If Douby stayed, I'd pick them to dance. He's a terrific player. Too bad he wasn't "SJU material"

The Hall will have trouble from what I can see. Harvey isn't the kind of point guard that can excel on a team that doesn't have finishers, and they really don't a finisher. Garcia may improve, but he has to be Tayshawn Prince good for them to be a contender for anything other than the Big East Tourney. Nutter is good, and Gause had a few nice moments. But that's it.

Providence will have a couple of talented big men entering their junior seasons.
They will need to step it up and score consistantly. They had a strong freshman guard, too.

As for us, we need to find our chemistry sooner than later. I've seen a peak for Norm's teams
in January. We have talent coming in, but what will make us a winner is how soon we come together as a team. The talent is there, but it's time for our senior leaders to be senior leaders.

We have no business losing to the likes of Marist in 06-07. No more excuses.

 

[novajoe]

I think Marquette should be near the top....

 

[Mystic Mountie]

WVU will be more competitive than everyone thinks. Two significant players are back, and Beilien brought in arguably one of WVU's best classes ever. DeSean Butler and Wellington Smith from New Jersey are looking good at the scrimmages in Morgantown this summer, and Johnny West(yup, Jerry's son!) I believe connected on six or seven three-pointers in a row in a recent game. However, he is only 155 pounds and will most likely get the red shirt this season.

Never underestimate a Beilien coached team. WVU will be in the 14 - 16 win category this year. The drop off will not be as bad as some make it out to be.
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[WrightOn!]

But 14-16 wins is a drop off. A big one. I thought Jb did a great job coaching West Virginia
the last couple of years, but in reality, two great seasons doesn't guarantee anything.
Mike Jarvis also had two great seasons. So did leonard Hamitlon at Miami.

I saw Pittsnogle and Gansey run rings around SJU at the Garden last year.
I also saw them do it twice in the 04-05 season. That said with 1 or 2 point victories,
and no Pittsnoggle or Gansey, who will be the guy to stop us now?

Don't get me wrong I'm sure someone will step up,
but it was only those two guys were outplaying us.

 

[Mystic Mountie]

WVU will at least be in the NIT with this young squad. If we get hot at the right time, and the freshmen all mesh, than I think we could have a shot at our third consecutive NCAA appearance.

We also have a 7'0" transfer from Butler who is eligible this season. He a pretty good three point shooter, like Kevin Pittsnogle, but he is a better post player and rebounder which should help our cause on the boards.

SJU will not beat WVU handily this season. SJU may have better athletes, but WVU plays the smartest and best team basketball in the conference and that alone can cover up some of the deficiencies we have in other areas. If the game is at MSG there is a good chance SJU will win. If the game is played in Morgantown, I'll take the Mountaineers in a heartbeat.

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[WrightOn!]

I was impressed with their style of play. But 7 footers who hit the 3 ball like Pittsnoggle don't grow on trees. They may still field a good team, but Gansey and Pittsnoggle will not be replaced so easily.

I don't care how good freshman can be, unless they are Melo good, there will be plenty of growing pains. Collins is a good point guard on a team with serious weapons, but can he pick up the slack when defenses are keying on him?

WV was good the last couple of years, but before that you guys were a lower level Big East team.
Do you think that Beilin has changed the face of the program with these last years?
He may have.

We have played 3 very very tight games, and now you'll face us without the guys that beat us.
Looks like advanatge SJU to me.